Holiday Pay Act

Key Points

• This bill would require employers to pay workers at least one and a half times their regular rate for any work performed on a federal holiday. It amends the Fair Labor Standards Act to create a new mandatory holiday pay requirement that currently does not exist in federal law.
• The covered holidays are the 11 federal public holidays listed in existing law, including New Year's Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day, and others. The bill defines a legal public holiday by referencing the same list used for federal government employees.
• Holiday pay is treated separately from overtime pay. If a worker earns time and a half for a holiday, that extra pay does not count toward their overtime calculation, so workers can still earn overtime on top of holiday pay in weeks when they exceed 40 hours.
• States and cities can still set even higher holiday pay requirements. The bill preserves the right of state and local governments to require better compensation than the federal minimum for holiday work.
• Workers would be able to sue for unpaid holiday pay just like they can for unpaid wages or overtime. The bill adds legal public holiday compensation to the enforcement and penalties sections of the Fair Labor Standards Act, giving workers a clear path to recover pay they are owed.