Prince Edward Island statutory holiday pay calculator (2026)
If you do not work it, the day pays five per cent of the wages you earned in the 28 days before it, with overtime pay left out. Work out your own figure — the calculator below runs the province's formula on your wages.
Prince Edward Island has eight paid holidays, and the pay for each is five per cent of what you earned in the four weeks before it — the same arithmetic as dividing that stretch by twenty. The Employment Standards Act calls them paid holidays; stat holiday is the everyday name for the same days.
Work out your paid holiday pay
The Island takes five per cent of a fixed 28-day window, so the two figures below are all it needs. Both come off the four weeks ending the day before the holiday.
Everything you earned in those four weeks, before deductions — with overtime pay left out.
Pay for vacation you actually took in those four weeks, plus pay for any other paid holiday inside them. Leave it at zero if neither applies.
This is the amount for the day on its own. Working the holiday changes what you are owed, and the employer has a choice between two arrangements — the section below sets both out.
Who qualifies
These are the conditions Prince Edward Island 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 qualifying periodThe Act sets no minimum length of service. Every employee is entitled from the first day of employment — the thirty-days-in-twelve-months and fifteen-of-thirty-days tests that used to apply were repealed with the old Act.
- Both shifts, not eitherYou lose the day only if you fail to work both the last work day before it and the first work day after it, and only where that absence was without the employer's direction or permission and without any reasonable cause. Missing one of the two shifts does not disqualify you, and an authorised or justified absence never does.
- Employees who choose their shiftsAn employee who may elect whether to work when asked is outside the entitlement. The exclusion turns on genuinely being free to decline, not on being labelled casual.
- No minimum hoursBecause the entitlement is a percentage of what you actually earned, part-time and casual work produce a smaller figure rather than nothing at all.
A contract or a collective agreement can pay more than the Act, and where it does the better term is the one that applies.
The Island formula: five per cent of four weeks
The formula
(wages in the 28 days before the paid holiday, overtime pay left out + vacation pay taken and paid holiday pay received inside those 28 days) × 5%, which is the same arithmetic as ÷ 20
- The window is the four weeks immediately before the holiday, ending the day before it — not four payroll weeks and not the calendar month.
- Two items are added back into the base rather than left out of it: pay for vacation you actually took in those four weeks, and pay for any other paid holiday that fell inside them.
- Five per cent is proportional by design and is not a promise of a day's pay. It comes to one ordinary day only for someone who worked five equal days a week across the whole window.
- The Act gives no proration rule for an employee with less than four weeks of earnings behind them. On the words, the answer is five per cent of whatever wages fall inside that window.
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
- Wages · 140 h in the 28 days × $21.00
- $2,940.00
- Vacation pay for a vacation day taken in those 28 days
- $168.00
- Multiply by 5% — the same as dividing by
- 20
- Paid holiday pay for the day
- $155.40
Five overtime hours in the same four weeks, paid $157.50 at time and a half, stay outside the $3,108.00. And note what the $155.40 is: five per cent of a particular four weeks, not a day's pay by definition.
Overtime is not in the wage base
Overtime pay is out of the base, and the Act says so inside the formula itself — five per cent of wages, not including overtime pay. The definition of wages already leaves out holiday pay, vacation pay, leave pay, tips and benefits; this subsection takes overtime out on top of that, and then puts vacation and holiday pay from inside the window back in.
It is the line worth checking first: if a paid 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.
Prince Edward Island paid holiday dates in 2026 & 2027
| Holiday | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | 1 January 2026Thursday | 1 January 2027Friday |
| Islander Day | 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 |
| National Day for Truth and Reconciliation | 30 September 2026Wednesday | 30 September 2027Thursday |
| Remembrance Day | 11 November 2026Wednesdaynext | 11 November 2027Thursday |
| Christmas Day | 25 December 2026Friday | 25 December 2027Saturday |
Not a paid holiday in Prince Edward Island: Thanksgiving Day; Boxing Day
One date falls on a weekend in 2026 and 2027: Christmas Day, Saturday 25 December 2027. A paid holiday that falls on a day you do not normally work is not lost. You are owed a day off with pay instead, taken on the next work day after the holiday, on the next work day after your annual vacation, or on a day you and the employer agree before your next annual vacation.
