Public holiday pay (statutory holiday pay)

Public holiday pay is what you owe employees for a paid public holiday. Canada's provinces set between 6 and 11 of these days, each with its own pay rules.

Also called: statutory holiday pay, stat holiday pay, general holiday pay, holiday pay

What public holiday pay means

Public holiday pay (often called stat pay) is the pay an employee gets for a paid public holiday, such as Canada Day. Depending on the province, the law may call these days statutory holidays, general holidays or public holidays.

The number of paid holidays is set by each province and territory, and by the Canada Labour Code for federally regulated employers. It ranges from 6 in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador to 11 in British Columbia, the three territories, and 10 federally.

Holiday pay matters because it applies to most of your staff, several times a year, and the rules for someone who works on the holiday are different from the rules for someone who gets the day off.

How it works

Each province sets three things. First, which days are paid holidays. Second, who qualifies, for example by having worked for you for a minimum period or having worked their scheduled shifts around the holiday. Third, how to calculate the pay, often as an average of the employee's recent daily earnings rather than one fixed day's pay.

If the employee has the day off, they get holiday pay for a day they did not work. If they work on the holiday, the rules change: depending on the province, you may owe a premium rate, a substitute day off with holiday pay, or both. Read the formula on your province's page before the holiday.

Part-time and casual employees can qualify too. Do not assume someone is excluded because they work irregular hours; check the qualifying rule.

Common mistakes: using the wrong list of holidays (for example, counting a day that is a holiday in a neighbouring province), paying a flat 8 hours to everyone regardless of the formula, and forgetting the holiday when it falls on an employee's regular day off.

Public holiday pay by province

The number of paid public holidays in each jurisdiction, checked against official government sources on 7 October 2026. Which days they are, and the pay formula, differ.

Where the work is done	The rule
Federal	10 paid holidays.
British Columbia	11 paid holidays.
Alberta	9 paid holidays.
Saskatchewan	10 paid holidays. An employee who reports on a holiday gets the greater of reporting for duty pay or pay for the hours worked at the holiday rate.
Manitoba	9 paid holidays.
Ontario	9 paid holidays.
Quebec	8 paid holidays.
New Brunswick	8 paid holidays.
Nova Scotia	6 paid holidays.
Prince Edward Island	8 paid holidays.
Newfoundland and Labrador	6 paid holidays.
Yukon	11 paid holidays.
Northwest Territories	11 paid holidays.
Nunavut	11 paid holidays.

Qualifying rules and pay formulas are set out on each province's employment standards page; we have not listed them here.

Example: Canada Day at a Saskatoon garden shop

Ines runs an 8-person garden shop in Saskatoon. Canada Day (1 July) is one of Saskatchewan's 10 paid holidays. Before the long weekend she checks the province's holiday pay formula and which of her part-time staff qualify.

Two employees work a short shift on 1 July because of a big order. Ines pays each of them the greater of Saskatchewan's reporting for duty pay or their hours worked at the holiday rate, and the employees who had the day off get their holiday pay as normal.

Employment standards by province

Staffkin's free employment standards by province page lists the number of paid public holidays, along with overtime and vacation minimums, for every province and territory.

See the rules by province

Free tools and guides for this

Questions about public holiday pay

How many statutory holidays are there in Canada?

It depends on where you are: from 6 in Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador to 11 in British Columbia and the territories. Federally regulated employers give 10.

Do part-time employees get stat holiday pay?

They can. Whether a part-time employee qualifies depends on your province's qualifying rules, not on whether they are part-time.

Is holiday pay the same as vacation pay?

No. Holiday pay is for public holidays. Vacation pay is a percentage of wages owed for vacation time. They are calculated separately.

Official sources

General information for Canadian employers, not legal advice. Rules differ by province and territory and change over time, so check with your provincial employment standards office (or the federal Labour Program if you are federally regulated) before you rely on it. See employment standards by province.

Checked against official sources on 4 November 2026.