Statutory Holiday Pay in Quebec: The Calculation

A paid statutory holiday is not always worth a day's salary. Quebec's Act respecting labour standards sets a formula — 1/20 of the wages earned over the 4 preceding pay weeks — that tracks what you actually earned before the day off. On a fixed schedule, the result looks like a normal day. On a variable schedule or part-time hours, it can drift well away from it. Here is how the calculation works, and what gets added when you are at work that day.

The 8 paid statutory holidays in Quebec

Quebec has 8 statutory holidays that are paid days off for all employees. 7 of them come from the Act respecting labour standards; June 24 falls under a separate statute, the National Holiday Act.

Two absences from the list often surprise people: Remembrance Day (November 11) and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30) are not statutory holidays under Quebec law.

The right to the day off does not depend on your status: full-time, part-time, casual or paid by the hour, the law sets no minimum number of hours. One condition does apply — you must not have been absent, without your employer's authorization or a valid reason, on the working day before or the working day after the holiday. Do not confuse this with vacation pay, which follows its own rule, a percentage of the year's wages.

The indemnity: 1/20 of the wages from the 4 preceding weeks

The rule fits in one sentence: the employer pays 1/20 of the wages earned during the 4 complete pay weeks before the week of the statutory holiday, excluding overtime.

Why divide by 20? Because 4 weeks of 5 working days add up to 20 days. Dividing by 20 therefore gives the average day of the period. That is the whole point of the calculation: it smooths out the swings instead of freezing a theoretical "day of pay".

Three steps, in order:

1. Identify the 4 complete pay weeks before the week of the holiday.
2. Add up the gross wages of those 4 weeks, leaving out overtime.
3. Divide the total by 20.

An example with round figures, chosen to show the mechanics — $1,000 gross per week:

The statutory holiday indemnity is therefore $200 gross.

A variable schedule gives a different amount

Same formula, irregular hours: 3 weeks at $600 and 1 week at $300 come to $2,100, so an indemnity of $105. Someone who worked little right before the holiday gets less; someone who strung together full weeks gets more. The amount follows the wages actually earned, not the schedule written into the contract.

Paid on commission: 1/60 over 12 weeks

For an employee paid wholly or partly on commission, the base changes: 1/60 of the wages from the 12 complete pay weeks before the statutory holiday. A window of 12 weeks does a better job of smoothing the swing between the slow months and the record months of a commission income.

If you work on the statutory holiday

Working on a statutory holiday does not entitle you to a premium rate in Quebec. That is the most widespread misconception on the subject, and it comes from the federal regime described further down. Quebec law provides something else: you are paid for the hours actually worked, at your usual rate, and on top of that the employer must give you, at the employer's choice:

• the indemnity calculated above, paid with that period's pay; or
• a compensatory day off, paid, taken within the 3 weeks before or the 3 weeks after the statutory holiday.

The choice belongs to the employer, not to the employee. One calendar exception applies to the National Holiday: the compensatory day for June 24 is taken on the working day before or the working day after, not within a window of 3 weeks.

What tax and contributions take out of it

A statutory holiday indemnity is wages, and payroll treats it as such. The Canada Revenue Agency says so plainly: when a pay period includes a public holiday, the employer calculates income tax, employment insurance and pension contributions "in the same manner as you would for regular salary". The same agency's special payments chart lists public holiday pay among the amounts that carry all three deductions: "Yes" to pension contributions, "Yes" to employment insurance premiums, "Yes" to tax deductions.

One detail specific to Quebec: the federal pages name the CPP, but an employer whose province of employment is Quebec deducts QPP contributions instead of CPP. On top of that come the QPIP, which funds parental insurance, and employment insurance at the reduced rate that applies in Quebec.

Here is what a full year at $52,000 gross gives up, the same $1,000 a week as in the example:

At that salary level, $200 of gross indemnity leaves about $137 in your pocket: tax and contributions take roughly 31.7% of it. A statutory holiday indemnity creates no tax advantage, then — but no penalty either.

Under federal regulation, the rules are not the same

If your employer is federally regulated — a bank, telecommunications, interprovincial transport, postal services — Quebec law does not apply; the Canada Labour Code does. Three differences matter:

• 10 statutory holidays instead of 8, including Remembrance Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation.
• The same 1/20 formula over 4 weeks, and 1/60 over 12 weeks for commission employees with 12 weeks of continuous employment.
• Working on the holiday entitles you to at least 1.5 times your regular rate of wages for the hours worked, on top of the holiday pay. This is the federal rule that people often assume, wrongly, applies everywhere in Quebec.

Check your indemnity in 3 minutes

1. Pull out your last 4 complete pay statements before the week of the holiday.
2. Add up the gross wages, leaving out overtime.
3. Divide by 20: that is the gross amount you should see.
4. Compare it with the matching line on your pay stub.

A gap often comes from an incomplete pay week counted by mistake, or from overtime left in the total. If the doubt remains, the question goes first to the employer, then to the CNESST. And to see what these amounts become once a full year is taken into account, the Quebec net salary calculator does the arithmetic for you.