Q&A with The Workplace Advisors – October 2025

In this October Workplace Update, Paige McAllister, vice president of compliance at The Workplace Advisors, answers one of the most common HR questions this time of year — who qualifies for paid holidays, and what employers need to know when offering them.

Question: We offer paid holidays to employees. Are we required to pay holidays to all employees?

Answer: In most cases, holiday pay is a benefit employers can offer voluntarily (although a couple of states require certain holidays), which means you can establish any criteria you want as to which employees are eligible as long as you are consistent.

For example, you can offer holiday pay to all employees, only regular employees, and/or only full-time employees while also defining the number of hours to be considered full-time.

You can also decide which holidays you observe and which of those, if any, you will pay for. While many companies observe six common ones (New Year's Day, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas), some companies offer added days such as the Friday after Thanksgiving or the day before or after Christmas (which can differ from year to year depending on when the holidays fall in the week). Other companies observe only one or two holidays a year because their industry (e.g., retail, hospitality, and janitorial) typically expects them to work on holidays.

Some companies expand the benefit by offering flex holidays to allow employees time off for their personal religious, cultural, or lifestyle priorities (i.e., Passover, Kwanzaa, or participating in a cancer walk).

Even if you close the company for a holiday, you do not need to pay non-exempt employees for these holidays, but you can.

Whatever you decide to offer, you should draft a comprehensive policy that includes who is eligible, observed holidays, whether they are paid or unpaid, and whether employees will receive any extra pay for working on an observed holiday.