Ontario statutory holiday pay calculator (2026)
If you qualify and do not work it, the day pays public holiday pay: the four work weeks before it, divided by 20. Work out your own figure — the calculator below runs the province's formula on your wages.
Ontario has nine public holidays, and the pay for each one is a single division: the regular wages behind you, divided by twenty. The Employment Standards Act calls them public holidays — stat holiday is the everyday name for the same days.
Work out your public holiday pay
Ontario divides by twenty, so the two figures below are all it takes. Both come off the four work weeks before the work week the holiday falls in.
Every regular hour, before deductions — but with overtime pay left out.
Only if it was payable across those weeks. Leave it at zero if you take vacation pay on each cheque and none fell here.
This is the day itself. If you also worked the holiday, premium pay for those hours comes on top — the section below sets out which of the two arrangements applies.
Who qualifies
These are the conditions Ontario 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 waiting periodFull-time, part-time, casual, term, student, permanent — most employees are covered from the first day. Ontario sets no minimum length of service and no minimum number of hours before public holiday pay is calculated.
- Work all of your last shift beforeThe whole of your last regularly scheduled shift before the holiday, not part of it. This is the first half of what Ontario calls the last-and-first rule.
- Work all of your first shift afterThe same test on the other side of the holiday. The rule is about the shifts around the day, not about the day itself — being off on the holiday is the normal case, and it costs nothing.
- If you agreed to work the holiday, work itAn employee who agrees to work the public holiday and then does not appear, without reasonable cause, does not receive public holiday pay for it.
- Unless there is reasonable causeThe exception attaches to every line above. Illness and events outside your control are the ordinary examples, and it is the employee who has to be able to account for the absence.
A collective agreement can set better terms than the Act, and several sectors run on modified public holiday rules. Where both exist, the better term is the one that applies.
The Ontario formula: divide by twenty
The formula
(regular wages in the 4 work weeks before the work week with the holiday + vacation pay payable over those 4 work weeks) ÷ 20
- The window is the four work weeks before the work week containing the holiday — not the four weeks before the holiday itself. A holiday on a Wednesday does not shorten the window.
- Twenty is fixed. It stands for four weeks of five days whether or not you worked five days a week, so a short stretch simply produces a smaller figure.
- A substitute day off is paid the same way, except that its four work weeks are the four before the substitute day. It is rarely the same number as the holiday it replaces.
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 wages · 4 work weeks × 40 h × $22.50
- $3,600.00
- Vacation pay payable over those weeks · 4%
- $144.00
- Divide by
- 20
- Public holiday pay for the day
- $187.20
Six overtime hours in that same stretch, paid $202.50 at time and a half, change nothing above.
Overtime is not in the wage base
Overtime pay is not regular wages. Neither is premium pay, vacation pay, public holiday pay, termination pay or severance pay. Only regular wages go into the top of that fraction, so a month heavy with overtime does not lift public holiday pay by a cent.
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.
Ontario public holiday dates in 2026
| Holiday | Date | Day |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | 1 January 2026 | Thursday |
| Family Day | 16 February 2026 | Monday |
| Good Friday | 3 April 2026 | Friday |
| Victoria Day | 18 May 2026 | Monday |
| Canada Day | 1 July 2026 | Wednesday |
| Labour Day | 7 September 2026 | Monday |
| Thanksgiving Daynext | 12 October 2026 | Monday |
| Christmas Day | 25 December 2026 | Friday |
| Boxing Day | 26 December 2026 | Saturday |
Not a public holiday in Ontario: Remembrance Day
One date falls on a weekend in 2026: Boxing Day, Saturday 26 December 2026. When a public holiday falls on a day that is not ordinarily a working day for you, Ontario substitutes another working day off, paid at public holiday pay. With a written agreement, the employer can instead pay public holiday pay for the holiday itself and skip the substitute day.
- Those nine are the whole list. The August civic holiday, Easter Monday, Remembrance Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation are not public holidays under the Employment Standards Act. An employer can give any of them off by policy or by contract, and then that policy sets the pay rather than the formula on this page.
- Some work runs on a modified version of the public holiday rules — certain construction employees, for instance, receive public holiday pay rolled into their wages as a percentage instead of day by day.
If you work the holiday
Regular wages plus a substitute day off
This is the default when you agree to work a public holiday: your regular rate for every hour worked, plus another working day off paid at public holiday pay. The substitute day is calculated from the four work weeks before that day, so it usually differs from the holiday's own figure.
Public holiday pay plus premium pay
The alternative, available by written agreement, pays public holiday pay for the day plus premium pay — 1.5× the regular rate — for each hour actually worked, with no substitute day. On the example above that is $187.20 plus $270.00 for an eight-hour shift: $457.20.
Which one applies is not in the arithmetic
Hospitality, hospitals, continuous operations and several other sectors run their own version of the rule, in which the employer picks between the two combinations. That choice lives in an agreement or an employer policy — no calculator can derive it from the dates.
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 Ontario rather than assuming it either way.
Public holiday pay in Ontario
How much public holiday pay does Ontario owe for one holiday?
Add the regular wages earned in the four work weeks before the work week containing the holiday, add the vacation pay payable over those weeks, and divide by 20. Four full 40-hour weeks at $22.50 an hour come to $187.20 for the day. The divisor is always 20, so fewer hours in the window mean a smaller figure rather than a different formula.
Does overtime pay count toward public holiday pay in Ontario?
No. The four-week base is regular wages only, and overtime pay is not regular wages. Premium pay, vacation pay, public holiday pay, termination pay and severance pay are left out of the base as well, so what you were paid for overtime hours does not reach the calculation.
What happens if I miss the shift before a public holiday?
Ontario uses the last-and-first rule: the qualifying condition is working all of your last regularly scheduled shift before the holiday and all of your first one after it. Missing either without reasonable cause is what removes public holiday pay. Illness and events outside your control are the ordinary examples of reasonable cause.
Do part-time, casual and student employees get public holiday pay?
Yes. Ontario sets no minimum length of service and no minimum hours, and the same formula covers full-time, part-time, casual, term and student work. Because the divisor is fixed at 20, someone working two shifts a week simply arrives at a smaller daily figure than someone working five.
Boxing Day falls on a Saturday in 2026 — what then?
When a public holiday lands on a day that is not ordinarily a working day for you, Ontario substitutes another working day off, paid at public holiday pay. With a written agreement the employer can instead pay public holiday pay for the holiday itself and skip the substitute day. Boxing Day, Saturday 26 December, is the only Ontario public holiday on a weekend in 2026.
Is Remembrance Day a public holiday in Ontario?
No. Ontario's Employment Standards Act lists nine public holidays, and Remembrance Day, the August civic holiday, Easter Monday and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation are not among them. An employer can still give those days off, but the terms then come from the policy or the contract rather than from the Act.
Check the rest of the pay period
A holiday sits inside a week that has its own rules — Ontario pays overtime after 44h 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
- Employment Standards Act, 2000 — Part X, Public Holidays (ss. 24–32)
- Your guide to the Employment Standards Act: Public holidays
- Employment Standards Act, 2000, s. 22(1)
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.