Are Part-Time Employees Entitled to Holiday Pay?

Introduction

Employers can attract and retain top talent by offering their employees competitive pay and a comprehensive benefits package. This payment package includes paying employees during public holidays, even if they do not work or are prohibited by law from working on those days.

Do part-time employees get holiday pay? The answer depends on factors such as the country where the company is located and the company’s policies.

In many countries, employment laws require employers to provide their employees, whether full-time or part-time, with benefits that include compensation for national holidays and overtime compensation for work that must be performed on those holidays.

In other countries, such as the United States, few labor laws require employers to provide even the most basic benefits aside from a minimum wage and overtime.

For example, in the US, no laws require companies to provide employee benefits such as health insurance, annual leave, or compensation for public holidays. The Fair Labor Standards Act in the United States is a law that requires companies to pay minimum wages and overtime rates for hours worked over 40 hours in a week. This law does not, however, does not require compensation for holidays or any time that the employee did not work.

So, in what circumstances do part-time workers get holiday pay? The employee must be entitled to holiday pay under the law. Globally expanding companies that hire remote employees across the world need to be familiar with the labor laws in each country where they hire their employees.

Every country has a unique set of employment laws that regulate workers' rights and how employers must treat their employees. Depending on the country where your employees reside, your company may be required to offer compensation for national holidays. In many cases, the list of national holidays is included in the text of the labor code. On each of these days, employees may be required to be given a full day of rest and may need to be compensated their usual pay, or some portion of it if the worker is a pieceworker or part-time employee.

Examples of Countries That Offer Holiday Pay for Part-Time Employees

Australia

In Australia, part-time workers, defined as workers who work fewer than 38 hours per week on a fixed contract, get the same entitlements as full-time workers but are paid on a pro-rata basis. This means they have leave entitlements just as full-time workers do, but they receive an amount of leave commensurate to the work they perform. For example, if employees work half the hours a full-time worker does, they will get half the leave.

United Kingdom

As in Australia, part-time employees in the United Kingdom receive similar entitlements to full-time workers but are given partial entitlements calculated on a pro-rata basis. Bank holidays do not have to be given as time off to employees, whether full-time or part-time, but employers may agree to provide compensation in employment contracts.

Canada

In Canada, part-time employees are entitled to the same general holidays as full-time employees. The compensation for these public holidays is adjusted to the number of hours the part-time employee usually works. Employees who must work on public holidays should be paid 150% of their regular wages.

How To Calculate Part-Time Holiday Pay

Holiday pay for part-time employees can be calculated based on the hours an employee works. No federal laws define a part-time worker. The IRS considers any worker who works fewer than 30 hours in one week as a part-time worker.

Companies, except when bound by law to pay employees a certain amount of holiday pay, can set their policies on when and how full-time and part-time employees can be paid on national or regional holidays. They can define what makes a part-time worker and include this definition in employment contracts for those part-time workers.

Employment agreements between employer and employee can include sections that stipulate things like how much an employee is to be paid; how much leave to which the employee is entitled if any; and if public holidays are paid days off, uncompensated days off, or are considered to be regular workdays with regular pay.

Employers in the United States can draft employment contracts that mention which holidays will be observed for American employees. Since there are no laws requiring employees to be given a day off for holidays or provided additional compensation outside of regular overtime rules, employers can choose which holidays will be paid holidays and which will be regular workdays.

If a company has employees in other countries, it will need to abide by the laws specific to that country. One way to calculate a part-time employee’s holiday pay is to take the average hours an employee works for a day and pay that rate. For example, if an employee works four hours per day on average, then a holiday pay at their regular rate would be four hours. If the company chooses or is bound by law to pay overtime rates of 150%, then that employee would be paid the equivalent of six hours for that day.

Conclusion

Do part-time hourly employees get paid holidays? It depends on the company policy and the country where the employees reside. If a country’s employment laws mandate that employees get holiday pay, whether salaried, temporary or intermittent workers, then the company must provide that pay. How they pay the employee, and the rate may also depend on that country’s laws. In some countries, the employee can be paid partial holiday pay if they don’t work full-time.

For employees residing in some countries, such as the United States, there may be no nationally mandated holiday pay. In those cases, companies may offer holiday pay as a perk or supplemental benefit and include benefits such as holiday pay in employment contracts.

Even though a country may not mandate a minimum amount of statutory benefits to employees, an employer may want to offer a comprehensive and competitive benefits package regardless of the lack of a national mandate to attract and retain top talented employees.

Companies may set their policies to include holiday pay for their employees, including their part-time employees. Holiday pay for part-time employees can be calculated in different ways, including based on the percentage of time the employee works each day.

Hire Full-Time or Part-Time Employees With Skuad

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The employer of record can:

• Hire employees and draft legally compliant contracts
• Onboard the new hires and complete their paperwork
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• Make sure there is labor law compliance
• Provide benefits to employees, including holiday pay

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