Employee Experience

Public Holidays

Definition

What is Public Holidays?

Public Holidays are nationally recognized days of rest established by law on which employees are typically entitled to a day off work, often with full pay as per their employment terms.

Featured snippet

Nationally recognized rest days established by law, usually with full employee pay.

In Practice

How Public Holidays works?

Public holidays (also called bank holidays in the UK or statutory holidays in Canada) are officially recognized days of national or regional significance on which government and many private sector operations are closed or reduced. For employers, public holidays create two distinct obligations: ensuring employees who do not work on the holiday receive the appropriate pay or time-off entitlement, and managing business continuity for operations that cannot close (healthcare, retail, essential services) by compensating employees who must work with appropriate premium pay or time-off in lieu. The administrative challenge for global or multi-regional employers is the variety of public holiday calendars across jurisdictions — a single organization operating in the US, UK, and Saudi Arabia simultaneously must manage three completely different public holiday schedules in its leave and scheduling systems.

By the numbers

Key Statistics

What the research says about employee engagement.

The average number of statutory public holidays ranges from 7 in the United States (federal employees) to 13 in the UK, 14 in Germany, and 16 in Japan — with private sector US employers typically offering more than the 0 federal statutory requirement through company policy rather than legal obligation.

Multi-national employers managing employees across 10 or more countries must navigate over 100 different public holiday dates annually — a complexity that makes centralized leave management systems with jurisdiction-specific holiday calendars a compliance necessity rather than an administrative convenience.

15%

Organizations that give employees flexibility in how they take public holidays — allowing substitution of a public holiday for a personally significant date — report 15 percent higher satisfaction with time-off policies, particularly among employees whose religious and cultural significant dates differ from the national public holiday calendar.

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Also known as

Synonyms and Translations

Other ways this term appears across industries and languages.

Synonyms

National Holidays

Bank Holidays

Federal Holidays

Statutory Holidays

Translations

🇸🇦

Arabic

العطل الرسمية

🇫🇷

French

Jours fériés nationaux

🇮🇳

Hindi

सार्वजनिक अवकाश

🇵🇰

Urdu

سرکاری تعطیلات

🇵🇭

Tagalog

Pambansang Pista Opisyal

People may ask

People May Ask

Common questions about employee engagement.

What are public holidays?

Public holidays are government-designated days of rest observed nationally, such as Christmas, Independence Day, or New Year's Day, on which most businesses are closed.

Are employees always paid for public holidays?

In many countries, employees are entitled to full pay on public holidays. In others, pay depends on whether the employee works that day and company policy.

What happens if a public holiday falls on a weekend?

Many employers give a substitute weekday off in lieu. Whether this is legally required depends on local employment law and the employment contract terms.

Can employers require employees to work on public holidays?

Yes, though premium pay or substitute days are typically required. Certain essential services industries routinely schedule staff to work public holidays.

How many public holidays are there in major countries?

The US has 11 federal holidays, the UK has 8 bank holidays in England, India has up to 17 national holidays, and the number varies widely globally.