Holiday Pay Calculator
Enter your hourly rate, holiday hours, and premium multiplier to see holiday pay, regular pay, and total gross in seconds.
Holiday Pay Calculator
Hourly Rate
Hours Worked on the Holiday
Holiday Pay Rate
Other Regular Hours This Week
Non-holiday hours paid at your base rate. Used for total gross and the overtime note.
Heads up: your worked hours top 40 this week, so hours over 40 may be owed FLSA overtime regardless of holiday policy. Check the Overtime Pay Calculator.
Annual premium assumes 11 federal holidays at the same hours and rate. Gross pay before taxes. Download the app to see your actual take-home.
Track Every Holiday Shift Automatically
No more guessing at your take-home. ClockWage44 logs shifts across multiple jobs and turns federal tax, state tax, FICA, and deductions into your real pay.
How to Calculate Holiday Pay
The math is one formula: hourly rate × multiplier × holiday hours. The multiplier is whatever premium your employer pays for working a holiday. At $20/hr working 8 hours at time-and-a-half (1.5x), that's $20 × 1.5 × 8 = $240 for the day.
Swap in double-time (2x) and the same shift pays $20 × 2 × 8 = $320. The multiplier is the only thing that moves, so on an 8-hour shift at $20/hr, double-time beats time-and-a-half by $80. The effective holiday rate (hourly rate × multiplier) tells you what each hour is actually worth: $30/hr at 1.5x, $40/hr at 2x.
Is Holiday Pay Required by Law?
Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), private-sector employers are not required to pay a premium rate (time-and-a-half or double-time) for working on a holiday, and they are not required to pay for holidays you take off. Holiday premium pay is a matter of employer policy, a contract, or in some cases state law.
There's one federal trigger worth knowing. If your holiday hours push your worked total over 40 in the workweek, the hours past 40 fall under FLSA overtime rules. In that case the premium is owed because of overtime, not because it was a holiday. So treat the numbers here as an estimate of what a policy would pay, not a legal entitlement.
Time and a Half vs. Double Time
Time and a half (1.5x) is the more common holiday premium and the same rate the FLSA sets for overtime. Double-time (2x) is rarer in the private sector and usually shows up for major holidays like Thanksgiving or Christmas, for long shifts, or where a union contract or state law requires it.
The multiplier is what moves your take-home. Straight-time (1x) means no premium at all: your holiday pay matches your regular-rate pay and the annual holiday premium comes out to $0. Use the Custom chip if your employer pays an odd rate like 1.25x or 2.5x. To see how these same multipliers play out once you cross 40 hours, check the Overtime Pay Calculator.
Track Every Holiday Shift Automatically with ClockWage44
This calculator covers one shift at a time. ClockWage44 covers the rest: log shifts across as many jobs as you want, set per-job overtime multipliers, and watch holiday hours feed straight into a full paycheck breakdown. Federal tax, state tax, FICA, and deductions all resolve into an on-device take-home figure, so a holiday shift turns into real pay you can plan around.
These figures are estimates only and not tax or legal advice. Holiday premium pay depends on your employer's policy, your contract, and your state law. Check those before relying on any number here.
Frequently Asked Questions
Common questions about holiday pay calculator
Is holiday pay required by law?
No. Under the federal Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), private employers don't have to pay for time off on a holiday or to pay a premium for working one. Holiday pay comes down to employer policy, a contract, or in some cases state law. The only federal trigger is the 40-hour overtime rule.
How is holiday pay calculated?
Multiply your hourly rate by the premium multiplier your employer offers, then by the hours you worked on the holiday: rate × multiplier × hours. At $20/hr working 8 hours at time-and-a-half, that's $20 × 1.5 × 8 = $240.
What is time and a half?
Time and a half is a pay rate equal to 1.5× your regular hourly wage. If you earn $20/hr, time and a half is $30/hr. See the Overtime Pay Calculator (/tools/overtime-calculator/) for how the same rate applies past 40 hours in a workweek.
What is double-time pay?
Double-time is a pay rate equal to 2× your regular hourly wage, so $20/hr becomes $40/hr. It is voluntary for private employers unless required by a contract or state law.
Do salaried employees get holiday pay?
Salaried (exempt) employees usually get their full regular salary whether or not a holiday lands in the pay period. Extra pay for actually working a holiday is up to the employer.
Which holidays do employers usually pay extra for?
The usual suspects are New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. Which holidays get paid, and at what premium, is up to each employer.
Does holiday pay count toward overtime?
Hours actually worked over 40 in a workweek must be paid FLSA overtime. Paid-but-not-worked holiday hours generally do not count toward the 40-hour overtime threshold. If your worked hours top 40, check the Overtime Pay Calculator (/tools/overtime-calculator/).
How many federal holidays are there?
There are 11 U.S. federal holidays, which is the default this calculator uses to estimate an annual holiday premium (the extra you earn above straight time across a typical year of holidays).