Newfoundland and Labrador statutory holiday pay calculator (2026)
If you qualify and do not work it, the day pays your hourly rate of pay times the average hours you worked in a day over the 3 weeks before it. Work out your own figure — the calculator below runs the province's formula on your wages.
Newfoundland and Labrador has six public holidays, and the pay for one of them is a multiplication rather than an average of wages: your hourly rate of pay times the average number of hours you worked in a day over the 3 weeks before the holiday. The Labour Standards Act calls them public holidays — stat holiday is the everyday name for the same days.
Work out your public holiday pay
Section 15(3) is a rate times an average of hours. Enter those hours priced at your straight-time rate, and the days you worked in the same 3 weeks, and the division below produces the same figure the Act does.
Your straight-time rate multiplied by every hour you worked in the 3 weeks before the holiday — not what you were paid for them, so no overtime premium.
Count the days you actually worked. The Act does not state the divisor; this is the reading the Labour Standards Division applies.
This is the day you do not work. Working the public holiday is a separate entitlement under section 17, set out below, and one of its options replaces this figure rather than adding to it.
Who qualifies
These are the conditions Newfoundland and Labrador puts on the day. They sit on the shifts around the holiday and on your time with the employer — not on how many hours you worked in the week itself.
- Thirty days past the start of the jobSection 19(1)(a) withholds the holiday pay where the public holiday occurs within the 30 days following the beginning of your employment with that employer. Beyond this there is no hours-worked or days-worked qualifier — the old paragraph 19(1)(b) was repealed in 2001.
- The work day before and the work day afterSection 19(1)(c) removes the pay where you fail, without just cause and without the employer's consent, to comply with the contract of service on the regular work day immediately preceding the holiday and the regular work day immediately succeeding it, or either of those work days. Missing one of the two is enough.
- Just cause, or the employer's consentBoth are written into section 19(1)(c), and either one preserves the entitlement. The Act does not list what counts as just cause.
- If you work the holiday, no qualifier appliesThe section 17 entitlement for working the day stands on its own. The conditions in section 19 are attached to the section 15(2) holiday pay for a day you do not work.
- Professionals are outside the Act entirelySection 2(b) takes out of contract of service a contract with an employee qualified in, or training for qualification in, accountancy, architecture, law, medicine, pharmacy, professional engineering, surveying, teaching, veterinary science and other prescribed professions. Those workers get no public holiday entitlement under this Act.
One loose end sits in the statute: section 19(2) exempts employees who work prescribed hours in the 30 days before the holiday from paragraph (1)(b), but paragraph (1)(b) was repealed in 2001, so the subsection points at nothing and has no operative effect today.
The Newfoundland and Labrador formula: your rate times an average day
The formula
hourly rate of pay × average number of hours worked in a day in the 3 weeks immediately preceding the holiday
- The window is the 3 weeks immediately before the holiday. That part of section 15(3) is unambiguous.
- The divisor is not. The Act asks for the average number of hours worked in a day but never states what to divide the hours by — days actually worked, scheduled days, or all 21 calendar days — and the Labour Standards Division's guide repeats the wording without resolving it. This page divides by days actually worked: the reading the Division applies in practice, and the only one that yields an average working day. Dividing by 21 would understate anyone who does not work every day.
- What gets multiplied is the employee's hourly rate of pay — the straight-time rate in your contract, not your earnings. Nothing about a rich or a lean pay period changes it.
- The formula presupposes an hourly rate. The Act gives no conversion method for salaried or commission-paid employees, so there is no arithmetic here to apply to them with confidence.
Check what the base leaves out. Where a jurisdiction averages your wages, what it strips out of that average decides the day’s pay — and the answer is not the same across the country. The line below is this jurisdiction’s own.
Worked example
- Hours worked in the 3 weeks before the holiday
- 126
- Days you worked in those 3 weeks
- 15
- Average hours in a day · 126 ÷ 15
- 8.4
- Hourly rate of pay
- $22.00
- Public holiday pay for the day
- $184.80
Priced at the straight-time rate, those 126 hours come to $2,772.00, which is what the calculator divides by 15. If some of the hours were overtime hours, the Act does not say whether they belong in the average — what is certain is that the 1.5× paid on them never reaches this line.
Overtime is not in the wage base
There is no exclusion clause to quote, because the Act never averages wages at all. Section 15(3) multiplies an hourly rate by an hours figure, so overtime premium dollars — the 1.5× under section 25 — structurally cannot enter the calculation. What the statute is silent on is whether overtime hours count toward the average number of hours worked in a day: nothing in Part II excludes them, and the Division's own guide reproduces section 15(3) word for word without saying. Do not import the wages-excluding-overtime model other provinces use; this one works differently.
It is the line worth checking first: if a public holiday pay figure looks high after a heavy week, check what went into the base it came from — and check it against this jurisdiction, not the one next door.
Newfoundland and Labrador public holiday dates in 2026 & 2027
| Holiday | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | 1 January 2026Thursday | 1 January 2027Friday |
| Good Friday | 3 April 2026Friday | 26 March 2027Friday |
| Memorial Day (the July 1 holiday) | 1 July 2026Wednesday | 1 July 2027Thursday |
| Labour Day | 7 September 2026Monday | 6 September 2027Monday |
| Remembrance Day | 11 November 2026Wednesdaynext | 11 November 2027Thursday |
| Christmas Day | 25 December 2026Friday | 25 December 2027Saturday |
Not a public holiday in Newfoundland and Labrador: Thanksgiving Day; Boxing Day
One date falls on a weekend in 2026 and 2027: Christmas Day, Saturday 25 December 2027. Part II sets no weekend rule of its own: section 14 names days rather than calendar dates, and nothing moves a holiday to the nearest Monday. What section 16 covers is the holiday that falls on a day you are not required to work — the employer then cannot require you to work on the next working day, or on another day the two of you agree on, and that day is paid as if it were the holiday.
