Northwest Territories statutory holiday pay calculator (2026)
If you qualify and do not work it, the day pays holiday pay: your regular rate for your normal hours of work, with no averaging window in it. Work out your own figure — the calculator below runs the province's formula on your wages.
The Northwest Territories has eleven statutory holidays, and for an hourly employee the pay for one of them is not an average at all: s.23(1)(a) pays the wages you would have earned at your regular rate of wages for your normal hours of work. The four-week average that most provinces use appears here only for employees whose wages are calculated on some basis other than time — commission or piecework. The Act calls the days statutory holidays and the money holiday pay.
Work out your holiday pay
The Northwest Territories does not average an hourly employee's holiday pay, so there is no wage window to add up. What the day pays is your regular rate for your normal hours — enter one normal week of regular wages and the days you normally work in it, and the division hands back a single normal day.
Your normal hours at your regular rate. Leave overtime pay and any premium out — paragraph (a) pays the regular rate only.
The days that week is made of, so the result is one of them. If your schedule varies, the Act does not say what your normal hours are.
This is the day itself. If you are required to work the holiday, s.23(2) adds either overtime pay for the hours or a substitute day off later — on top of this figure, not instead of it.
Who qualifies
These are the conditions Northwest Territories 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.
- No length-of-service test for the day itselfSection 22(1) gives an employee the holiday with pay whether or not the day is a day of work. What follows are the three disqualifiers in s.23(7), and every one of them applies only to a holiday you do not work.
- Thirty days worked in the preceding twelve monthsYou are not entitled to holiday pay for a holiday you do not work if you have not worked for that employer a total of at least 30 days during the preceding 12 months. It counts days actually worked across the year — it is not 30 days of continuous service and not a first-30-days-of-employment rule.
- Report if you were required to work the dayAn employee who was required to work on the statutory holiday and did not report for work is out of holiday pay for it.
- Report on the last regular working day either sideNot reporting, without the employer's consent, on your last regular working day before or after the holiday removes holiday pay for it. The Act frames it as your last regular working day rather than whatever shift sits next to the day, it is breached on either side, and the employer's consent cures it.
- Working the holiday puts you outside s.23(7)The disqualifiers are written for a statutory holiday on which the employee does not work. An employee who actually works the holiday is entitled to holiday pay for it even if the 30-day test is not met.
Holiday pay keeps accruing during sick leave, family violence leave up to five days, emergency leave up to 14 days, and bereavement and court leave up to 10 days, but not during pregnancy, parental, compassionate care, family caregiver or reservist leave. Employees under the Public Service Act and students in a school work program sit outside this Act altogether, and federally regulated work is under the Canada Labour Code instead. Managers stay in: s.3(3) removes only the hours-of-work and overtime sections from them, and the regulations do the same for the listed professionals — the statutory holiday sections apply to all of them.
The N.W.T. formula: a normal day at your regular rate
The formula
your regular rate of wages × your normal hours of work for that day — or, if your wages are calculated on a basis other than time: total daily wages over the 4 weeks you worked before the holiday week ÷ days worked in them
- Which of the two branches applies is decided by how you are paid, not by how much. Hourly, daily, weekly and salaried employees are paid on the basis of time, so paragraph (a) — a normal day at the regular rate — is the branch that covers most hourly work, and it has no averaging window and no divisor in it at all.
- Paragraph (b) is the average of your daily wages over the four weeks you worked immediately preceding the week the holiday falls in. The Act states no divisor: the wording points to the days you actually worked in that window, and there is no ÷ 20 and no percentage anywhere in the Act. Territorial guidance calls the result an average day's pay and likewise declines to name a divisor. Whether weeks with no work are skipped when locating those four weeks is left open too.
- Normal hours of work is not a defined term. The Act does define standard hours of work in s.7 — 8 in a day, 40 in a week — but the holiday formula uses the other phrase. For a fixed schedule that is simply your usual daily hours; for part-time or variable hours the Act supplies no method, and paragraph (b) is not available to you because you are paid on the basis of time. That gap is unresolved rather than settled against you.
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
- Normal week · 5 days × 8 h × $26.00
- $1,040.00
- Days you normally work in that week
- 5
- Divide by those days
- 5
- Holiday pay for the day
- $208.00
The division is only a way of reaching one normal day — 8 hours at $26.00 is the same $208.00. 9 overtime hours in that week, paid $351.00 at time and a half, do not touch it, because paragraph (a) pays the regular rate for normal hours.
Overtime is not in the wage base
The Act leaves overtime out of nothing here. Nothing in s.23 mentions it, and the only carve-out in the s.1 definition of wages is tips and other gratuities — so on the text, overtime pay is remuneration for work performed and sits inside the four-week average in paragraph (b). This is where the Northwest Territories parts company with Ontario and Manitoba, which exclude it expressly, and the point should not be borrowed from them. Under paragraph (a) the question does not arise: that branch pays the regular rate for normal hours, so premium rates and premium hours never reach the figure.
It is the line worth checking first: if a 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.
