Ontario Statutory Holidays: The 9 Holidays, Premium Pay, and the Last and First Rule

Ontario has 9 statutory public holidays under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA): New Year's Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day. Three days many employees assume are included, the Civic Holiday, Easter Monday, and Remembrance Day, are not required by the ESA at all.

Information last verified on 2026-09-24. This article has not yet been reviewed by a licensed lawyer.

This article addresses Ontario's public holiday rules for employees covered by the province's Employment Standards Act, 2000, SO 2000, c 41 (ESA). It does not cover federally regulated employees, such as those at banks, telecommunications companies, or interprovincial transportation companies, who fall under the Canada Labour Code instead; see Federally Regulated Employees in Canada for that separate regime. It also does not cover how public holidays work in Canada's other provinces and territories, which differ in count and structure; see the Statutory Holidays in Canada hub for the full jurisdiction-by-jurisdiction picture. For Ontario's separate vacation time and vacation pay rules, see Vacation Pay in Ontario.

The 9 Statutory Public Holidays in Ontario

The Ministry of Labour's guide to the ESA states it directly:

"Ontario has nine public holidays: New Year's Day / Family Day / Good Friday / Victoria Day / Canada Day / Labour Day / Thanksgiving Day / Christmas Day / Boxing Day (December 26)."

This is Ontario's own list. It is not the same list as every other province, and Boxing Day is a notable example: it is statutory here but not in several other provinces. For the full comparison, see the statutory holidays hub.

Not Statutory: Civic Holiday, Easter Monday, and Remembrance Day

This is the confusion this article exists to clear up. The Ministry of Labour's guide says so plainly:

"While some employers give their employees a holiday on Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, the first Monday in August, or Remembrance Day, the employer is not required to do so under the ESA."

So in Ontario, none of the following are ESA-mandated public holidays:

• Easter Sunday
• Easter Monday
• The Civic Holiday, sometimes called the August long weekend or Simcoe Day (the first Monday in August)
• Remembrance Day

If your employer closes for one of these days, or pays you for it, that is a benefit the employer chose to provide, whether through a company policy, an employment contract, or a collective agreement. It is not something the ESA requires, and there is no statutory premium pay tied to working on any of these days, because they are not public holidays under the Act.

Qualifying for Public Holiday Pay: The Last and First Rule

Ontario does not use a minimum length of service to decide who qualifies for public holiday pay. Instead, the ESA guide describes what is commonly called the Last and First Rule:

"Generally, employees qualify for the public holiday entitlement unless they: fail without reasonable cause to work all of their last regularly scheduled day of work before the public holiday or all of their first regularly scheduled day of work after the public holiday (this is called the 'Last and First Rule'); or fail without reasonable cause to work their entire shift on the public holiday if they agreed to or were required to work that day."

There is no tenure test attached to this rule:

"Qualified employees can be full time, part time, permanent or on term contract. It does not matter how recently they were hired, or how many days they worked before the public holiday."

An employee who fails to qualify under this rule still receives premium pay for any hours actually worked on the holiday itself. What is lost is the broader holiday-pay or substitute-day entitlement, not payment for hours worked.

Working on the Holiday: Premium Pay or a Substitute Day

Most qualified employees simply take the public holiday off and receive public holiday pay for it. If you agree to work instead, the ESA guide describes two different ways that can be structured:

"Most employees who qualify are entitled to take these days off work and be paid public holiday pay. Alternatively, the employee can agree electronically or in writing to work on the holiday and be paid: public holiday pay plus premium pay for all hours worked on the public holiday and not receive another day off (called a 'substitute' holiday); or be paid their regular wages for all hours worked on the public holiday and receive another substitute holiday for which they must be paid public holiday pay."

In plain terms, working the holiday leads to one of two outcomes. Under ESA s.27(2), outcome 2 is the default, and outcome 1 applies only if you and your employer agree to it:

1. Public holiday pay for the day, plus premium pay for every hour actually worked, with no day off in lieu; or
2. Your regular wages for the hours worked, plus a separate substitute day off later, itself paid at public holiday pay.

