Saskatchewan statutory holiday pay calculator (2026)
If you do not work it, the day pays public holiday pay: 5% 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.
Saskatchewan has ten public holidays, and the pay for each one is five per cent of what you earned in the four weeks before it — the same arithmetic as dividing that stretch by twenty. The Saskatchewan Employment Act calls them public holidays; stat holiday is the everyday name for the same days.
Work out your public holiday pay
Saskatchewan takes five per cent of a fixed 28-day window, so the two figures below are all it needs. Both come off the 28 days ending the day before the holiday.
Everything you earned in those 28 days, before deductions — with overtime pay left out.
Vacation pay for vacation you actually took in those 28 days, plus public holiday pay for any other public holiday inside them. Leave it at zero if neither applies.
This is the amount for the day on its own. If you also work the holiday, 1.5× your hourly wage for the hours comes on top of it — the section below sets that out.
Who qualifies
These are the conditions Saskatchewan 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 periodEvery employee covered by Part II of the Act is paid for every public holiday from the first day of employment. There is no minimum length of service and no first-30-days rule — the Act simply says the employer shall pay an employee for every public holiday.
- No minimum hoursFull-time, part-time and casual work are treated the same way. Because the entitlement is a percentage of what you actually earned rather than a day's pay, a thin 28 days produces a smaller figure instead of nothing.
- No last-and-first ruleUnlike Ontario and Alberta, Saskatchewan does not withdraw public holiday pay because you missed the shift before or after the holiday. Nothing in the public holiday sections attaches the pay to the shifts around the day.
- Managers are includedThis is the one that surprises people. The regulations exclude managerial employees from the hours-of-work and overtime subdivisions, but not from the public holiday subdivision, so an employee performing services entirely of a managerial character still receives the 5% and still receives 1.5× for working the day.
- Some work sits outside these sectionsEmployees whose primary duties are farming, ranching or market gardening are outside Part II, as are undertakings employing only the employer's immediate family, sitters and athletes engaged in their athletic endeavour. Commercial fishers, commercial trappers, teachers as defined in The Education Act, 1995 and election officials are excluded from the public holiday subdivision specifically. Egg hatcheries, greenhouses, nurseries, bush clearing and commercial hog operations are deemed not to be farming or ranching, so they stay covered.
A contract or collective agreement can pay more than the Act, and where it does the better term is the one that applies. The construction industry is the exception to the formula rather than to the entitlement: hourly-paid construction employees are on a different calculation altogether, set out below.
The Saskatchewan formula: five per cent of four weeks
The formula
(wages in the 28 days before the public holiday, overtime pay left out + vacation pay taken and public holiday pay received inside those 28 days) × 5%, which is the same arithmetic as ÷ 20
- The window is a rolling 28 calendar days ending the day before the holiday. The Act defines a week as seven consecutive calendar days for this purpose, so the window is not four payroll weeks and is not tied to the employer's scheduling week.
- Two items are added into the base rather than left out of it: vacation pay for vacation you actually took in those 28 days, and public holiday pay for any other public holiday falling inside them.
- Five per cent is deliberately proportional and is not a promise of a day's pay. It works out to one ordinary day only for someone who worked five equal days a week across the whole window; a part-timer, a new hire or someone on unpaid leave in that stretch receives proportionally less.
- Hourly-paid employees in the construction industry are on an entirely different rule under The Employment Standards Regulations, 2025: 4% of the wages earned in each calendar year, exclusive of overtime and vacation pay, payable by 31 December, in place of the 5% amount. A unionized construction employer and the union can agree in writing to use the 5% formula instead.
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 · 150 h in the 28 days × $22.00
- $3,300.00
- Vacation pay for a vacation day taken in those 28 days
- $176.00
- Multiply by 5% — the same as dividing by
- 20
- Public holiday pay for the day
- $173.80
Six overtime hours in the same 28 days, paid $198.00 at time and a half, stay outside the $3,476.00. And note what the $173.80 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 — 5% of wages, not including overtime pay. The carve-out is needed because the Act's general definition of wages does include overtime; this one subsection takes it back out. What the text does not settle is whether "overtime pay" means the whole overtime payment or only the premium half of it. The Act speaks of the premium component of overtime separately elsewhere, which points to the whole payment being excluded here, but the two provisions are not reconciled on the face of the statute.
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.
Saskatchewan public holiday dates in 2026 & 2027
| Holiday | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | 1 January 2026Thursday | 1 January 2027Friday |
| Family Day | 16 February 2026Monday | 15 February 2027Monday |
| Good Friday | 3 April 2026Friday | 26 March 2027Friday |
| Victoria Day | 18 May 2026Monday | 24 May 2027Monday |
| Canada Day | 1 July 2026Wednesday | 1 July 2027Thursday |
| Saskatchewan Day | 3 August 2026Monday | 2 August 2027Monday |
| Labour Day | 7 September 2026Monday | 6 September 2027Monday |
| 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 public holiday in Saskatchewan: Boxing Day
One date falls on a weekend in 2026 and 2027: Christmas Day, Saturday 25 December 2027. The 5% is owed whether or not the holiday lands on a day you normally work, because the calculation looks back at 28 days of earnings rather than at your schedule. One rule does move a day: if New Year's Day, Christmas Day or Remembrance Day falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is observed instead — except in an establishment normally open on Sundays. None of the three falls on a Sunday in 2026, so the rule is dormant this year, and a holiday landing on a Saturday is not moved at all.