Northwest Territories statutory 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 |
| Victoria Day | 18 May 2026Monday | 24 May 2027Monday |
| National Indigenous Peoples Day | 21 June 2026Sunday | 21 June 2027Monday |
| Canada Day | 1 July 2026Wednesday | 1 July 2027Thursday |
| First Monday in August | 3 August 2026Monday | 2 August 2027Monday |
| Labour Day | 7 September 2026Monday | 6 September 2027Monday |
| National Day for Truth and Reconciliation | 30 September 2026Wednesday | 30 September 2027Thursday |
| Thanksgiving Day | 12 October 2026Monday | 11 October 2027Monday |
| Remembrance Day | 11 November 2026Wednesdaynext | 11 November 2027Thursday |
| Christmas Day | 25 December 2026Friday | 25 December 2027Saturday |
Not a statutory holiday in Northwest Territories: Boxing Day
2 dates fall on a weekend in 2026 and 2027: National Indigenous Peoples Day, Sunday 21 June 2026; Christmas Day, Saturday 25 December 2027. Section 22(1) entitles you to the holiday with pay whether it falls on a day of work or not, so a statutory holiday landing on a day you would not have worked is still paid to an employee who qualifies. The Act contains no rule moving such a day to the following Monday. Substitution under s.22(2) or s.22(3) is the one thing that moves it, and it takes a collective agreement or the Employment Standards Officer's approval.
- Those eleven are the whole list, and none of them is optional or left to the employer — s.22(1) makes every one a statutory holiday. Boxing Day is not one under this Act; it is a holiday for the territorial public service. Easter Monday is not one either, and the August day carries no name in the Act beyond the first Monday in August.
- Any of the eleven can be substituted for another day. Under a collective agreement it takes written notice to the Employment Standards Officer; without one, the employer applies to the Officer, who needs the consent of a majority of the affected employees. The substituted day is then the one the holiday rules attach to.
- The Act names the days but does not fix the dates of Victoria Day or Thanksgiving; the 2026 dates above follow the usual conventions — Victoria Day is the Monday preceding 25 May, which is 18 May in 2026 because 25 May is itself a Monday, and Thanksgiving is the second Monday in October. The Act still reads National Indigenous Peoples Day while the territorial FAQ page has not been updated from the older National Aboriginal Day. It is the same 21 June.
If you work the holiday
Holiday pay comes first, and stays
Section 23(2) says that where an employee is required to work on a statutory holiday the employer shall, in addition to paying holiday pay, do one of two things. The words in addition to are what matter: the premium or the day off is added to holiday pay rather than substituted for it, and territorial guidance describes the same stacking.
Then either overtime pay or a day off later
The employer picks between paying overtime pay for the time worked on the day — at least 1.5× your regular rate under s.9(1), $39.00 an hour in the example — and giving a substitute holiday at a time convenient to both of you, no later than your next annual vacation or the end of your employment, whichever comes first. The premium route on the example day is $208.00 plus $312.00 for an eight-hour shift: $520.00.
Being pulled in on another day of that week
Section 23(3) covers the other direction. An employee who is not required to work the statutory holiday cannot be required to work another day in that week that would otherwise be a non-working day unless the time is paid at least double the regular rate — $52.00 an hour in the example.
What the holiday does to that week's overtime
Section 9(5) deems your standard hours to be 8 for the statutory holiday and 32 for the week it falls in, and provides that the overtime does not include the standard hours worked on the holiday. So the hours you put in on the day are not counted twice over into the week's overtime.
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 Northwest Territories rather than assuming it either way.
Holiday pay in Northwest Territories
How is holiday pay calculated in the Northwest Territories?
For an employee whose wages are calculated on the basis of time — hourly, daily, weekly or salaried — s.23(1)(a) pays the wages you would have earned at your regular rate of wages for your normal hours of work. Eight hours at $26.00 is $208.00, and no window and no divisor come into it. Only employees paid on another basis, such as commission or piecework, get the four-week average in s.23(1)(b).
Does overtime count toward holiday pay in the Northwest Territories?
The Act does not say. Nothing in s.23 excludes overtime pay, and the only thing the s.1 definition of wages leaves out is tips and other gratuities — so on the text, overtime pay sits inside the four-week average in s.23(1)(b). For an hourly employee the question does not arise: s.23(1)(a) pays the regular rate for normal hours, so premium hours and premium rates never enter the figure.
What am I paid for working a statutory holiday here?
Holiday pay first, and it is not replaced. Section 23(2) requires the employer to pay holiday pay and then, at the employer's choice, either overtime pay for the time worked that day — at least 1.5× your regular rate — or a substitute holiday later. On the example above the premium route is $208.00 plus $312.00 for an eight-hour shift: $520.00.
Do I need 30 days with the employer before I get holiday pay?
Not for the holiday itself. Section 22(1) gives you the holiday with pay whether or not it falls on a day of work; s.23(7) then takes it away for a holiday you do not work if you have not worked a total of at least 30 days for that employer during the preceding 12 months. It counts days worked over the year, not continuous service. Because s.23(7) reaches only a holiday you do not work, an employee who works the day is paid holiday pay for it regardless.
Is Boxing Day a statutory holiday in the Northwest Territories?
No. The Act lists eleven days and Boxing Day is not among them — it is a holiday for the territorial public service, not one under this Act. Easter Monday is not on the list either, and the August day exists only as the Act names it, the first Monday in August. An employer can close on any of those, but the terms then come from the policy or the contract.
My hours change every week — what are my normal hours of work?
The Act does not answer this. It defines standard hours of work in s.7 as 8 in a day and 40 in a week, but s.23(1)(a) deliberately uses a different phrase, normal hours of work, and leaves it undefined. On a fixed schedule it is your usual daily hours. On a variable one there is no method in the Act, and the four-week average is not open to you either, because it is written for employees paid on a basis other than time. This is a genuine gap rather than a settled rule.
Check the rest of the pay period
A holiday sits inside a week that has its own rules — Northwest Territories pays overtime after 40h in a week and after 8h in a day. 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
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.