{"id":46179,"date":"2012-05-25T17:48:51","date_gmt":"2012-05-25T21:48:51","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2026-02-05T11:52:06","modified_gmt":"2026-02-05T16:52:06","slug":"what-are-rules-about-public-holidays","status":"publish","type":"publications-page","link":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays","title":{"rendered":"Rules about public holidays"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In most jobs, you have the right to get public holidays off work with <strong>holiday pay<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p>If the ESA rules about public holidays cover your job, they apply:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>if you work full-time or part-time<\/li>\n<li>no matter how long you have worked in that job<\/li>\n<li>whether or not the public holiday falls on a day that you would usually work<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>In Ontario, there are <strong>9 public holidays<\/strong> each year. Some people call these &#8220;stat holidays&#8221;.<\/p>\n<table class=\"NormalTable\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"173\"><span class=\"fontstyle0\"><strong>New Year&#8217;s Day<\/strong> <\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"257\"><span class=\"fontstyle2\">January 1<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"173\"><span class=\"fontstyle0\"><strong>Family Day<\/strong> <\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"257\"><span class=\"fontstyle3\">third Monday in February<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"173\"><span class=\"fontstyle0\"><strong>Good Friday<\/strong> <\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"257\"><span class=\"fontstyle3\">Friday before Easter Sunday<br \/>\n(falls either in March or April)<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"173\"><span class=\"fontstyle0\"><strong>Victoria Day<\/strong> <\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"257\"><span class=\"fontstyle3\">Monday before May 25<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"173\"><span class=\"fontstyle0\"><strong>Canada Day<\/strong> <\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"257\"><span class=\"fontstyle2\">July 1<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"173\"><span class=\"fontstyle0\"><strong>Labour Day <\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"257\"><span class=\"fontstyle3\">first Monday in September<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"173\"><span class=\"fontstyle0\"><strong>Thanksgiving Day<\/strong> <\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"257\"><span class=\"fontstyle3\">second Monday in October<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"173\"><span class=\"fontstyle0\"><strong>Christmas Day <\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"257\"><span class=\"fontstyle3\">December 25<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<tr>\n<td width=\"173\"><span class=\"fontstyle0\"><strong>Boxing Day <\/strong><\/span><\/td>\n<td width=\"257\"><span class=\"fontstyle3\">December 26<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<div class=\"left-line\">\n<p>To get <strong>holiday pay<\/strong>, you must meet the \u201clast and first\u201d rule. This rule says that you must work your regular workday, before and after the holiday, unless you had &#8220;reasonable cause&#8221; not to work. Examples of reasonable cause include being sick or injured.<\/p>\n<p>To figure out your holiday pay:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>add up your regular wages plus vacation pay for the 4 work weeks before the work week with the holiday, and<\/li>\n<li>divide that total by 20.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<h2>Earning holiday pay<\/h2>\n<p>You get another day off with holiday pay if the public holiday is on a day when:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>you do not usually work, or<\/li>\n<li>you are on vacation.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>For example, you work Monday to Friday and July 1 is on a Saturday. Your employer can decide that you will get Monday, July 3 off with holiday pay.<\/p>\n<p>Or, if you agree in writing, you can just get holiday pay for the public holiday. This means that you do not get another day off.<\/p>\n<h2>Getting another day off<\/h2>\n<p>If you work on a public holiday and get another day off, you must get the other day off <strong>within 3 months<\/strong> of the holiday. Or, you can agree in writing to take the day off <strong>within 12 months <\/strong>of the holiday.<\/p>\n<p>Before the public holiday, your employer must tell you in writing:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>the public holiday that you are working<\/li>\n<li>the date you get a day off because you are working on the holiday<\/li>\n<li>the date your employer is giving you this information in writing<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Having to work on a public holiday<\/h2>\n<p>Some people must work on public holidays. For example, you might have to work on a public holiday if you work in:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>a hotel, motel, or tourist resort<\/li>\n<li>a hospital or nursing home<\/li>\n<li>a business or service that runs 24 hours each day over a period of 7 days<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>If you have to work on the holiday because of the kind of job you have, <strong>your employer decides<\/strong> if:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>You get holiday pay plus premium pay. Premium pay is 1\u00bd times your regular wages.<\/li>\n<li>You get your regular pay and another day off with holiday pay.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Agreeing to work on a public holiday<\/h2>\n<p>If you do not have to work, you can <strong>agree in writing<\/strong> to work on a holiday. And you can get paid in one of these ways:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>regular pay and another day off with holiday pay, or<\/li>\n<li>holiday pay plus premium pay. Premium pay is 1\u00bd times your regular rate of pay.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>You have fewer options of how to get paid if you do <strong>not<\/strong> meet the &#8220;last and first&#8221; rule.<\/p>\n<div class=\"left-line\">\n<h3>Last and first rule<\/h3>\n<p>This rule says that you must work your regular workday, before and after the holiday, unless you had \u201creasonable cause\u201d not to work. Examples of reasonable cause include being sick or injured.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>If you do not meet this rule, your employer will pay you premium pay for the hours you worked. You do not get holiday pay. And you cannot get another day off with holiday pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","class_list":["post-46179","publications-page","type-publications-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Rules about public holidays - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Rules about public holidays - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In most jobs, you have the right to get public holidays off work with holiday pay. If the ESA rules about public holidays cover your job, they apply: if you work full-time or part-time no matter how long you have worked in that job whether or not the public holiday falls on a day that you would usually work In Ontario,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2026-02-05T16:52:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays\",\"name\":\"Rules about public holidays - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2012-05-25T21:48:51+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2026-02-05T16:52:06+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Publication pages\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Rules about public holidays\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/\",\"name\":\"CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Rules about public holidays - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Rules about public holidays - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","og_description":"In most jobs, you have the right to get public holidays off work with holiday pay. If the ESA rules about public holidays cover your job, they apply: if you work full-time or part-time no matter how long you have worked in that job whether or not the public holiday falls on a day that you would usually work In Ontario,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays","og_site_name":"CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","article_modified_time":"2026-02-05T16:52:06+00:00","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays","url":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays","name":"Rules about public holidays - CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/#website"},"datePublished":"2012-05-25T21:48:51+00:00","dateModified":"2026-02-05T16:52:06+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page\/what-are-rules-about-public-holidays#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Publication pages","item":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/publications-page"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Rules about public holidays"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/","name":"CLEO (Community Legal Education Ontario \/ \u00c9ducation juridique communautaire Ontario)","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"}]}},"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications-page\/46179","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications-page"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/publications-page"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications-page\/46179\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60123,"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/publications-page\/46179\/revisions\/60123"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cleo.on.ca\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}