Am I Required to Pay My Employees Extra for Working Holidays?

Not surprisingly, many employees wrongly believe that they are entitled to premium compensation, whether it’s time and a half, double time, or even additional paid time off, by law. There are no laws, however, that require employers to pay employees additional compensation solely because it is a holiday. Certainly if the holiday were to push the employee’s total hours of work in the workweek over 40 (48 for some employers), they would be entitled to 1.5x their regular rate of pay for all hours worked over 40, but whether it is a holiday or not does not matter for this entitlement.

Many employers do, however, have policies or practices that compensate employees additional amounts for working on holidays. In those situations employers are providing a benefit to which employees might be entitled to receive; but the benefit is within the discretion of the company to provide or withhold from employees and is not required by state or federal law per se.

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