Nova Scotia statutory holiday pay calculator (2026)
If you qualify and do not work it, the day pays a regular day's pay — your regular rate of wages for your normal hours of work. Work out your own figure — the calculator below runs the province's formula on your wages.
Nova Scotia has six general holidays, and the Labour Standards Code pays each one as an ordinary day: your regular rate of wages for your normal hours of work on that day. There is no averaging window and no divisor anywhere in the statute — no percentage, and nothing resembling a four-weeks-divided-by-twenty rule. The familiar 30-day average comes from the Labour Standards Division's guidance rather than from the Code, and it is aimed at people whose hours or wages vary.
Work out your holiday pay
On a fixed schedule the Code answers this without a calculator: your regular rate times your normal hours for the day. The fields below run the other basis — the Labour Standards Division's 30-day average, which is the guidance's answer where hours or wages vary.
Wages earned in the 30 calendar days before the holiday. Whether overtime premium pay belongs in this total is not settled by the Code or the guidance.
Days you actually worked in the window — the guidance divides by these, not by 30.
This is the day itself. If you worked the holiday, time and a half for the hours worked comes on top — the section below sets out how, and what changes in a continuous operation.
Who qualifies
These are the conditions Nova Scotia 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.
- Paid for 15 days out of the last 30Section 42(1)(a): you must have received, or be entitled to receive, pay for at least fifteen days during the thirty calendar days immediately preceding the general holiday.
- Work the scheduled day before and the scheduled day afterSection 42(1)(b) attaches to your scheduled working day immediately preceding the holiday and the scheduled working day immediately following it — the days you were scheduled, not the calendar days.
- Unless the employer told you not to come inSection 42(2) waives the day-before-and-after condition where the employer directed you not to report for work on either of those scheduled days.
- In a continuous operation, report if you are calledSection 42(3) denies holiday pay to an employee in a continuous operation who was called upon to work the general holiday and did not report.
- No probationary waiting periodThe Code sets no probation or first-30-days disqualifier, and the Division's guidance confirms that an employer cannot impose a waiting period. The fifteen-of-thirty test still does its own work, so a newly hired employee will not normally qualify for a holiday falling in their first few weeks.
Several classes are exempt from the whole of ss. 37–43, so no holiday provision reaches them: employees working under a collective agreement; farm employees whose work is directly related to the primary production of the products listed in the regulations; real estate salespersons, automobile salespersons, off-premises commission salespersons other than route salespersons, and people working on or operating fishing vessels; athletes while engaged in activities related to their athletic endeavour; and people in the manufacturing or refining processes of the petro-chemical industry, or in work directly related to those processes. The list is s. 2 of the General Labour Standards Code Regulations, N.S. Reg. 298/1990.
The Nova Scotia rule: a regular day's pay
The formula
regular rate of wages × normal hours of work on that day
- Section 40(2) is the operative provision for hourly and daily-paid employees: the employer pays at least the equivalent of the wages it would have paid at the employee's regular rate of wages for the employee's normal hours of work. Section 40(1) covers weekly and monthly-paid employees — their wages must not be reduced for the holiday — and s. 40(3) applies the regular rate for the normal working day to every other basis of pay.
- The Code prescribes no averaging window and no divisor. There is no percentage and no four-weeks-divided-by-twenty style rule anywhere in the statute or the regulations, so on a fixed schedule the arithmetic stops at your rate times your normal hours.
- Where hours or wages vary, the Labour Standards Division's guidance says the employer should average over the 30 calendar days before the holiday, dividing by the days actually worked in that window — its own worked examples run 170 hours ÷ 20 days worked = 8.5 hours, and $2,040 ÷ 17 days worked = $120. Note the divisor there is days worked, not 30 and not 20. That method is administrative interpretation rather than statutory text, and the Code neither authorizes nor forbids it.
- The fifteen-days-in-thirty figure in s. 42(1)(a) is an eligibility test only. It is not a pay-averaging window, and the statute does not link the two.
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
- Regular rate of wages
- $22.00
- Normal hours of work on that day
- 8
- Holiday pay for the day
- $176.00
Averaging the same stretch the way the Division's guidance does — $3,520.00 of wages over the 20 days worked in the 30 calendar days before the holiday — lands on the same $176.00. On a fixed schedule the two bases agree; on a variable one they can part, and only the first of them is in the statute.
Overtime is not in the wage base
Nova Scotia has no express overtime-exclusion clause — the Code is silent on overtime in the holiday-pay context. Overtime is left out by implication only: s. 40(2) measures the day by the regular rate of wages for normal hours of work rather than by an average of what you actually earned, so there is no statutory wage base for overtime to be inside or outside of. The question does bite under the Division's averaging practice for variable hours, where the guidance says to average wages over the prior 30 days: neither the Code, nor the regulations, nor the guidance says whether overtime premium pay enters that average. That point is genuinely unresolved in the primary text.
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.
Nova Scotia general holiday dates in 2026 & 2027
| Holiday | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | 1 January 2026Thursday | 1 January 2027Friday |
| Nova Scotia Heritage Day (the third Monday in February) | 16 February 2026Monday | 15 February 2027Monday |
| Good Friday | 3 April 2026Friday | 26 March 2027Friday |
| Canada Day | 1 July 2026Wednesday | 1 July 2027Thursday |
| Labour Day | 7 September 2026Monday | 6 September 2027Monday |
| Christmas Day | 25 December 2026Fridaynext | 25 December 2027Saturday |
Not a general holiday in Nova Scotia: Remembrance Day (special rules); Thanksgiving Day; Boxing Day
One date falls on a weekend in 2026 and 2027: Christmas Day, Saturday 25 December 2027. Section 38 covers a general holiday that falls on a day that is not a working day for you. The employer must instead grant a holiday with pay on the working day immediately following the holiday, on the day immediately following your annual vacation, or on another day agreed between you. If your employment ends before that day is taken, s. 42(4) requires it to be paid out.
