Nunavut statutory holiday pay calculator (2026)
If you qualify and do not work it, the day pays a normal day at your regular rate — no four-week window behind it. Work out your own figure — the calculator below runs the province's formula on your wages.
Nunavut has eleven general holidays, and for an hourly employee the pay for one of them is not an average of anything: it is your regular rate of wages for the normal hours of work of that day. The Labour Standards Act keeps averaging for employees paid on some basis other than time, and even there it never states a divisor. Nunavut says general holiday where other places say statutory holiday; the days are the same idea.
Work out your general holiday pay
Nothing is averaged here, so the calculator needs one figure: what a normal day of work pays you at your regular rate.
Your regular hourly rate times the hours you would normally work that day — 8 hours at $23.00 is $184.00. Leave overtime hours and the premium on them out; s. 24(1) is built on normal hours.
This is the day itself. Working the general holiday adds at least 1.5× for the hours you work on top of this figure, unless the employer gives a substituted paid holiday instead — the section below sets out both.
Who qualifies
These are the conditions Nunavut 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 worked in the last twelve monthsSection 28(a) removes the pay for an unworked holiday from an employee who has not worked a total of 30 days for that employer during the preceding 12 months. It counts days worked, not length of service, so a stretch of employment with little work in it can fall short.
- Report if you are called in for the holidaySection 28(b) applies where the employee was called to work on the general holiday and did not report. It is about the day itself, not the shifts around it.
- The last working day before, or the one afterSection 28(c) removes the pay where, without the employer's consent, the employee has not reported for work on either the last regular working day preceding the holiday or the one following it. The wording is disjunctive — failing on either side is enough — and it is loose enough that the reading is arguable.
- Not while on pregnancy or parental leaveSection 28(d) removes the entitlement to be paid for a general holiday that falls while the employee is on pregnancy leave or parental leave.
- Being on call counts as employmentSection 29 deems a person to be in employment when they are available at the call of the employer, whether or not they are called on to perform any work.
The Act does not reach employment in the public service, trappers, people engaged in commercial fisheries, or members and students of professions designated by regulation. One exclusion is narrower than it looks: employees employed primarily in a managerial capacity are outside Part I, which is hours of work and overtime, not Part IV — managers keep their general holidays and their holiday pay. Federally regulated work, such as banking, telecom and air or rail transport, runs on the Canada Labour Code instead.
The Nunavut formula: a normal day at your regular rate
The formula
regular rate of wages × the normal hours of work of the employee for that day
- That is s. 24(1), and it covers every employee whose wages are calculated on the basis of time — anyone paid by the hour. It sets a floor: the employee is to be paid at least the equivalent of the wages they would have earned at the regular rate for their normal hours, so a contract or a collective agreement can pay more but not less.
- Employees paid on any basis other than time — commission, piecework — fall under s. 24(2) instead: the average of their daily wages for the four weeks that the employee worked immediately preceding the week in which the general holiday occurs.
- The Act does not say what to divide that average by. It states no divisor at all — not 20, not four, not days worked — and it does not settle whether the four weeks are the four calendar weeks before the holiday week or the last four weeks in which work was actually performed. Both questions are genuinely open, so do not assume a number that Nunavut's Act never gives. An hourly employee never reaches this branch.
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
- $23.00
- Normal hours of work for that day
- 8 h
- Averaging window
- none under s. 24(1)
- General holiday pay for the day
- $184.00
Six overtime hours in the same week change nothing above. The figure is built from your regular rate and your normal hours, and standard hours in Nunavut are eight in a day and 40 in a week, so overtime hours fall outside them.
Overtime is not in the wage base
Nunavut has no clause that names overtime and takes it out of a wage base, because for an hourly employee there is no wage base to take it out of. Section 24(1) multiplies a rate by normal hours rather than averaging what you were paid, so neither the overtime hours nor the premium on them can enter it: s. 1 defines overtime as hours in excess of standard hours of work, and s. 4 puts standard hours at eight in a day and 40 in a week. Section 11(3)(b) draws the same line from the other side, keeping hours worked on a general holiday out of the overtime calculation. For the s. 24(2) averaging route the Act is silent — it averages daily wages, and wages is defined broadly enough to exclude only tips and gratuities, so on its face overtime remuneration would sit inside that base. Do not import another province's exclusion into it.
It is the line worth checking first: if a general 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.
Nunavut general 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 |
| Birthday of the reigning sovereign (Victoria Day) | 18 May 2026Monday | 24 May 2027Monday |
| Canada Day | 1 July 2026Wednesday | 1 July 2027Thursday |
| Nunavut Day | 9 July 2026Thursday | 9 July 2027Friday |
| First Monday in August (Civic Holiday) | 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 general holiday in Nunavut: Boxing Day
One date falls on a weekend in 2026 and 2027: Christmas Day, Saturday 25 December 2027. Where a general holiday falls on a day that is not a working day for you, s. 25(2) leaves the employer two options: pay the s. 24 holiday pay for it, or give a substituted paid holiday on the same terms. The choice belongs to the employer; either way the day is not simply dropped.
