Federal holiday pay rules give most federal employees their regular pay when they’re excused from work on one of the 11 statutory holidays, and 200 percent of their basic rate (regular pay plus a matching premium) when they’re required to work, capped at eight hours per holiday. Other premiums, including overtime, Sunday, and night pay, can stack on top of that. The details vary by schedule type, and part-time and intermittent employees face significant limits.
Pay When You’re Excused From Work on a Holiday
If a holiday falls on your regularly scheduled workday and you don’t work, you receive your basic pay for the hours you would normally have worked. For a standard eight-hour day that’s eight hours of holiday pay. On a compressed 4/10 schedule, it’s 10 hours, because holiday pay tracks the hours you would otherwise have put in that day.1eCFR. 5 CFR Part 610 Subpart B – Holidays
Flexible schedules work differently. Employees on Flexitour, Maxiflex, and similar arrangements receive exactly eight hours of holiday pay regardless of how many hours they were scheduled to work that day. Part-time employees on flexible schedules receive a proportional amount tied to their biweekly basic work requirement.2Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 6124 – Flexible Schedules; Holidays If you were scheduled for 10 hours that day, you’re credited with eight and typically need to work the other two elsewhere in the pay period or use leave.
One condition applies to everyone: you must be in a pay status on at least one scheduled workday adjacent to the holiday. Working, taking paid leave, using compensatory time, or using credit hours all count, and the threshold is a single hour. Employees on leave without pay for the scheduled workdays both before and after the holiday don’t get paid for the holiday itself.3U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Holidays Work Schedules and Pay
Pay When You’re Required to Work a Holiday
Working on a holiday earns you 200 percent of your basic rate: your regular pay for the hours worked, plus a holiday premium equal to that same rate. In practical terms, that’s double pay for the day.3U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Holidays Work Schedules and Pay
The premium is capped at eight hours per holiday. It applies to non-overtime work performed during your regularly scheduled tour of duty on the holiday, up to that limit. Anything beyond eight hours, or any work that qualifies as overtime, is compensated under separate rules.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5546 – Pay for Sunday and Holiday Work
Part-time employees required to work on a holiday that falls on their regularly scheduled workday receive holiday premium pay for those hours. They don’t receive pay for any unworked portion of the day beyond their scheduled hours.
How Other Premiums Stack With Holiday Pay
Holiday premium doesn’t block other premiums. Overtime hours worked on a holiday (hours beyond your normal schedule) earn time-and-a-half of your basic rate on top of the regular-hours double pay. A shift that runs long can produce double pay for the scheduled hours and overtime pay for the additional ones.
Sunday premium pay stacks as well. If a holiday falls on a Sunday and you work it, you receive Sunday differential in addition to the holiday premium. The regulation makes clear that Sunday premium is not folded into the basic rate used to calculate other premiums.5eCFR. 5 CFR Part 550 Subpart A – Pay for Sunday Work Night shift differentials continue on holidays too, and you keep the differential even when you’re excused from duty on the holiday.6eCFR. 5 CFR 532.505 – Night Shift Differentials
How the Observed Day Is Determined
For employees on a Monday-through-Friday schedule, a Saturday holiday is observed the preceding Friday, and a Sunday holiday is observed the following Monday. The Saturday rule sits in 5 U.S.C. 6103(b); the Sunday rule comes from Executive Order 11582.7Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 6103 Holidays In 2026, this affects only Independence Day, which falls on Saturday, July 4 and is observed Friday, July 3.8U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Federal Holidays
Full-time employees whose basic workweek isn’t Monday through Friday follow a related rule: if the holiday falls on one of their regular non-workdays (other than the day substituted for Sunday), the workday immediately before that non-workday becomes their observed holiday.9U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Federal Holidays – In Lieu Of Determination
On a compressed schedule, the holiday is observed on the day it actually falls when that day is one of your scheduled workdays, and you’re paid for the hours you would normally have worked. If the holiday lands on a non-workday, the agency designates an in-lieu-of day, which must fall within the same biweekly pay period as the actual holiday, or the pay period immediately before or after it.1eCFR. 5 CFR Part 610 Subpart B – Holidays
Who Doesn’t Get Holiday Pay
Two categories of employees are largely outside the paid-holiday system.
Part-time employees receive a paid holiday only when it falls on one of their regularly scheduled workdays. If the holiday lands on their day off, they don’t get an in-lieu-of day and don’t receive any additional pay. In-lieu-of days are a full-time-only benefit.9U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Federal Holidays – In Lieu Of Determination
Intermittent employees aren’t entitled to paid holiday time off or holiday premium pay at all. They have no regularly scheduled tour of duty, so there’s no workday to excuse them from.3U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Holidays Work Schedules and Pay
The Biweekly Cap on Premium Pay
Federal law limits total premium pay in a single pay period. For most General Schedule employees, basic pay plus premium pay in a biweekly period cannot exceed the greater of GS-15, step 10 (including locality pay) or Level V of the Executive Schedule. That cap covers holiday premium, Title 5 overtime, Sunday premium, and night pay taken together.10Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5547 – Limitation on Premium Pay
In emergencies or mission-critical situations, agencies can switch to an annual cap set at Level I of the Executive Schedule, which allows more sustained premium pay during extended operations.11U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Premium Pay (Title 5)
Overtime earned under the Fair Labor Standards Act is excluded from these caps entirely, as is FLSA compensatory time off. For FLSA-nonexempt employees, the cap applies to Sunday premium, night pay, and holiday premium, but not to FLSA overtime.11U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Premium Pay (Title 5)
If Your Holiday Pay Is Wrong
Start with your agency’s internal grievance process. Unionized employees can use the negotiated grievance procedure instead. Most holiday pay disputes get resolved at this level.
When internal channels don’t fix the problem, OPM has statutory authority to adjudicate federal civilian compensation claims under 31 U.S.C. 3702. The deadline is strict: your claim must be received by OPM or by the agency within six years of the date it first accrued. OPM has no authority to waive or extend that limit.12Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 31 USC 3702 – Authority to Settle Claims
If an appropriate authority finds that an unjustified personnel action cost you pay, the Back Pay Act entitles you to what you would have earned, plus interest at the Treasury overpayment rate. Interest accrues from the date the money was owed through a date no more than 30 days before the actual payment. Reasonable attorney fees may also be awarded.13Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 5596 – Back Pay Due to Unjustified Personnel Action
Claims involving larger dollar amounts may fall within the jurisdiction of the U.S. Court of Federal Claims. That path is more formal and usually involves legal representation, but it remains available when other channels haven’t resolved the dispute.