Human Resource Blog

North Carolina Holiday Pay

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In North Carolina, are employers required to offer paid holidays? Does time worked on a holiday count as part of the regular workweek for overtime purposes? Are employees who work on a holiday entitled to a higher rate of pay?

There are some companies that pay a premium to employees who work on holidays. Union contracts often require that premiums be paid. Frequently these are “time-and-a-half.” Many employers offer 5 to 7 paid holidays yearly. All of these are optional, however, because no federal or North Carolina law requires employers to pay special rates on holidays or to give employees paid holidays. Employee handbooks usually detail a company’s policy.

The term “holiday pay” is used in the Human Resources field to mean the extra pay a worker gets when she or he is off because of a holiday. In most cases, an employer will give pay a worker for 8 hours more of work than he or she performed, and it is almost always at the regular, not the overtime, rate.

Laws about overtime pay do factor into the equation, however. North Carolina and federal law both require employers to pay a worker overtime for any hours worked more than 40 a week.

Suppose Susan worked 47 hours in a week that included a holiday. She would in most companies receive 40 hours of regular time, 7 hours of overtime, and 8 hours of holiday pay at the normal rate. Because she actually worked more than 40 hours, she must be paid for the 7 hours of extra work. Time worked on the holiday counts as part of the regular workweek. If the company paid a “time-and-a-half” premium for working on a holiday, she would get 30 hours at the regular rate, 10 hours at holiday rate, and 7 hours at the overtime rate.

On the other hand, assume that John is off on New Year’s Day. At his company, it is a paid holiday. Not counting the holiday, John actually worked 40 hours that week. He would receive 40 hours for the time he worked (at the regular rate) plus 8 hours of holiday pay (also at the regular rate) for a total of 48 regular-rate hours. Because holiday pay is for hours that the employee did not actually work, it may be at the regular rate. JH