Are you in compliance with Public Holiday Pay?

Are you in compliance with Public Holiday Pay?

Canada Day is finally upon us – the unofficial start to summer! Canada Day is one of the nine (9) public holidays in Ontario: most employees are entitled to the day off with pay.

Surprisingly, employer non-compliance with public holidays and public holiday pay is one of the top 5 complaints made to the Ministry of Labour and was the top employment standards violation discovered during Ministry inspections last year! Make sure your workplace complies by observing the following for public holidays…

Public Holiday Pay
As mentioned, most employees are entitled to the Canada Day holiday as a non-working day-off with public holiday pay. Public holiday pay is calculated as the regular wages (inclusive of vacation pay, but exclusive of overtime or premium pay) earned by an employee in the four workweeks before the week with the public holiday, divided by 20. For example, if an employee earns $1,000.00 per week, the employee would be entitled to public holiday pay on Canada Day of $200.00 (essentially, a regular day of paid work).

Substitute Holiday
Not everyone has the fortune of taking Canada Day off. In many workplaces, Canada Day is simply another working day for some or all of their employees. If an employee is needed to work on Canada Day, the employer and employee can agree in writing for the employee to work the public holiday. The employee is entitled to receive:

• public holiday pay plus premium pay for the hours worked on Canada Day (premium pay is 1½ times the employee’s regular rate of pay); or
• regular pay on Canada Day, plus another day-off (called a “substitute” holiday) with public holiday pay.

Employers should remember that part-time employees are entitled to public holiday pay on Canada Day too – even if the Canada Day holiday is not one of the employee’s regular scheduled work days. An employee qualifies for the public holiday entitlements if she works her first and last regularly scheduled day of work before and after the Canada Day holiday. For example, if an employee is scheduled to work Monday to Wednesday, and the employee works her shift on Wednesday June 29^th and returns to work for the following week’s schedule on Monday July 4^th, then the employee would be entitled to public holiday pay on Friday July 1^st or a substitute holiday.

For more information about public holidays, visit the Ministry of Labour’s website here.

I wish you a restful, enjoyable, and safe Canada Day holiday and long weekend!! 😊