The next public holidays in Ontario are Christmas Day, Friday, December 25, 2026 and Boxing Day, Saturday, December 26, 2026, followed by New Year's Day on Friday, January 1, 2027. Remembrance Day on November 11 is not one of them. Boxing Day landing on a Saturday matters for payroll: in Ontario, an employee who qualifies is owed a substitute day off with public holiday pay even when the holiday falls on their day off. That is the rule Alberta does not have, and the one most often missed.
Below is the reference: every Ontario public holiday for 2027, who qualifies, the public holiday pay formula, worked examples, and the edge cases. We flag where Ontario differs from BC and Alberta for employers with staff in more than one province.
What changed, and what did not
- Retail opening on Family Day and Victoria Day. Bill 97, the Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2026, received Royal Assent on April 24, 2026. It amended the Retail Business Holidays Act and the municipal statutes so that local by-laws can no longer require retail stores to close on Family Day or Victoria Day. Stores may now choose to open on those days.
- No change to the holidays themselves. Family Day and Victoria Day are still public holidays under the Employment Standards Act, 2000 (ESA). Retail staff who work them are still owed public holiday pay and premium pay (or a substitute day) under the rules below.
- No change to the pay rules. The divide-by-20 formula, the last-and-first rule and the 1.5x premium are unchanged. Ontario still has nine public holidays.
- Who this affects: every provincially regulated employer in Ontario. Federally regulated employers (banks, airlines, interprovincial trucking, telecoms) follow the Canada Labour Code instead, which has its own holiday list and pay rules, and which does include Remembrance Day.
Sources: Legislative Assembly of Ontario: Bill 97, Plan to Protect Ontario Act (Budget Measures), 2026, Government of Ontario: Retail business holidays and Government of Ontario: Your guide to the ESA, Public holidays.
Ontario stat holidays 2027 (and the rest of 2026)
The ESA calls them public holidays; most people search for them as stat holidays. They are the same thing.
| Public holiday | 2026 | 2027 |
|---|---|---|
| New Year's Day | Thu, Jan 1 | Fri, Jan 1 |
| Family Day (third Monday of February) | Mon, Feb 16 | Mon, Feb 15 |
| Good Friday | Fri, Apr 3 | Fri, Mar 26 |
| Victoria Day | Mon, May 18 | Mon, May 24 |
| Canada Day | Wed, Jul 1 | Thu, Jul 1 |
| Labour Day | Mon, Sep 7 | Mon, Sep 6 |
| Thanksgiving Day | Mon, Oct 12 | Mon, Oct 11 |
| Christmas Day | Fri, Dec 25 | Sat, Dec 25 |
| Boxing Day | Sat, Dec 26 | Sun, Dec 26 |
Days that are not public holidays in Ontario
Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, the Civic Holiday (first Monday of August), Remembrance Day and the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation are not public holidays under the ESA. Many employers give some of them off, but the ESA does not require it. If your contract or policy promises one of them, that promise is enforceable as a contract term, not under the ESA.
Is Remembrance Day a stat holiday in Ontario? No, not for provincially regulated employees. It is a holiday for federally regulated workplaces under the Canada Labour Code.
Is Boxing Day a stat holiday in Ontario? Yes. December 26 is one of the nine, which is a difference from Alberta, where Boxing Day is optional.
Source: Government of Ontario: Public holidays.
Who qualifies for Ontario stat holiday pay
Ontario has no minimum service requirement. Full-time, part-time, permanent and term employees all qualify, and it does not matter how recently they were hired or how many days they worked before the holiday. Compare BC (15 of the last 30 calendar days) and Alberta (30 work days in the past 12 months).
An employee loses the entitlement for a particular holiday if, without reasonable cause, they do not work:
- all of their last regularly scheduled day of work before the holiday, or
- all of their first regularly scheduled day of work after the holiday, or
- a shift on the holiday that they agreed to work.
Those days do not have to be the calendar days immediately before and after. For a Monday-to-Friday employee, the last scheduled day before Boxing Day 2026 is Thursday, December 24 (Christmas Day is itself a holiday), and the first after is Monday, December 28. "Reasonable cause" means something beyond the employee's control, such as illness.
An employee who fails the last-and-first rule but works the holiday is still owed premium pay of 1.5x for every hour worked on it.
| Employee | Qualifies? | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Full-time, hired the week before the holiday | Yes | No minimum service in Ontario |
| Part-time, works Tuesdays and Thursdays | Yes | Qualification does not depend on the holiday being a work day |
| Skipped the shift after the holiday, no reasonable cause | No | Fails the last-and-first rule |
| Off sick the day before, genuinely ill | Yes | Reasonable cause |
How to calculate Ontario stat holiday pay
Public holiday pay = (regular wages earned + vacation pay payable in the 4 work weeks before the work week of the holiday) ÷ 20
- Regular wages exclude overtime pay (the whole 1.5x amount, not just the premium half), public holiday pay and premium pay.
- Vacation pay is included. If vacation pay is paid out on each cheque, include at least the 4% (or 6%) paid in that period.
- The divisor is always 20, whatever the employee's schedule. That is why part-time staff get a proportionally smaller amount rather than a full day.
The province's own example: an employee earning $600 a week with 4% vacation pay on each cheque earned $2,400 in regular wages plus $96 in vacation pay in the four work weeks. $2,496 ÷ 20 = $124.80 in public holiday pay.
Sources: Government of Ontario: Public holidays and ESA Policy and Interpretation Manual, Part X.