- Those six are the whole list under the Labour Standards Code. Remembrance Day is not one of them: it is governed by the separate Remembrance Day Act, which has its own rules and its own coverage, so what you are owed for 11 November does not come from the formula on this page.
- Boxing Day, Victoria Day, Easter Monday, Natal Day, Thanksgiving Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation are not paid general holidays under the Code. The province's own chart lists several of them as retail closing days, which is a different regime — a store being closed is not the same as a paid holiday.
- The regulations contain a longer list of days, at s. 1(3)(b), that takes in Victoria Day, the Sovereign's birthday and Remembrance Day. That list exists only for computing time periods under the regulations; it creates no paid-holiday entitlement, and it is easy to misread as though it did.
- Section 39 lets an employer substitute another day for a general holiday, either through a collective agreement notified to the Director or with the Director's approval where a majority of the affected employees concur. An individual workplace's list can therefore differ from the six above and still be lawful. Section 2(ga) also allows a regulation to designate further general holidays; none is currently prescribed.
If you work the holiday
Holiday pay plus time and a half
Section 41(2) is the general case: an employer that requires an employee to work on a day the employee is entitled to as a holiday with pay must pay the amount the employee would otherwise have received for that holiday, and at a rate at least equal to one and one-half times the regular rate of wages for the time worked that day. On the example above that is $176.00 plus $264.00 for an eight-hour shift at $33.00 an hour: $440.00. The holiday pay stacks on the premium rather than replacing it.
A continuous operation has a choice
Section 41(3) gives the employer of an employee in a continuous operation two options: the same holiday pay plus one and a half times the regular rate for the time worked, or a holiday granted and paid under s. 40 on the working day immediately following the employee's annual vacation, or on another day agreed upon. Section 41(1) defines the term — industrial establishments running without cessation over each seven-day period, trucking and vehicle operations, telephone and other communications operations, and any operation normally carried on without regard to Sundays or public holidays.
A deferred day is paid the same way
Whether the day off is moved under s. 38 because the holiday was not a working day for you, or under s. 41(3) because you work in a continuous operation, the day itself is paid under s. 40 — the regular rate for normal hours, $176.00 in the example. Section 42(4) requires the deferred day to be paid out if your employment ends before you take it.
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 Nova Scotia rather than assuming it either way.
Holiday pay in Nova Scotia
How is holiday pay calculated in Nova Scotia?
The Labour Standards Code pays a general holiday at your regular rate of wages for your normal hours of work on that day: eight hours at $22.00 is $176.00. The Code prescribes no averaging window and no divisor. Where hours or wages vary, the Labour Standards Division's guidance says to average wages over the 30 calendar days before the holiday and divide by the days actually worked in that window; that is administrative guidance, not statutory text.
Who qualifies for holiday pay in Nova Scotia?
Section 42(1) sets two conditions: pay received or receivable for at least fifteen days during the thirty calendar days immediately before the general holiday, and work on your scheduled working day immediately before it and immediately after it. Section 42(2) waives the second where the employer directed you not to report on either of those days. There is no probationary waiting period in the Code, though a new hire will often fail the fifteen-of-thirty test for a holiday early on.
Does overtime count toward holiday pay in Nova Scotia?
The Code has no express overtime-exclusion clause; it is silent on overtime here. Section 40(2) measures the day by the regular rate of wages for normal hours of work rather than by an average of actual earnings, so on the statutory basis there is no wage base for overtime to be in or out of. Under the Division's 30-day averaging practice for variable hours, neither the Code nor the regulations nor the guidance says whether overtime premium pay enters the average — that point is unresolved.
What am I paid for working a general holiday in Nova Scotia?
Under s. 41(2), outside a continuous operation, the employer owes the holiday pay you would otherwise have received plus at least one and a half times your regular rate for the time worked. Eight hours at $22.00 is $264.00 of premium, and with $176.00 of holiday pay the day comes to $440.00. In a continuous operation, s. 41(3) lets the employer choose that combination or a paid day off after your annual vacation or on another agreed day instead.
Is Remembrance Day a general holiday in Nova Scotia?
Not under the Labour Standards Code. The Code's six general holidays are New Year's Day, Nova Scotia Heritage Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day and Christmas Day. Remembrance Day is governed by the separate Remembrance Day Act, with its own rules and its own coverage, so the formula on this page does not decide what you are owed for it.
What happens if a general holiday falls on my day off?
Section 38 moves the day rather than dropping it: the employer must grant a holiday with pay on the working day immediately following the holiday, on the day immediately following your annual vacation, or on another day agreed between you. That deferred day is paid under s. 40 like any other, and s. 42(4) requires it to be paid out if your employment ends before you take it.
Can my employer move a general holiday to another day in 2026?
Section 39 allows it in two ways: through a collective agreement that substitutes another day, with notice to the Director, or with the Director's approval where a majority of the affected employees concur. So a workplace calendar can lawfully differ from the six dates listed above. Section 2(ga) also lets a regulation designate further general holidays, but none is currently prescribed.
Check the rest of the pay period
A holiday sits inside a week that has its own rules — Nova Scotia pays overtime after 48h 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 Code, R.S.N.S. 1989, c. 246 — ss. 37–43, Holidays with Pay
- Nova Scotia Labour Standards Division — Holiday pay
- Labour Standards Code, Minimum Wage Order (General)
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.