1712 - Holiday Guidance (Historical View)

** Effective: 7/1/2025 11:07:06 AM - Present **

Status: Active

Change Notes

The policy and charts are amended to comply with AB 1137, which changes how excluded employees are compensated when working on certain holidays. These changes were effective January 1, 2025. Additionally, the Holiday Compensation Chart instructions have been removed from BU 12 and 13 pending an update CalHR is working on. Please refer to the BU 12 and 13 MOUs for instructions on compensating an employee who works on a holiday.

Category

Compensation

Audience List

Synopsis

This policy:

Introduction

This policy provides charts in the reference section which illustrates holiday leave provisions provided by Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), policy, and statute for full-time employees in Bargaining Units 1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 9, 10, 11, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 and for all excluded employees in both Work Week Group (WWG) 2 and WWG E/SE.

Statement

This clarifies state policy with respect to two areas of concern: (1) duplicative holiday credit as a result of the state’s automated pay systems; and (2) duplicative holiday credit and pay for hours worked on a holiday.

Employees are entitled to receive one holiday credit for each recognized state holiday.  The number of hours is dependent upon the employee’s time base when the holiday credit is earned. When calculating the number of hours of holiday pay or credit owed to an employee who works on a holiday, departments must ensure any hours already provided by the State Controller’s Office (SCO) are included in the department’s calculation.

Departments that provide holiday credit to employees must ensure employees do not receive duplicate holiday credit that may automatically be given through the SCO, California Leave Accounting System (LAS), or other leave accounting systems utilized by departments. An example is holiday credit earned when a holiday falls on a Saturday, in most cases, the LAS will automatically generate holiday credit hours for eligible employees.

There have been instances where departments erroneously paid employees twice for the same hours worked on a holiday. One area where this is happening is with “negative pay employees” defined by the SCO as those employees whose payroll is processed prior to the end of the pay period based on anticipated time worked after the Monthly Payroll cutoff. This policy reminds departments that the SCO will automatically include regular pay in a negative pay employee’s pay warrant for a holiday that falls on a workday (see SEIU exemption below).

As a general reminder, departments with employees in multiple bargaining units should immediately review their current policies/practices and any relevant MOU provisions in addition to this policy.

Application

Refer to the applicable charts in the reference section below for guidance on keying the relevant transactions. The chart provides illustrations for both WWG 2 and where applicable, WWG E/SE employees. The charts are intended to supplement and not replace existing MOU’s and Government Codes, therefore CalHR recommends referring to each appliable MOU when processing holiday compensation.

Service Employees International Union (SEIU)

A full-time negative pay employee who is represented by SEIU and works on a holiday must accrue 8 hours of holiday credit earned for the day on the timesheet, regardless of the number of hours worked. A negative pay WWG 2 full-time employee who works less than 8 hours on the holiday is required to utilize leave credits to account for the hours not worked. This is because the employee accrues 8 hours of holiday credit earned, in addition to receiving 8 hours of pay in their warrant. To offset the deficit in hours worked for the day, leave credits must be utilized. This application applies to all time bases; however, accruals and usage are prorated based on the time base.

Managers, Supervisors, and other “Excluded” Employees

Effective January 1, 2025, Government Code section 19853 is amended and provides additional compensation for excluded employees, for time worked on specific holidays. Excluded employees who are required to work on January 1, the last Monday in May, July 4, the first Monday in September, Thanksgiving Day and December 25, shall receive the following compensation in accordance with their eligibility under the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA). These holidays will be referred to as “premium holidays” for purposes of this policy and the guidance charts linked below.

Calculating Overtime Compensation When a Premium Holiday and Overtime are Worked During the Same Work Week

For the purposes of computing the number of hours worked, time when an employee is excused from work (because of holidays, sick leave, vacation, annual leave, compensating time off, or any leave) shall not be considered as time worked by the employee for purposes of computing cash compensation for overtime or compensating time off for overtime. To determine how this applies to represented employees, departments should reference the applicable Bargaining Unit contract.

“Premium time” is defined as one-and one-half times the employee’s hourly rate. Excluded WWG 2 employees who work a premium holiday and work overtime during the same work week, shall have the premium time paid for the specified premium holiday count toward any premium time compensation during the same work week.

Example: The excluded WWG 2 employee’s regular schedule is Monday through Friday. Monday is a premium holiday, and the employee works their normal 8-hour shift on that Monday and works the remainder of their normal work week. The employee also works an 8-hour overtime shift on Saturday. The employee is entitled to the following:

For excluded WWG 2 employees, the premium time compensation paid for the holiday satisfies the premium time compensation owed for the workweek (i.e. the 8 hours worked on Saturday).

As a general reminder, for represented employees you must refer to the Holiday article and overtime section of the applicable MOU to ensure the holiday and overtime during the same work week are paid correctly. 

Additional Information

For all employees, holiday credit hours may be used immediately after they are earned; employees do not have to wait until the following pay period to use the holiday credit hours.

If any provision in this policy or illustration is in conflict with a provision of an applicable MOU, the MOU shall control.

Authorities

Resources

Forms

Web Pages

Authorized By

Melissa Russell
Chief, Personnel Management Division

Contact Person

Personnel Services Branch
Personnel Program Consultant, , Personnel Services Branch
Phone: 916-909-3702
Fax: 916-327-1886
Email: psb@calhr.ca.gov

Superseded Policies

Not Applicable.