Overtime and Holiday Pay Calculators

For employees and business owners, holiday pay requirements can be very confusing. This is especially true if the holiday requires employees to work overtime.
 
Under United States law, there are numerous requirements about the ways that workers are paid for overtime work. To remain compliant, businesses should understand and adhere to overtime and holiday pay obligations. 
 
Employees and business owners who have questions about payment requirements often use overtime and holiday pay calculators.
 
If you are uncertain as to whether your hours have been calculated and paid appropriately, it can be helpful to contact a skilled legal professional. A knowledgeable attorney will thoroughly examine the facts of your case.
 
When your employer has not paid you in accordance with legal requirements, it is important to secure legal representation as soon as possible. Waiting can result in a weaker case and prevent you from recovering the money that you are owed.
 
At Morgan & Morgan, we fight hard for the best interests of our clients. Because of this, we offer a no-cost case evaluation to help you determine the strength of your claim. Complete our easy-to-use contact form online to schedule your free consultation today. 

How Does U.S. Law Handle Federal Holidays? 

There are numerous holidays observed in the United States. Holidays are usually days that are set aside for remembrance or celebration. There are religious, civil, and cultural holidays.
 
Those holidays that are acknowledged and observed by the United States government are known as “federal holidays.” Most public offices are closed on federal holidays.
 
Private small businesses are not required to close on federal holidays. They have the option of doing business on these days. 
 
According to U.S. law, businesses that close on these days do not have to provide their employees with paid time off. Businesses that stay open are not required to offer their workers a higher hourly rate than they normally do. 
 
Many companies and businesses treat federal holidays as regular workdays. These businesses provide normal pay to their employees during these days.
 
The following holidays are observed by the U.S. government:

• New Year’s Day
• Martin Luther King, Jr.’s birthday
• Presidents Day
• Memorial Day
• Juneteenth 
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Indigenous People’s Day
• Veterans Day
• Thanksgiving
• Christmas Day

When a federal holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, public offices are usually closed on the closest weekday. To use an overtime and holiday pay calculator, it is important to understand the federal holiday policy of the business in question.

The question of which holidays will result in paid time off is often determined by individual employers or businesses.
 
If you have questions about the legality of a specific business’s payment practices, contact a skilled legal professional. 

Are Employers Required to Provide Time Off for Religious Holidays? 

If more than one employee asks for a certain religious holiday off, the employer is required to accommodate the request if possible. Businesses must respond to these requests in a nondiscriminatory and consistent manner.
 
This requirement is imposed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). However, employers do not have to accommodate these appeals if it will present a hardship to their company.

What Constitutes “Holiday Pay”?  

As with many issues surrounding employee payment, businesses are given plenty of discretion. There is no federal mandate that specifies how much employees should earn if they work on a holiday.
 
Working on a holiday is not necessarily considered to be a form of overtime. The law treats federal holidays like normal business days. 
 
But if a worker’s hourly schedule meets certain criteria, the law requires employers to pay them an overtime rate. Some businesses are open longer during the holiday months, for example. 
 
This sometimes results in longer work schedules for employees. If this happens, within certain parameters, businesses must pay their workers more per hour.
 
It can be difficult to determine the amount that employees are owed when business hours fluctuate. Many workers and employers turn to overtime and holiday pay calculators to determine an appropriate rate.  

Overtime and Holiday Pay Calculator Methods 

When a worker is entitled to overtime pay, it can be challenging to calculate the correct rate. According to U.S. federal law, businesses must determine overtime rates based on weekly work hours.
 
In other words, if an employee works more than forty hours during a holiday week, they will be entitled to overtime pay. Specifically, they will be owed “time and a half” pay for every work hour that surpasses the forty-hour workweek.
 
Some states have additional requirements for employers. California, for example, has instituted a daily overtime requirement. 
 
If an employee does more than eight hours of work in a single day, they must receive “time and a half” pay for all extra hours. Consider the following example. If you are a worker in California and you work eleven hours on Christmas day, you are owed “time and a half” for three of your hours that day. 

Time and a Half

This type of overtime pay is calculated as 50% over the employee’s regular hourly pay rate. For each hour of overtime that you work, you are owed one-and-a-half times your regular rate. 
 
For example, suppose that you typically make $20 per hour, and you work 10 extra hours in a week. In this case, you would be owed $30 for each of the extra hours that you worked.

Double-Time as an Additional Incentive

Some businesses may find it difficult to find workers for holidays. As an additional incentive, some businesses offer workers double-time pay for certain shifts.
 
There is no federally mandated payment practice involving double-time pay. However, certain states do have laws that require double-time pay under some circumstances. California is one such state. 
 
Double-time pay is calculated at twice an employee’s normal hourly pay rate. For instance, suppose that you usually make $15 an hour. With double-time pay, you would earn $30 for each hour that you worked.

Overtime and Holiday Pay Calculators: Determining Time and A Half  

To determine a particular employee’s federally mandated overtime pay rate, multiply their standard hourly payment by 1.5.
 
Consider the following example of how to calculate a worker’s “time and a half” rate. Suppose that an employee normally earns $20 per hour. For each overtime hour that the employee works, they will earn 1.5x$20. So this worker will earn $30 for each hour of overtime.
 
Imagine that this worker was at the office for fifty hours in a holiday week. For the first forty hours, they would earn their normal pay of $20 per hour. For the additional ten hours, they would earn $30 per hour. 
 
Typically, this worker earns $800 in a forty-hour week. For the additional ten hours of overtime, they would earn $300. This means that the worker would earn $1,100 for the holiday week.

Is There Guaranteed Pay for Time Off? 

According to the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), employers are not required to pay their workers for any time off. That includes holidays and vacations.
 
If a worker takes a vacation day on Thanksgiving or Juneteenth, their employer is not required by law to pay them. Many employees are entitled to vacation time. 
 
But this type of entitlement is based on private agreements between workers and employers. United States federal regulations do not require businesses to provide workers with any paid time off. 

Securing Legal Representation if You Are Owed Payment 

Some employees find that their employer is not complying with federal overtime payment laws. If this has happened to you or someone that you love, do not wait.
 
Speaking with an attorney can help you to secure the money that you worked to earn. Very few employers are exempt from overtime requirements. 
 
Unless they are exempt, businesses have a legal obligation to provide adequate “time and a half” pay to those employees who work more than 40 hours in a single week. 
 
The FLSA does not include mandates for overtime pay on specific days. That is why businesses can choose to remain open on federal and religious holidays. However, regardless of the day, employees deserve overtime pay if they work more than 40 hours in a week.