- All eight are mandatory and none is at the employer's option. Victoria Day, Easter Monday, Thanksgiving and Boxing Day are not paid holidays in Prince Edward Island. An employer may still close on any of them, and then the policy or the collective agreement sets what the day pays rather than the formula on this page.
- The Act leaves room for a ninth: it allows any other day to be prescribed as a paid holiday by regulation. None is prescribed as of the last review of this page.
- This page describes the Employment Standards Act that came into force on 30 June 2026 and replaced the 1988 Act outright. Guidance written before that date carries the old thirty-day eligibility test and a different basis for the pay — if a page you are reading mentions thirty days of employment in the preceding twelve months, it is describing law that no longer applies.
If you work the holiday
The employer picks one of two arrangements
Work the holiday and the Act gives your employer a choice. Either time and a half for the hours worked plus the holiday itself at your regular rate — on an eight-hour shift at $21.00 that is $252.00 plus $168.00, $420.00 in all — or straight time for the hours and a paid day off on another day you and the employer agree, taken before your next annual vacation.
One point the Act does not settle
Where you work the holiday, the section on working it says the holiday component is paid at your regular rate of pay, while the section on the amount says a paid holiday is worth the five-per-cent figure. The Act does not say which governs, and regular rate of pay is not among its defined terms. If the two produce different numbers for you, that gap is real and worth putting to Employment Standards rather than assuming either answer.
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 Prince Edward Island rather than assuming it either way.
Paid holiday pay in Prince Edward Island
How is paid holiday pay calculated in PEI?
Take the wages you earned in the four weeks before the paid holiday, leave overtime pay out, add pay for vacation actually taken in that stretch and pay for any other paid holiday inside it, and multiply by five per cent. $2,940.00 of wages plus $168.00 of vacation pay come to $155.40 for the day. Multiplying by five per cent is the same arithmetic as dividing by twenty.
Does overtime pay count toward paid holiday pay in PEI?
No. The words not including overtime pay sit inside the formula itself, so no inference is needed — a heavy stretch of overtime before the holiday does not lift the five per cent. Vacation pay and other holiday pay from inside the same four weeks are treated the opposite way and are added into the base.
How long do I have to work before I qualify?
You do not. The Act that came into force on 30 June 2026 sets no qualifying period, so the entitlement runs from your first day. Anything you read describing thirty days of employment in the preceding twelve months is describing the repealed Act and no longer applies.
I missed the shift before the holiday. Do I still get paid?
Almost certainly yes. You lose the day only by failing to work both the last work day before it and the first work day after it, and only where the absence was without permission and without reasonable cause. One missed shift is not enough, and an absence your employer approved or that you had good reason for never counts against you.
What am I paid for working a paid holiday in PEI?
That depends on which arrangement your employer takes. Either time and a half for the hours plus the holiday at your regular rate — $420.00 for an eight-hour shift in the example above — or your ordinary wage for the hours and a paid day off later, agreed between you and taken before your next annual vacation.
Is Thanksgiving a paid holiday in Prince Edward Island?
No. The Act lists eight paid holidays for 2026 and Thanksgiving is not among them, nor are Victoria Day, Easter Monday or Boxing Day. An employer may still close on any of them, in which case the terms come from the policy or the collective agreement rather than from the Act.
Check the rest of the pay period
A holiday sits inside a week that has its own rules — Prince Edward Island 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, SPEI 2024, c. 66 — ss. 1(1)(n), 27, 28 (in force 30 June 2026)
- Employment Standards Act (2026)
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.