- None of the eleven is optional or left to the employer: they are general holidays for every employer the Act covers. Two of them are unusual — the first Monday in August is statutory here, unlike in most provinces, and so is Nunavut Day on 9 July. Boxing Day and Family Day are not general holidays in Nunavut at all.
- The sovereign's birthday is the one date the Act does not fix. It refers to the day the Governor General sets for observing the birthday of the reigning sovereign, so the date comes from the annual federal proclamation rather than from the statute; 18 May 2026 follows the settled convention of the Monday before 25 May. The Act never uses the name Victoria Day.
- Days can be swapped only through the routes the Act names: a substitution under s. 23, either by a collective agreement notified to the Labour Standards Officer or by an employer application approved with the concurrence of a majority of employees, or the substituted-day options in ss. 25(1)(b) and 25(2)(b).
If you work the holiday
Holiday pay plus time and a half
Section 25(1)(a) pays an employee required to work a general holiday, in addition to any payment under s. 24, at a rate at least equal to 1.5× the regular rate of wages for the time worked that day. On the example above that is $184.00 plus $276.00 for an eight-hour shift: $460.00.
Or a paid holiday at another time
Section 25(1)(b) is the alternative the employer may choose: a holiday with s. 24 pay at some other time convenient to the employee and the employer, no later than the employee's next annual vacation or the end of the employment, whichever comes first. The substituted day is then deemed to be the general holiday, and it carries the same pay rules.
If the day is not a working day for you
Section 25(2) covers the general holiday that falls on your non-working day. The employer either pays the s. 24 holiday pay or gives a substituted paid holiday on the same terms as above.
Double time for a day pulled into that week
Section 26 sits beside all of this: an employee who is not required to work on a general holiday cannot be made to work another day in that week that would otherwise not be a working day unless the time worked is paid at a rate at least equal to double the regular rate — $46.00 an hour in the example.
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 Nunavut rather than assuming it either way.
General holiday pay in Nunavut
How is general holiday pay calculated in Nunavut?
If your wages are calculated on the basis of time — anyone paid by the hour — s. 24(1) pays your regular rate of wages for the normal hours of work for that day. Eight hours at $23.00 is $184.00. There is no four-week window and no divisor in that calculation; averaging appears only in s. 24(2), which covers employees paid on a basis other than time.
Does overtime count toward general holiday pay in Nunavut?
Not for an hourly employee. Section 24(1) builds the day from the regular rate and the normal hours of work, so it never touches what you actually earned in overtime, and s. 4 puts standard hours at eight in a day and 40 in a week, which leaves overtime hours outside normal hours. Section 24(2), the averaging route for people paid on another basis, says nothing about overtime — its base is daily wages, and the Act's definition of wages excludes only tips and gratuities. Nunavut has no express clause taking overtime pay out of that base, so the point is open there.
Who qualifies for general holiday pay in Nunavut?
Section 22 gives every employee a paid general holiday falling in their period of employment, and s. 28 takes the pay for an unworked holiday back in four cases: fewer than 30 days worked for that employer in the preceding 12 months; not reporting to work on the holiday after being called in; not reporting, without the employer's consent, on the last regular working day before or the one after; and being on pregnancy or parental leave. The 30 days are days worked, not continuous service.
What am I paid for working a general holiday in Nunavut?
Section 25(1)(a) pays the s. 24 holiday pay plus at least 1.5× your regular rate for the time you actually worked — $184.00 plus $276.00 for an eight-hour shift at $23.00, or $460.00. Under s. 25(1)(b) the employer may instead give a paid holiday at another time convenient to both of you, no later than your next annual vacation or the end of the job, whichever comes first.
Is Boxing Day a general holiday in Nunavut?
No, and neither is Family Day. Nunavut's list runs to eleven days, and two of them are days most provinces leave off: Nunavut Day on 9 July and the first Monday in August. An employer can close on Boxing Day anyway, but then the terms come from the policy or the contract rather than from the Labour Standards Act.
What if a general holiday falls on a day I do not work?
Section 25(2) gives the employer two ways to settle it: pay the s. 24 holiday pay for the day, or give a substituted paid holiday on the same terms. None of the eleven 2026 dates falls on a Saturday or Sunday, so this is about your own schedule rather than the calendar. Separately, s. 26 says that if you are not required to work the general holiday, you cannot be made to work another otherwise non-working day in that week unless you are paid at least double your regular rate for the time worked.
Check the rest of the pay period
A holiday sits inside a week that has its own rules — Nunavut 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
- Labour Standards Act, C.S.Nu., c. L-10 — Part IV, General Holidays (ss. 22–29), consolidation current to 13 June 2022
- Labour Standards Act (Nunavut)
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.