- Those six are the whole list under the Labour Standards Act, and the Labour Standards Division states the same count. Memorial Day is the July 1 holiday in this province — the Act does not use the name Canada Day.
- The provincial government designates more than a dozen paid holidays for its own employees in 2026, adding St. Patrick's Day, St. George's Day, Victoria Day, the June Holiday, Orangeman's Day, the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Thanksgiving, Boxing Day and a civic day. Those are Treasury Board designations for the public service, not Labour Standards Act public holidays, and they do not bind a private employer.
- A collective agreement may substitute different days for the ones section 14 names, and the substituted days then count as public holidays. Any provision that reduces, or tends to reduce, the number of public holidays in a year is void.
If you work the holiday
Twice the day, a day off, or a day of vacation — your choice
Where you agree to work a public holiday, section 17(1) gives the employee the option among three: twice the wages properly earned for that day under the contract of service as if it were a normal working day; one full day's holiday within 30 days after the public holiday, paid at the section 15(2) rate; or one extra full paid day added to the annual vacation, at that same rate. Twice a normal eight-hour day at $22.00 an hour is $352.00 — that is the total for the day, in place of the holiday pay rather than on top of it.
A short shift stacks instead
Section 17(2) covers the day the employer requires work for fewer hours than a normal working day: you are paid your normal wages for the hours worked plus the wages you would have earned had the day been a normal working day. Four hours at $22.00 is $88.00, and with a normal eight-hour day of $176.00 behind it the day comes to $264.00.
Where the employer can require the work
Section 18 covers public utilities, services designated essential by the minister, and services traditionally carried on without regard to Sundays or public holidays, including continuous industrial operations. There the employer may require the work, and the employee then chooses between twice the day's wages and a paid day off within 30 days. The extra vacation day is not on offer under section 18.
Whether hours worked on a holiday also count toward the week’s overtime threshold is a separate question with a separate answer in each province. Check it against the overtime rules for Newfoundland and Labrador rather than assuming it either way.
Public holiday pay in Newfoundland and Labrador
How much public holiday pay does Newfoundland and Labrador owe for one holiday?
Section 15(3) multiplies your hourly rate of pay by the average number of hours you worked in a day over the 3 weeks immediately before the holiday. At $22.00 an hour, 126 hours across 15 worked days average 8.4 hours a day, and the day pays $184.80. Note the rate is your contractual hourly rate, not your earnings — this calculation never averages wages.
What do I divide the hours by — days worked, or all 21 days?
The Act does not say. Section 15(3) asks for the average number of hours worked in a day over the 3 weeks, but never states the divisor, and the Labour Standards Division's guide reproduces the same wording without clarifying it. This page divides by the days you actually worked, which is the reading the Division applies in practice and the only one that produces an average working day; dividing by all 21 calendar days would understate anyone who does not work every day. The 3-week window itself is not in doubt.
Does overtime count toward public holiday pay in Newfoundland and Labrador?
The overtime premium cannot reach it. Section 15(3) multiplies your hourly rate of pay by an hours figure rather than averaging wages, so the 1.5× paid under section 25 has nowhere to enter. What the Act does not settle is whether overtime hours belong in the average number of hours worked in a day: nothing in Part II excludes them, and the Division's guide does not address it. Do not carry over the wages-excluding-overtime rules used in Ontario or British Columbia — the mechanism here is different.
What happens if I miss the shift before or after a public holiday?
Section 19(1)(c) removes the holiday pay if you fail, without just cause and without the employer's consent, to comply with your contract of service on the regular work day immediately before the holiday and the regular work day immediately after it, or either of those days. Missing one of the two is enough. Just cause, or the employer's consent, keeps the entitlement.
What am I paid for working a public holiday in Newfoundland and Labrador?
Under section 17(1), where you agree to work the day, the choice among three options is yours: twice the wages properly earned for that day under your contract of service as if it were a normal working day; a full day's holiday within 30 days after, paid at the section 15(2) rate; or one extra paid day added to your annual vacation at that same rate. Twice a normal eight-hour day at $22.00 an hour is $352.00. If the employer requires fewer hours than a normal working day, section 17(2) pays your normal wages for the hours worked plus the wages a normal working day would have earned.
Is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a public holiday here?
Not under the Labour Standards Act. Section 14 lists six public holidays, and 30 September is not among them; no proclamation making it one for the Act's purposes was found. The provincial government designates more than a dozen paid holidays for its own employees in 2026, including that day, St. Patrick's Day, St. George's Day, Victoria Day, the June Holiday, Orangeman's Day, Thanksgiving and Boxing Day, but those are public service designations and do not bind a private employer.
Check the rest of the pay period
A holiday sits inside a week that has its own rules — Newfoundland and Labrador pays overtime after 40h in a week with no daily threshold. Overtally runs that side of the arithmetic, hour by hour, and shows every line behind the total.
Overtally for iPhone — coming soonHoliday pay in other provinces and territories
sources
- Labour Standards Act, RSNL 1990, c L-2 — Part II, Public Holidays (ss. 14–20)
- Labour Standards Division — Labour standards issues
- Labour Standards Regulations, s. 9(4)
Every figure on this page traces to the statute or agency page above. If one is out of date, tell us — corrections ship the same week.
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.