Ontario's 9 Public Holidays and How Public Holiday Pay Is Calculated
Last updated October 22, 2026
This page summarizes the province's guide to the Employment Standards Act (ESA): Public holidays. Confirm details there for your situation. This is general information, not legal advice.
The nine public holidays
- New Year's Day
- Family Day
- Good Friday
- Victoria Day
- Canada Day
- Labour Day
- Thanksgiving Day
- Christmas Day
- Boxing Day (December 26)
How public holiday pay is calculated
Public holiday pay is the regular wages the employee earned in the four work weeks before the work week that contains the holiday, plus any vacation pay payable for those weeks, divided by 20. Regular wages do not include overtime pay, vacation pay, public holiday pay, premium pay, or termination or severance pay.
Who qualifies
Full-time, part-time, permanent and term-contract employees can all qualify, however recently they were hired. An employee does not qualify if, without reasonable cause, they:
- miss their last regularly scheduled workday before the holiday or their first regularly scheduled workday after it (the "last and first" rule), or
- agreed or were required to work on the holiday and do not work the entire shift.
The province describes reasonable cause as something beyond the employee's control that prevented them from working.
Related guides
- Ontario minimum wage from October 1, 2026
- Ontario Employer Health Tax: the $1 million exemption
- Planning payroll? Put wages and holiday costs into a cash-flow model: the Canadian Startup Funding Kit ($39) has one.
Not legal advice. K.M.E. Incorporated is independent and not affiliated with the Government of Ontario.
KAE MOB ENTERTAINMENT INC., operating as K.M.E. Incorporated · Ontario corporation · CRA business number 753923143RC0001 · Mailing address: 22 John St, Toronto, ON M9N 2B3, Canada · Email: kmeinchq@gmail.com