Human Resource Blog

Ohio Holiday Pay

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	Compensation
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In Ohio, 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?

The decision to offer paid holidays or to pay a premium rate for working on holidays will be determined entirely by company policy.

Workers are not entitled by law to additional pay for working on holidays. No federal or Ohio law demands that employers pay a premium, or even for weekends or nights. No state or federal law requires an employer to offer time off on holidays.

Wages paid for work on a holiday are not generally referred to as “holiday pay.” In the Human Resources field, the term is generally used for the extra pay a worker will get when he or she is off, not working, on a holiday.

Typically, companies pay each employee for 8 hours of time not worked. It is almost always at the regular rate, not at an overtime rate. Some employers do offer premiums, and union contracts sometimes require them. Usually they are at “time-and-a-half.”

Assume that employee Susan worked 47 hours in a week that had a holiday. She would generally be entitled to 40 hours of regular time, 7 hours of overtime, and 8 hours of holiday pay (at the regular rate), for a total of 48 hours of regular-rate time and 7 hours of overtime. If her company offered a premium for holiday work, and if Thursday was a holiday, Susan would be entitled to 30 hours of regular-rate pay, 10 hours of holiday rate, and 7 hours of overtime rate. Since the holiday rate and the overtime rate are both “time-and-a-half,” she would be entitled to 17 hours of pay at the “time-and-a-half” rate.

Now assume that John is off on New Year’s Day, a paid holiday. Despite taking New Year’s off, John put in 40 hours of work. He would get 40 hours of pay at the regular rate and another 8 hours of “holiday pay,” which at his company is the regular rate. He gets 48 hours of pay at the standard rate. Because holiday pay is for hours that an employee does not work, it may legitimately always be at the regular rate. JH