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Ontario Public Holidays: The Rules Your Employer Is Probably Breaking.

April 2026 7 min read Ontario & Canada

Most employees know they get statutory holidays off. However, common knowledge around how those days are paid, what happens when a holiday falls on a weekend, and what an employee is owed when they work on one, is more limited than it should be. For small businesses and small organizations in particular, calculation errors are common - and usually innocent. The language in the ESA can be confusing, which is understandable. However for HR professionals and employees alike, understanding the fundamentals will help you make informed decisions about your own pay.

The Nine Public Holidays

There are currently 9 public holidays listed in the Ontario ESA. If you are governed by a Collective Agreement, read it carefully as it may list additional or different holidays.

Two holidays worth calling out specifically. Boxing Day is a full statutory holiday in Ontario. Some employers treat it as a float day or optional time off. That is incorrect and should be addressed. If you are unsure whether you are being compensated for it properly, get clarification from your employer and ensure you are paid correctly whether you work it or not.

Remembrance Day is not a public holiday under the ESA. Although federal employees and employees in other provinces receive it off, and some Ontario employers offer it as a floating day, it is not currently listed as a statutory holiday under the ESA. If your workplace provides it, that is a benefit above the ESA minimum - not a legal requirement for most Ontario employers.

How Public Holiday Pay Is Actually Calculated

This is where many employers get it wrong. Public holiday pay is not simply one day at your regular rate. It is calculated using a specific formula: total regular wages plus vacation pay earned in the four work weeks before the work week containing the holiday, divided by 20.

It is important to note the four-week window is the four complete work weeks before the week the holiday falls in - not the four weeks including the holiday week itself. For an employee with variable hours, commission, or other variable pay, this formula will produce a meaningfully different result than a flat daily rate. If you receive additional pay such as commissions or variable pay, check your pay stub to ensure those amounts are reflected. You can always ask your employer to walk you through the calculation so you can verify it yourself.

Working on a Public Holiday

If you work on a public holiday your employer has two options for how to compensate you.

Option A: You receive your regular wages for all hours worked on the holiday, plus a substitute day off with public holiday pay to be taken within three months. Note that under this option you do not receive separate holiday pay on top of your regular wages for that day - the compensation is your regular rate for the hours worked, and the public holiday pay comes when you take the substitute day.

Option B: You receive public holiday pay for the holiday plus premium pay at 1.5 times your regular rate for all hours worked. Under this option there is no substitute day off - the premium pay and holiday pay together replace it. This option requires the employee to agree electronically or in writing.

Importantly, both options require the employee to have agreed electronically or in writing to work on the public holiday in the first place. For most employees this agreement is voluntary. However, employees in certain industries - hotels, motels, restaurants, taverns, hospitals, nursing homes, and continuous operations - can be required to work on a public holiday without that agreement, and in those cases the employer chooses which option applies. It is always worth getting clarification from your employer so you know in advance what will happen if you are scheduled on a public holiday.

Substitute Days and the Three-Month Deadline

Substitute days are one of the most commonly missed obligations in public holiday administration. If you worked a public holiday and are owed a substitute day, that day must be scheduled and taken within three months of the holiday. This deadline can be extended to 12 months if both you and your employer agree in writing. Without that written agreement, the three-month window is the default.

If the deadline passes without the substitute day being provided, the employer owes you the public holiday pay amount in cash - it converts to a monetary obligation automatically. Most employers either do not track these deadlines closely or quietly let them lapse. It is worth keeping your own record of any public holidays you have worked, the date the holiday occurred, and when the three-month window expires. Discrepancies are much easier to raise while the window is still open.

When a Public Holiday Falls on Your Day Off

If a public holiday falls on a day you do not normally work, you are still entitled to a substitute day off with public holiday pay within three months. You do not lose the holiday simply because it landed on a weekend or a scheduled day off.

Consider a practical example: Christmas Day falls on a Saturday in 2027. A Monday to Friday employee does not work Saturdays, so Christmas falls on their day off. Their employer observes Friday December 24 as the holiday. For that to be compliant, Friday must be formally designated as the substitute day and must be paid at the public holiday pay formula rate - not simply treated as a regular paid day off under a different policy. If the employer has not properly documented the designation or calculated it using the formula, the employee may not have received what they are owed. Most employers handle this well, but the calculation and documentation behind it is where errors occur.

Employees on Leave

This is an area worth being precise about. Employees on an ESA leave technically retain their public holiday entitlement - the employment relationship is not broken during a job-protected leave. However, the dollar amount of public holiday pay is still calculated using the four-week formula based on earnings in the four work weeks before the holiday.

In practice this means that for most employees on an extended unpaid leave - pregnancy leave, parental leave, or any other leave where no wages are being paid - the public holiday pay calculation will produce zero or near-zero for holidays that fall well into the leave period. The Ontario government's own ESA guide confirms this: an employee who goes on pregnancy and parental leave and earns no wages during that period will receive $0 in public holiday pay for most holidays that fall during the leave, because the four-week formula has no earnings to work with.

The exception is the first public holiday that falls shortly after the leave begins, where the employee may still have earned wages in some of the four work weeks before that holiday. After that, as the leave extends and no wages are earned, the formula returns zero.

If your employer has issued a Record of Employment signalling an interruption of earnings, this reflects that practical reality. The entitlement exists in law, but its dollar value during an extended unpaid leave is generally nil.

The Last and First Rule

If you fail to work your last scheduled day before a public holiday, and your first scheduled day after it, you can lose your entitlement to that holiday - whether that is the day off with pay or the substitute day. This is called the last and first rule and is one of the most misapplied provisions in the ESA. In practice it is also one of the least enforced by employers, but it exists and employees should be aware of it.

The key thing to understand is that the rule only applies without reasonable cause. If you were absent because of illness, an approved day off, or any absence that your employer agreed to, your entitlement is preserved. Reasonable cause is interpreted broadly. If an employer attempts to deny your holiday pay simply because you were absent on an adjacent day, and you had a legitimate reason for that absence, that denial may not be valid. Check your company policy and get clarification if it happens to you.

Nine Times a Year Adds Up

Although public holidays only occur nine times a year, understanding your rights around how they are paid is one of the most commonly neglected areas for both employees and employers. Employees rarely check the calculation and employers may not be applying the formula correctly - in most cases neither intentionally. It is good practice to develop a basic understanding of your pay, and how your payroll system handles statutory holidays, to ensure you are being compensated fairly for both your time at work and your time off. Every employee is entitled to that.

Legislation Referenced

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For your specific situation, consult a qualified Ontario employment lawyer. Nothing on partnHR constitutes legal advice - all content is educational and informational only.