- Those ten are the whole list, and none of them is optional. The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation on 30 September binds federally regulated workplaces rather than provincial ones, and Easter Monday, Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and Heritage Day are not Saskatchewan public holidays either. An employer can still give any of them off, and then the policy or the collective agreement sets the pay rather than the formula on this page.
- The date can move, the day cannot. An employer and the employee — or a majority of the employees, or the union in writing — may agree in writing to substitute another day, which has to fall within four weeks of the original holiday. Remembrance Day cannot be substituted.
- A public holiday that falls during your vacation extends the vacation by one working day, and the public holiday pay is owed on top of the vacation pay for that stretch.
If you work the holiday
The 5% amount plus time and a half
Saskatchewan stacks the two rather than choosing between them. An employee who works a public holiday is paid the 5% amount and 1.5× their hourly wage for the hours. On the example above that is $173.80 plus $264.00 for an eight-hour shift at $33.00 an hour: $437.80.
Which hours the 1.5× runs on
The Act pays 1.5× for each hour or part of an hour in which you are required or permitted to work or to be at the employer's disposal. Time held at the employer's disposal counts, and the count runs by the part-hour rather than being rounded down to whole hours. An agreement, a collective agreement or a custom paying less than 1.5× for holiday work is not treated as more favourable, so 1.5× is a floor rather than a default.
What it does to the week's overtime
Hours worked on a public holiday are kept out of the overtime calculation, and the weekly overtime threshold drops by 8 hours for each public holiday in the week. A week with one public holiday in it therefore reaches overtime 8 hours earlier than an ordinary week.
Four kinds of workplace run different arrangements
Well-drilling rig operators receive the 5% amount plus regular wages, not 1.5×, for time worked. Full-time employees of a hospital, educational institution, nursing home, hotel or restaurant who work a holiday falling on their regular workday receive 1.5× in addition to regular wages, or 1.5× plus a day off at regular wage within four weeks. Employees of a commercial hog operation may elect regular wages for the holiday worked plus a designated day off at regular wages. Hourly-paid construction employees are on the 4% annual calculation and receive that plus 1.5× for the hours worked.
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 Saskatchewan rather than assuming it either way.
Public holiday pay in Saskatchewan
How is public holiday pay calculated in Saskatchewan?
Take the wages you earned in the four weeks — 28 days — before the public holiday, leave overtime pay out, add vacation pay for vacation actually taken in that stretch and public holiday pay for any other public holiday inside it, and multiply by 5%. $3,300.00 of wages plus $176.00 of vacation pay come to $173.80 for the holiday. Multiplying by 5% is the same arithmetic as dividing by 20.
Does overtime pay count toward public holiday pay in Saskatchewan?
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 5%. The Act does not spell out whether that phrase removes the whole overtime payment or only the premium half of it; the whole payment is the natural reading, but the statute does not resolve the point in terms.
Do I have to work a minimum time, or the shifts either side, to get it?
Neither. Saskatchewan sets no qualifying period, no minimum hours and no last-and-first rule, so part-time, casual and brand-new employees are entitled from the first day, and a short window simply produces a smaller figure. Managers are entitled too: the exclusion for managerial employees covers the hours-of-work and overtime subdivisions, not the public holiday one.
What am I paid for working a public holiday in Saskatchewan?
Both amounts, not one of them: the 5% public holiday pay and 1.5× your hourly wage for each hour or part of an hour you work or are at the employer's disposal. On the example above, $173.80 plus $264.00 for an eight-hour shift is $437.80. Well-drilling rigs, commercial hog operations, and full-time work in hospitals, educational institutions, nursing homes, hotels and restaurants run their own versions of the worked-holiday rule.
Is public holiday pay different for construction workers?
Yes, and the difference is the whole formula. An hourly-paid employee in the construction industry receives 4% of the wages earned in each calendar year, exclusive of overtime and vacation pay, payable by 31 December or within 14 days of termination, in place of the 5% of 28 days. Working a holiday adds 1.5× regular wages for the hours worked. A unionized construction employer and the union can agree in writing to use the ordinary 5% formula instead.
Is the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation a public holiday in Saskatchewan?
No. The Saskatchewan Employment Act lists ten public holidays and 30 September is not among them; it is a holiday for federally regulated workplaces. Easter Monday, Christmas Eve, Boxing Day and Heritage Day are not Saskatchewan public holidays either. 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 — that is true of every day outside the ten listed for 2026.
Check the rest of the pay period
A holiday sits inside a week that has its own rules — Saskatchewan 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
- The Saskatchewan Employment Act, SS 2013, c S-15.1 — Part II, Public Holidays (ss. 2-30 to 2-32)
- Saskatchewan Employment Act, ss. 2-17 and 2-18
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.