Many workers believe that they are automatically entitled to take paid time off work on holidays. This, however, is an incorrect assumption. Most employees in California are given time off work on holidays, but employers do not legally have to give you this time off.

If your employer does agree to give you this time off, they do not have to pay you. Though in reality, many employees are paid for time taken off for public holidays, and indeed many businesses shut down completely on these days.

This article looks at how to find out whether you are entitled to take time off holidays and, if so whether you will be paid for this time off and whether there is a maximum amount of statutory holiday time that you, as an employee, are entitled to.

California does not have to provide Thanksgiving off

All the employers should have to provide holidays that are religious to their employees who may include: Christmas, Independence Day, and also New Year day. It is major for the employers to observe their religious beliefs. However, it is not the duty of the employer to give some extra payment as thanks for the work you are doing on regular unobserved holidays.

No extra payment for work done on federal holidays

Under the laws of California, it is not the duty of your employer to pay you anything extra for the work that you do on federal holidays. What you are entitled to is the payment for working your eight hours, any overtime after 8 hours in a day and also over forty hours in a work week. You may be lucky if your employer has an agreement with employees that they should be paid extra in such situations.

Your contract of employment will stipulate what your holiday entitlement is and whether you are, as part of your terms and conditions of employment, permitted to take time off on holidays.
Employers should give accommodations for religious reasons

In some situations, employees may not be able to work on special federal holidays for religious reasons. In such cases, the employer must give the necessary accommodations for their employees for their individual religious observances. Such accommodations should be critically analyzed for specific cases by the type of the business and the accommodation itself

In some, situations, the government occasionally grants an additional bank or public holiday to celebrate a special occasion (such as the Royal Wedding for UK workers.) If your employment contract is not providing you with the information you need with regards to your right to take time off on holidays, you should speak to your human resources manager for clarification.

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Although both the state and federal laws recognize ten holidays in the United States, workers are not guaranteed to be given days off or even get extra pay for working. Many businesses such as gas stations, restaurants, movie theaters, stores, manufacturers, and distributors remain open on holidays, and thus workers are required.

Working on recognized holidays raise several disturbing questions among California employers, such as:

• Is it mandatory to get holiday time off? 

No. There is no law in California requiring private companies to close their business on any specific days in order to provide days off to the employees. However, an employment policy or a collective bargaining agreement can grant certain holidays benefits, including a paid unpaid time off.

Besides, many employees tend to either close their business or allow some employees to have the day off during some these holidays. But the law recognizes the need of one day rest in seven working days, and you should get overtime pay in the case that you work with more than six days in a row.

• Is the employer required to pay for time off during holidays, or pay additional wages to employees who work on holidays?

The law does not mandate California employers to give any special rate of pay to work completed on holidays, nor does it require them to pay for the time off. However, most private employers voluntarily agree to provide extra wages to employees for working on holidays as well as paid time off for certain holidays with the aim of boosting employee morale.

But again, only a CBA or employee policy can govern such terms since California statute does not mandate them. Therefore, it is important for both employees and employers to ensure that holiday pay policies are set forth clearly.

• Is the calculation of overtime affected by a holiday pay?

When determining the overtime worked in a week, the employer will not include the holiday pay for a time off in determining the pay rate because it not a payment for hours worked. For instance, if a business is closed on a Monday holiday and then the employees go on to work from Tuesday through Saturday, eight hours each day, they should expect the standard time rate to apply when getting paid for the work.

In this case, the employer may decide to pay for the day off, thus paying for 48 hours in that week. As a result, employees may be tempted to think that the employer should pay the extra eight hours at the overtime rate. However, the employer is required to determine the overtime pay based on hours worked rather than the pay received.

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