What are the public holiday pay rules for Ontario employees under the ESA?

Most employees covered by Ontario's Employment Standards Act, 2000 are entitled to take recognized public holidays off with public holiday pay, calculated using a formula in the Act generally based on the regular wages, plus vacation pay payable, the employee earned in the four work weeks before the work week containing the holiday, divided across that period. The effect is that public holiday pay approximates an employee's average day's pay over that recent stretch, rather than simply their scheduled wage for that specific day.

Some employees don't automatically qualify, most commonly because they failed to work their last scheduled shift before the holiday or their first scheduled shift after it, without a reasonable excuse. In that situation, an employer generally isn't required to pay public holiday pay for that particular holiday, though ordinary wages for hours actually worked still apply.

Employees who do work on a public holiday have separate rights, covered by the ESA's premium pay and substitute-day provisions rather than the pay calculation itself. Because the calculation depends on recent pay history and can get complicated with irregular schedules, employers should apply it carefully rather than estimating.