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Boxing Day, Saturday 26 December 2026, is a statutory holiday in one of the thirteen provinces and territories: Ontario. Everywhere else it is an ordinary working day under employment standards law. Federally regulated employees do get it, because the Canada Labour Code counts Boxing Day among its ten general holidays. A bank teller in Calgary has the day off. The shop next door does not. (Not Halifax: Boxing Day is not a paid holiday under Nova Scotia's Labour Standards Code, but the Retail Business Designated Day Closing Act makes it a day most retail must close, and gives those employees a right to refuse the shift.)
A statutory holiday in 1 of 13 provinces and territories.
Last reviewed · maintained by Ihor Bezrukavnyk · how we calculate
| Jurisdiction | Statutory holiday | |
|---|---|---|
| Alberta—pay formula → | No | — |
| British Columbia—pay formula → | No | — |
| Manitoba—pay formula → | No | — |
| New Brunswick—pay formula → | No | — |
| Newfoundland and Labrador—pay formula → | No | — |
| Northwest Territories—pay formula → | No | — |
| Nova Scotia—pay formula → | No | — |
| Nunavut—pay formula → | No | — |
| OntarioBoxing Daypay formula → | Yes | Boxing Day |
| Prince Edward Island—pay formula → | No | — |
| Quebec—pay formula → | No | — |
| Saskatchewan—pay formula → | No | — |
| Yukon—pay formula → | No | — |
There is no national holiday law binding provincial employers. Each legislature writes a closed list into its own employment standards statute, and twelve of the thirteen never put 26 December on theirs. Ontario did, at item 8 of the definition of public holiday in the Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 1(1). The statute does not even use the words Boxing Day; it says December 26.
The federal split is a jurisdiction question, not a generosity question. The Canada Labour Code, s. 166, lists ten general holidays and Boxing Day is one of them, but the Code reaches only federally regulated work: banks, airlines, railways, interprovincial trucking, telecom and broadcasting, ports, Canada Post. That is roughly 6 per cent of Canadian employees, about 910,000 in the private sector. Retail and hospitality are provincial, which is why the same date is paid in one building and not the next.
In Ontario the day pays public holiday pay: regular wages plus vacation pay payable over the four work weeks before the holiday week, divided by 20 (Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 24(1)). Work it and you take that plus time and a half, or your regular rate plus a substitute day off. Federally the divisor is also 20, and overtime is out of that base too (Canada Labour Code, s. 196(1)). What differs is everything else: Ontario averages regular wages, which s. 1(1) already strips of overtime, premium and vacation pay, and then adds the vacation pay payable over those four weeks back in; the federal base is every wage earned in the four weeks except overtime pay. Same divisor, different wages going into it.
In the other twelve, 26 December is a normal working day and pays ordinary wages, with overtime only if the day's or the week's hours cross that jurisdiction's threshold. British Columbia and Alberta both start the overtime clock at eight hours in a single day, so a long Boxing Day shift can earn time and a half on its own even in a short week. A paid day off comes from a contract, an employer policy or a collective agreement, and those terms are the employer's to write and to change. Alberta is the near miss: its Employment Standards Code treats Boxing Day as optional, and an employer that adopts it applies the general holiday rules to the day.
Questions people actually ask
Not in Ontario. Ontario's rule is a substitute day, not a shift to the next Monday: s. 29(1) of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 requires the employer to give another day that would ordinarily be a working day, paid at public holiday pay, with a written statement before the holiday under s. 29(1.1) and the day falling within three months, or twelve by agreement, under s. 29(2). Under s. 29(3) the two of you can instead agree that the employer just pays public holiday pay for 26 December. Federally it does move, and automatically: s. 193(2) of the Canada Labour Code says that when Boxing Day falls on a Saturday that is a non-working day, the employee shall be granted the holiday on the working day immediately preceding or following. The Friday before is Christmas Day in 2026, so a federally regulated employee who does not work Saturdays takes it on Monday 28 December.
No, in both. British Columbia's Employment Standards Act lists eleven statutory holidays and 26 December is not among them. Alberta's Employment Standards Code sets nine general holidays and puts Boxing Day in the optional group alongside Easter Monday and Heritage Day. An employer there may observe it, and one that does is expected to apply the general holiday rules to that day.
If you work retail in Ontario, no. Section 73(1) of the Employment Standards Act, 2000 lets an employee in a retail business establishment refuse to work a public holiday, and s. 73(3) lets someone who already agreed back out with 48 hours' notice. Part XVII does not cover shops whose primary business is prepared meals, living accommodation, or education, recreation and amusement. Outside retail, and outside Ontario, the answer is usually yes.
Banking is federally regulated, so yes. Boxing Day sits in the definition of general holiday at s. 166 of the Canada Labour Code, and s. 196(1) sets what it pays. The same applies to airlines, railways, interprovincial trucking, telecom and broadcasting, ports and Canada Post. A provincially regulated employer down the street is not bound by that list, which is the whole reason the question keeps coming up.
Overtally computes what you should be paid before taxes. It does not calculate take-home pay, withholding or deductions, and it is not legal advice — it is your own record and your own estimate.