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Holiday pay calculator
Working the holiday everyone else has off? Enter your rate and hours, pick time-and-a-half or double time, and see the real number — with your night differential stacked in, because holiday premiums apply to your loaded rate.
Overnight shift? Most policies pay the premium only for hours actually on the holiday date — split your hours accordingly.
How it works — Thanksgiving night, priced
Start with the calculator's defaults plus a night differential: $28.00/hr base, $4.00/hr differential, 12 hours on the holiday, time and a half. First the loaded rate: $28.00 + $4.00 = $32.00/hr. Then the multiplier: $32.00 × 1.5 = $48.00/hr. Twelve hours at that rate is $576.00, of which $384.00 is what the shift would have paid on any other night and $192.00 is the holiday premium — the reason to pick up the shift.
Switch to double time and the loaded rate doubles: $32.00 × 2 = $64.00/hr, $768.00 for the shift, $384.00 of it premium.
Order of operations matters. Multiplying the base first and adding the differential flat — ($28.00 × 1.5) + $4.00 = $46.00/hr — gives $552.00 for the same shift, $24.00 less. This calculator and the ShiftCheck app stack the multiplier on the loaded rate, which is how most healthcare and union policies read; if yours multiplies the base only, enter 0 for the differential and add it back separately.
Overnight shifts split at midnight. A 6 PM–6 AM shift that starts on the eve puts only the 6 hours after midnight on the holiday date, so the premium is $96.00 rather than $192.00; the shift that starts on the holiday evening earns the premium on its first 6 hours instead. Some employers define the holiday as the whole shift that starts on the date, which moves the entire $192.00 to one shift or the other — check which rule your policy uses before you trade.
Holidays and overtime are separate premiums that interact. The 12 hours count toward your 40 for the week, so a holiday inside a 48-hour week still produces 8 overtime hours on the differential-included rate. Under 29 CFR 778.203, though, premium pay of 1.5× or more for holiday work may be credited against overtime owed, so many policies pay the higher of the two on a given hour rather than both. Who actually gets time-and-a-half, and how the midnight split plays out on Christmas Eve, is in the holiday pay guide; price the rest of the week in the overtime pay calculator.
FAQ
Which holidays get premium pay?
Whichever ones your employer's policy or union contract lists; no federal law names any. Most lists draw from the 11 federal holidays: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day, Memorial Day, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Hospitals and 24/7 operations typically pay premiums on six to eight of them, and some add Christmas Eve, New Year's Eve, or Easter.
Is holiday pay time and a half or double time?
It varies by employer. Time and a half (1.5×) is the most common premium for working a designated holiday. Double time (2×) is common in union contracts and in healthcare, often reserved for Thanksgiving and Christmas or for holidays that fall on a scheduled day off. Some policies pay 1.5× plus a paid holiday, which totals 2.5× in cash and time. Read the policy's exact multiplier and which hours it covers.
Does holiday premium stack with night differential?
Usually, yes. Most healthcare and union policies apply the holiday multiplier to your loaded rate — base plus differential — so a $28 base with a $4 night differential at 1.5× pays $48.00 an hour, not $46.00. That is how this calculator and the ShiftCheck app stack it. A minority of policies multiply the base only and add the differential flat; if yours does, set the differential to 0 and add it back separately.
Do I get holiday pay if the holiday is my day off?
That depends on whether your employer offers paid holidays, holiday premiums, or both. A paid holiday is straight-time pay (often 8 hours) for a holiday you do not work, usually only if it lands on a scheduled workday. A holiday premium is extra pay for hours actually worked on the date. Shift workers on 24/7 rotations often get a floating holiday or a holiday bank instead, so a holiday on your off day is not simply lost.
Does a holiday shift count toward overtime?
Hours you actually work on a holiday count toward the 40-hour overtime threshold like any other hours. Paid-holiday hours you did not work do not count under the FLSA, though some contracts count them. One wrinkle in 29 CFR 778.203: premium pay of at least 1.5× for holiday work can be excluded from the regular rate and credited against overtime owed, so a policy may not pay both premiums on the same hour.
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Holiday premiums, applied to the right hours automatically.
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