Do you get time and a half on holidays?

Not under federal law. The Fair Labor Standards Act does not require overtime pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays or regular days of rest, as such. Rhode Island is different: its statute requires at least time and a half for work on Sundays and holidays, and Thanksgiving Day is on the state’s list of legal holidays, with exceptions for some kinds of work. Elsewhere, a Thanksgiving rate comes from your employer’s policy or a union contract. Under federal law, the hours you work that day count toward the 40-hour week like any others, so overtime is owed when the week passes 40.

Federal law does not require it. DOL says the FLSA does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations or holidays, federal or otherwise. A paid holiday comes from your employer’s policy or an employment or union agreement, and that document also sets the rate.

Black Friday is not on OPM’s list of federal holidays, and it is not one of the ten days on Rhode Island’s list of legal holidays. Under federal law it is an ordinary workday with no premium, and the hours count toward the 40 like any others. An employer can choose to pay extra for it.

Not by federal law. Nothing in the FLSA requires even time and a half for a holiday. In Rhode Island the minimum for work on Christmas Day is time and a half, not double, with exceptions. California’s entry in DOL’s table sets double time for hours past 12 in a day and past 8 on a seventh day of a workweek, which turns on hours worked, not the date. Some employers and union contracts do pay double for Christmas; that is a term of the job.

Easter is not on OPM’s list of federal holidays or on Rhode Island’s list, so under federal law it is an ordinary Sunday, and a Sunday carries no premium by itself. In Rhode Island the day of the week matters: the statute covers Sundays as well as holidays, so Sunday work is paid at least time and a half there, with exceptions. Massachusetts ended its Sunday premium on 1 January 2023.

DOL’s state-by-state table flags Rhode Island: time and one-half premium pay for work on Sundays and holidays in retail and certain other businesses, required under two laws that are separate from the minimum wage law. Rhode Island’s labor department adds that employees must be paid at least time and a half for any work on Sundays and holidays, with exceptions including health care, hospitality, agriculture and commercial fishing. Massachusetts had a premium for certain retail employees that ended on 1 January 2023. This page is not a survey of every industry or local rule, so check your state labor department for your job.

In DOL’s state-by-state table, California’s entry sets double time: no less than twice the regular rate for work past 12 hours in one day, or past 8 hours on a seventh day of a workweek. That is about long days and the seventh day, not holidays. The FLSA’s overtime rate is time and a half, not double, so beyond California, double time is usually a term of an employer policy or a union contract. Federal employees are the exception on holidays, as the answer below explains.

Hours you work on a holiday are hours worked, so they count toward the 40 under federal law. Holiday pay for a day you did not work is different: it is not pay for hours of work, so it adds no hours toward the 40, and under 29 CFR § 778.218 it cannot be credited against overtime that is due. A premium for working the holiday is treated differently: under 29 CFR § 778.203, a rate of at least time and a half paid for work on a holiday may be treated as an overtime premium.

Most federal employees are entitled to holiday premium pay when they are required to work on a holiday. OPM says it equals the employee’s basic pay, paid in addition to basic pay, so an hour of holiday work is paid at double. It applies to non-overtime hours worked on the holiday, not more than 8 hours on a standard schedule, and 5 U.S.C. § 5546(b) sets the same limits: work not in excess of 8 hours and not overtime work. Overtime worked on a holiday is paid as overtime. This is a rule for federal employees; it does not reach private-sector jobs.

Rhode Island’s statute, R.I. Gen. Laws § 25-3-3(a)(1), says it is not grounds for discharge or other penalty for an employee to refuse to work on a Sunday or a holiday listed in that chapter. Manufacturers that operate seven continuous days a week are exempt from that provision, and the statute carves out other exceptions. Whether it covers your job is a question for Rhode Island’s Department of Labor and Training.

For employees of a retail business who are paid time and a half for Sunday or holiday work, Rhode Island’s labor department says the Sunday and holiday hours are excluded from the calculation of overtime pay for that week. The department defines a retail business as an establishment engaged primarily in the sale of goods or services directly to the general public, and its definition excludes businesses that primarily prepare and sell food for immediate consumption. For anyone else, ask the department.