Human Resource Blog

4th of July

If 4th of July falls on Sunday do i have to give by law a day off to replace to my worker.

Thanks

No, there is no law that would require you to give an employee July 4 off, or another day off if they work on July 4.

This is a matter of company policy rather than employment law. There is no law in most states that you must give employees any holidays at all, paid or unpaid (unless you are in Rhode Island.) An employer can choose to give paid holidays to workers, or to not give paid holidays to workers. If the employer chooses to give paid holidays to workers, the employer determines which days will be considered holidays. You could make Groundhog Day or International Pickle Day a holiday and not the Fourth of July, if you wanted to.

If you do offer paid holidays, there is no law that you must give an employee another day off if the employee worked on July 4. Some employers would do so, others would not. Many, many employers including hospitals, hotels, gas stations, fire departments and police departments have employees working on July 4 and every other day of the year.

You do need to have a consistent policy, and to enforce it. Treating some employees better than others could result in illegal discrimination. But as long as you treat all the employees the same, you need not give one who works on the holiday any special benefit.