The three pay situations
| The holiday falls on... | What the employee is owed |
|---|---|
| A regular working day, employee takes it off | The day off and public holiday pay |
| A regular working day, employee agrees in writing to work it | Default: regular wages for the hours worked plus a substitute day off with public holiday pay. By written agreement instead: public holiday pay plus premium pay of at least 1.5x the regular rate for each hour worked |
| A non-working day, or during vacation | A substitute day off with public holiday pay, or, if the employee agrees in writing, public holiday pay with no substitute day |
Hours paid at premium pay on a public holiday do not count towards the weekly overtime threshold.
Substitute day rules
- The substitute day must be taken within 3 months of the holiday, or within 12 months if the employee agrees in writing or electronically.
- Before the holiday, give the employee a written statement naming the holiday, the substitute day and the date the statement was issued.
- An agreement to take public holiday pay instead of a substitute day must be made before the holiday.
Hospitality, continuous operations and retail
- Hotels, motels, tourist resorts, restaurants, taverns and continuous operations can require staff to work a public holiday that is a regular working day without their agreement. In that case the employer chooses: regular wages plus a substitute day, or public holiday pay plus 1.5x premium pay.
- Retail employees have a right under the ESA to refuse to work on a public holiday in many situations, and an employee who agreed to work can decline with at least 48 hours' notice. Check the ministry's retail workers page before scheduling Family Day or Victoria Day shifts now that more stores can open.
Sources: Government of Ontario: Public holidays, Government of Ontario: Retail workers and Government of Ontario: Vacation.
Worked examples for Christmas and Boxing Day 2026
These examples use an employee paid $25 an hour on 8-hour shifts, five days a week, with vacation pay accrued rather than paid on each cheque.
1. Full-time, takes Christmas Day off. In the four work weeks before the week of December 25 they earned $4,000 in regular wages and no vacation pay was payable. Public holiday pay = $4,000 ÷ 20 = $200.
2. Same employee, Boxing Day on Saturday. Saturday is not a working day for them, so they are owed a substitute day off with $200 of public holiday pay, within 3 months (or 12 with written agreement). Many employers simply make Monday, December 28 the substitute day and say so in writing beforehand.
3. Same employee works 8 hours on Christmas Day, written agreement to premium pay. $200 public holiday pay, plus 8 × $25 × 1.5 = $300, = $500 for the day.
4. Same employee works Christmas Day, no agreement on premium pay. They are paid their regular $200 for the 8 hours worked, and get a substitute day off later with $200 of public holiday pay.
5. Part-time, works Tuesdays and Thursdays, 8 hours a shift. Four work weeks = 8 shifts × 8 hours × $25 = $1,600. Public holiday pay = $1,600 ÷ 20 = $80 for each of Christmas Day and Boxing Day. Neither is their working day, so each comes with a substitute day off (or, with written agreement, the $80 alone).
Edge cases that trip up Ontario payroll
- Christmas and Boxing Day 2027 on a weekend. Saturday, December 25 and Sunday, December 26, 2027 are both non-working days for a Monday-to-Friday employee, so each qualifying employee is owed two substitute days with public holiday pay. Plan them in your 2027 calendar now.
- Applying Alberta rules to Ontario staff. Alberta pays nothing when a holiday falls on a day off; Ontario requires a substitute day. Alberta has a 30-work-day test; Ontario has none.
- Applying BC rules. BC uses an average day's pay and a 15-of-30 test; Ontario uses the divide-by-20 formula on four work weeks of wages plus vacation pay.
- Including overtime in the formula. The full overtime amount is excluded. Including it overstates holiday pay.
- Forgetting vacation pay. Vacation pay payable in the four work weeks is part of the formula. Leaving it out understates holiday pay.
- No written statement for the substitute day. Pick the substitute date before the holiday and put it in writing, then make sure it is actually taken within the deadline.
- Remembrance Day policies. If your handbook gives November 11 off with pay, that is your contract, not the ESA; apply it consistently.
Public holiday pay is employment income, so it runs through payroll with the usual income tax, CPP and EI deductions, and counts towards Ontario payroll for the Employer Health Tax. See our source deductions employer guide and CPP, CPP2 and EI explained for the current figures.
What an Ontario employer should do before Christmas
- List who works Monday to Friday and set a substitute day for Boxing Day, Saturday, December 26, 2026. Give each employee the written statement before the holiday.
- Get written agreements from anyone working Christmas Day or Boxing Day, and record whether they take premium pay or a substitute day.
- Calculate each employee's public holiday pay from the four work weeks before the holiday's work week, including vacation pay and excluding overtime.
- Check the last-and-first rule against actual attendance before paying out.
- Put the 2027 dates in your payroll calendar, including the two weekend holidays at the end of December 2027.
For the other provinces, see our posts on BC stat holiday pay and Alberta stat holiday pay.
Key takeaways
- Ontario has nine public holidays, including Good Friday and Boxing Day. Remembrance Day, Easter Monday and the Civic Holiday are not among them.
- There is no minimum service to qualify; an employee loses the holiday only by missing their last scheduled day before or first after it without reasonable cause.
- Public holiday pay = four work weeks of regular wages plus vacation pay, divided by 20.
- A holiday on a non-working day still earns a substitute day off with public holiday pay, which matters for Boxing Day 2026 and Christmas and Boxing Day 2027.
- Working the holiday earns regular wages plus a substitute day, or, by written agreement, public holiday pay plus 1.5x premium pay.
RN Canada provides bookkeeping and payroll support to Toronto and wider Ontario employers remotely, including public holiday and year-end payroll checks.