Stat Holidays in Ontario

Ontario has nine public holidays: New Year's Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day,

Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and Boxing Day.

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.

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 (one-and-a-half times their regular rate of pay) for all hours worked on the public holiday and not receive another day off (called a "substitute" holiday);

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.

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 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 twenty.

Generally, employees qualify for public holiday entitlement, unless they:

fail without reasonable cause to work all of their last regularly scheduled days of work before the public holiday, or all of their first regularly scheduled days of work after the public holiday (this is called the "last and first rule");