1: Decide how many holidays will be offered

No laws mandate that a company provide employees with paid holidays, so the number of holidays to offer is left to the discretion of company leadership. The U.S. government has 11 days of the year designated as federal holidays, and many companies choose to offer around 10-11 holidays to their employees.

2: Decide which holidays to recognize

Traditionally, companies select from the list of federal holidays, but state and religious holidays are also commonly observed. A company can also invent a new holiday, such as celebrating the date the company was founded.

3: Decide the specific dates to celebrate each year

The exact date on which a company chooses to celebrate a holiday is up to the company’s discretion, though it is common for companies to choose the same dates as the federal government observes.

What are the federal paid holidays 2023?

The list below shows the 2023 federal holidays:

• Monday, January 02, New Year’s Day
• Monday, January 16, Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Birthday
• Monday, February 20, President’s Day
• Monday, May 29, Memorial Day
• Monday, June 19, Juneteenth National Independence Day
• Tuesday, July 04, Independence Day
• Monday, September 04, Labor Day
• Monday, October 09, Columbus Day
• Friday, November 10, Veterans Day
• Thursday, November 23, Thanksgiving Day
• Monday, December 25, Christmas Day

Other common holidays

A company is free to define any date as a paid holiday, for any reason. The following is a list of some common examples of holidays at work offered by companies that are not official federal holidays. These can be religious holidays, days offered to boost employee morale or days off for any other reason.

• New Year’s Eve
• Good Friday/Easter
• Jewish holidays (e.g., Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, etc.)
• Valentine’s Day, St. Patrick’s Day
• Christmas Eve
• State holidays (e.g., Texas Independence Day)
• Opening day of hunting season
• Company founding anniversary day

What is a floating holiday?

With a diverse workforce, it would be impossible to make a holiday schedule that works perfectly for all employees. To solve this dilemma, many companies offer employees one or two floating holidays each year. These are paid days off, where the employee can choose which dates to take off for any reason, similar to vacation days. Some companies encourage employees to take a floating holiday on their birthday.

What if a holiday falls on a weekend?

Nearly every year, some holidays that occur on specific dates (e.g., the 25th of December) will fall on a Saturday or Sunday. If your company is normally closed on the weekend, then employees may be upset if a holiday is scheduled for a day they would have had off anyway. To address this, most companies schedule the day off for the Friday before or Monday after the actual holiday date. Other companies simply give employees an extra floating holiday, which they can choose to use whenever they want.

4: Decide if any employees will be required to work on the holiday

Some companies want to stay open 365 days a year, and they can make the decision not to close on holidays. Other companies run a skeleton crew to handle critical tasks. It is also common for some employees to be on-call in case of an emergency.

5: If employees will work the holidays, decide if they will receive special compensation

To protect morale, it may be necessary to provide an incentive or reward for those employees who come to work on a holiday. Many companies give a floating holiday to these holiday workers, allowing the employee to schedule a new day off on any date in the future. Other companies reward these workers by offering to pay them “time-and-a-half” holiday pay. So an employee who normally makes $20/hour will instead make $30/hour for the time they work on the holiday. There are no federal laws that require companies to pay a higher wage to employees who work on a holiday. However, if working the holiday pushes the employee over 40 hours for the week, normal overtime rules still apply.

Sample paid holiday policy

A company’s paid holiday policy is a formal HR document describing eligibility and how employees who work on the holiday will be compensated.

Note, HR managers may want to include this Paid Holiday policy as part of a larger “Time Away from Work” policy which would also cover vacation, sick, personal and other types of time away.

1.0 Holiday policy

[COMPANY NAME] recognizes 10 paid holidays per calendar year.

1.1 Paid holiday schedule for 2023

[Insert desired holiday names and dates for 2023]

Note: If a holiday falls on a Saturday, the holiday will be observed the previous Friday. If a holiday falls on a Sunday, the holiday will be observed the following Monday.

At the start of each year, all employees will be provided with two floating holidays. These floating holidays can be used by employees who desire to observe a religious holiday that is not on the company’s holiday calendar.

1.2 Eligibility

Full-time employees receive a maximum of 10 paid holidays each calendar year. Part-time employees receive holidays in proportion to their hours worked. Example: an employee who works 20 hours a week (e.g. 50% of full-time) will receive 5 paid holidays (e.g. 50% of maximum holidays). New hires will be eligible to receive all paid holidays that occur after their hire date. Paid holidays are available to both overtime-exempt (salary) and overtime-eligible (hourly) employees.

1.3 Employees who work on a holiday

Based on company needs, some employees may be expected to work on a paid holiday. Management will communicate holiday work expectations at least 30 days before the holiday.

Overtime-exempt (salary) employees who work on a holiday will accrue one floating holiday for each holiday worked. Employees may use floating holidays at any time during the year, as long as management is notified before the employee takes the floating holiday.

Overtime-eligible (hourly) employees who work on a holiday will earn an hourly rate of 150% of their standard hourly rate for those hours worked during the holiday.

Paid Holiday Schedule Templates for PDF & Word

Use these templates to help you create a paid holiday schedule.