A substitute day must fall no more than three months after the public holiday, or no more than 12 months after it if you and your employer agree, and your employer must give you a written statement before the holiday setting out the holiday you will work and the substitute date (ESA s.27(2.1) and (3)).

In a hospital, a continuous operation, or a hotel, motel, tourist resort, restaurant or tavern, the employer may require an employee to work a public holiday that is ordinarily a working day for them and is not a vacation day. In that case the employer must provide one of the same two outcomes (ESA s.28(1) and (2)).

What Premium Pay Actually Means

The Employment Standards Act, 2000 spells out the multiplier. Section 1(1) defines the term:

"'premium pay' means an employee's entitlement for working on a public holiday as described in subsection 24 (2)."

Section 24(2) sets the rate:

"An employer who is required under this Part to pay premium pay to an employee shall pay the employee at least one and one half times his or her regular rate."

So premium pay in Ontario is a floor of one and one half times your regular rate for each hour worked on the holiday. Under the first working-the-holiday arrangement above it is paid on top of public holiday pay; under the second, you receive regular wages for the hours worked plus a substitute day instead.

How Public Holiday Pay Is Calculated

Public holiday pay is not simply a normal day's wages. It is a four-week average, set out in the ESA guide:

"The amount of public holiday pay to which an employee is entitled is all of the regular wages earned by the employee in the four work weeks before the work week with the public holiday plus all of the vacation pay payable to the employee with respect to the four work weeks before the work week with the public holiday, divided by 20."

For this formula, "regular wages" has a specific, narrower meaning:

"Regular wages does not include any overtime pay, vacation pay, public holiday pay, premium pay, domestic or sexual violence leave pay, termination pay, severance pay or termination of assignment pay payable to an employee."

So the calculation is: (regular wages earned in the 4 work weeks before the work week containing the holiday, plus vacation pay payable for that same 4-week period) divided by 20. Someone with irregular hours or a recent change in schedule will see that reflected in the four-week window, rather than in a single day's rate.

Retail Workers' Right to Refuse Holiday Work

Ontario gives most retail employees an added protection that other sectors do not have. The ESA guide states:

"Most employees of a retail business have the right to refuse to work on a public holiday even if the employee does not qualify for the public holiday. If an employee has agreed electronically or in writing to work on a public holiday, the employee can later decline to work on that day by giving the employer at least 48 hours' notice before the employee's work on the public holiday was to begin."

This right is separate from Ontario's Sunday-work refusal rules, which turn on when the employee was hired relative to September 4, 2001; the two are different rights and should not be confused.

Not every retail business is covered. The guide lists exclusions:

"Retail businesses are excluded from these provisions if their main business is to: sell prepared meals (e.g., restaurants, cafeterias, cafes); rent living accommodations (e.g., hotels, tourist resorts, camps, inns); provide educational, recreational or amusement services to the public (e.g., museums, art galleries, sports stadiums, theatres, bars, nightclubs); sell goods and services that are secondary to the businesses described above and are located on the same premises."

If your workplace falls into one of those categories, the general public-holiday-refusal right for retail does not apply to you, though the Last and First Rule and premium pay rules above still do.

If You Think Your Employer Got It Wrong

The ESA's public holiday rules in Part X of the Act are mandatory minimums, not suggestions an employer can opt out of. If you believe you were denied public holiday pay, premium pay, or a substitute day you were owed, Ontario's Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development is the government body responsible for the ESA. Under ESA s.96(1), a person alleging a contravention may file a complaint with the Ministry in a written or electronic form approved by the Director. Under s.96(3), a complaint about a contravention that occurred more than two years before the complaint was filed is deemed not to have been filed.

For the province's general employment standards, including hours of work and overtime that interact with a public holiday shift, see Employment Standards in Canada and Overtime and Hours of Work in Canada.

Disclaimer: This article provides general information about Ontario's public holiday rules under the Employment Standards Act, 2000, SO 2000, c 41, based on the Ontario Ministry of Labour, Immigration, Training and Skills Development's published guide to the Act (footer-dated July 8, 2024) and the ESA's own text, current as of September 2026. It is not legal advice. It does not cover federally regulated employees or other provinces and territories. Consult Ontario's Ministry of Labour or a lawyer licensed in Ontario for advice on your specific situation.