Statutory Holiday Pay Calculator

Enter regular reference wages excluding overtime. For Ontario, enter vacation pay payable in the four work weeks. For BC and Alberta, enter paid days used in the average-day calculation.

Five jurisdictions, three different formulas

There is no national statutory holiday pay calculation. Two of these jurisdictions divide by a fixed 20, one divides by 20 after adding vacation pay, and two build an average day out of what you were actually paid:

• Federally regulated: one-twentieth of the wages, excluding overtime, earned in the 4-week period immediately before the week in which the general holiday occurs. Leave the vacation-pay field at zero.
• Ontario: all regular wages earned in the four work weeks before the work week with the holiday, plus all vacation pay payable with respect to those four work weeks, divided by 20. Both fields are used.
• British Columbia: total wages divided by the number of days worked, based on the 30 calendar days before the holiday. Total wages include regular wages, salary, commission, statutory holiday pay, paid vacation and employment-standards paid sick days; overtime is excluded. Days worked means any day on which wages were earned, including paid vacation days and other paid holidays.
• Alberta: average daily wage — wages divided by the number of days worked, over either the 4 weeks immediately before the holiday or the 4 weeks ending on the last day of the preceding pay period, at the employer’s choice. Overtime is not wages for this purpose.
• Quebec: one-twentieth of the wages earned during the 4 complete weeks of pay preceding the week of the holiday, excluding overtime. Reported or attributed tips are counted.

That is why the same person can produce two different answers by changing only the jurisdiction. Alberta’s two permitted windows can also produce two different lawful answers for the same holiday, so an employer’s figure and yours can both be right.

Qualifying is a separate question from calculating

Getting a number out of the formula does not mean you are entitled to it. British Columbia requires 30 calendar days of employment and wages earned on 15 of the 30 days before the holiday. Alberta requires 30 workdays in the previous 12 months, and then asks whether the holiday fell on a regular day of work using its 5-of-9 test. Ontario generally qualifies everyone but withdraws the entitlement if you fail, without reasonable cause, to work all of your last regularly scheduled shift before the holiday or all of your first one after it — the Last and First rule, which does not mean the calendar days either side. Federally, an employee who is scheduled to work a general holiday and does not report for it loses the pay for that day.

If you work the holiday

The premium tile shows a flat time-and-a-half on the hours you enter, which is illustrative rather than jurisdiction-specific. Federally, working a general holiday earns at least 1.5 times your regular rate for the hours worked plus the general holiday pay. Ontario lets the employer choose between public holiday pay plus premium pay with no substitute day, or regular wages for the hours worked plus a substitute holiday that is itself paid at public holiday pay. Alberta’s choice is between the average daily wage plus time-and-a-half for the hours worked, or ordinary pay for the day plus a future day off paid at the average daily wage. British Columbia pays time-and-a-half for the first 12 hours and double time beyond 12, on top of the average day’s pay — the calculator does not apply that second tier, so recheck any shift longer than 12 hours by hand.

What is deliberately not modelled

Commission and incentive-pay formulas, continuous-operation and longshoring rules, managers and professionals, substitute-holiday scheduling, and the industry exemptions each jurisdiction publishes all sit outside this estimate. So do the other eight provinces and territories, whose holiday lists and formulas differ again. Treat the figure as a check on a pay stub, not as a payroll instruction, and confirm against the employment-standards page for your jurisdiction before running payroll.