Are Employers Required to Offer Public Holiday Pay?


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The holiday season is in full force, with piles of turkeys in the grocery stores and Christmas trees on display everywhere you look. Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day are all federal holidays, which means that you might have questions about how employee pay works for these days.

Mark Rowley, Owner
RandR Payroll Services

Company Pay Guidelines

Most states, including California, don’t require that employees are paid holiday pay when the business closes for the official holiday. If an employee works on the holiday, then the standard rate of pay is provided unless the employer has a holiday pay policy. Employment law requirements are in full effect 365 days a year when it comes to overtime pay, such as when the employee works over 8 hours in a workday or 40 hours in a week.

Even though there are no government regulations requiring holiday pay, many companies choose to offer this benefit. Each employer has the discretion to choose the company policy for holiday pay. This information should be shared in the employee handbook. The most common holiday pay practices include time and a half or double-time pay if employees work on a holiday.

Calculating Payroll for the Holidays

Whether or not you offer holiday pay for your employees, it is essential that you have a good payroll system in place to manage the calculations that are needed for payroll processing. The right software program will manage the adjusted calculations when hours are logged on the recognized holidays.

Some employers choose to handle payment calculations in-house. The easiest solution is to enlist the services of an experienced payroll processing company. These services ensure that the payroll calculations are correct. As a business owner, you can rest assured to know that paychecks are accurate and your employees are receiving timely payments. Outsourcing payroll processing will free up your time so that you can focus on other essential tasks for your business.

At R&R Payroll & Bookkeeping Services, we understand the challenges that are faced with payroll processing. If you have questions or need support with your payroll calculations, then we encourage you to contact our team for more information. Call to learn more about the services that are available: (951) 296-0412.