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Comment by ziml77 | Hacker News Reader

Do people typically get paid more for working on holidays? I can't say I've heard of that but I've also always been salaried, where extra work is not directly compensated.

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> Do people typically get paid more for working on holidays?

Yes, of course.

But It depends on the type of job contract. A physician that must remain in the hospital in Christmas Eve to deal with a ton of drunken people is paid more. A tow truck driver is expected to be available at any time or day and can be paid the same. Their work has a different concept of what is extra time, and a researcher passing the night in the university just wouldn't be paid for that.

> A physician that must remain in the hospital in Christmas Eve to deal with a ton of drunken people is paid more.

Certainly depends. I have physician family members who never got paid more for working on holidays because all the holidays were divided equally among the doctors in the group, e.g. if there were 5 doctors each one had to work every 5th Christmas, etc.

I ran a call center some years ago, and I would pay people double the hourly rate to work on holidays. I always saw it as the “not an asshole” thing to do. I also didn’t fire people for just bring up the question of their pay.

It's the good thing to do for sure! Not surprising that Google doesn't give a shit though, especially for contract workers.

If you’re hourly Christmas, Thanksgiving and Easter are typically paid the same as overtime. Pretty sure there is (or at least used to be) something legal attached to it as we used to get time and a half when I waited tables. This was not used as incentive as the minimum for waiters was like half the federal minimum wage due to tips being the primary revenue source.

In the US, there is no federal or state law that requires higher pay for specific dates or times of day.

Edit: I was not correct, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have some laws about pays on certain days or dates:

https://www.mass.gov/guides/working-on-sundays-and-holidays-...

https://dlt.ri.gov/regulation-and-safety/labor-standards/lab...

Although, a cursory look says Massachusetts is phasing it out Sunday premium pay as of Jan 1, 2023.

Yes, in Canada you are paid double time for Statutory holidays.

Sorry, I should have specified the US. I don't think we have any holidays that companies are required to give employees off.

Normally it’s time and a half on federal holidays for hourly workers in the US.

How does that work for a salaried person?

I'd assume they have extra pay reported on the following month. Same system as for extra hours (don't exactly for Canada but it's probably something like X percent more for hours worked after 22h) and work done on planned holidays (you went on holiday but got a work request)

Time in lieu.

Every salaried, or more specifically, except job I have had came with paid time off for holidays and every hourly, or non exempt job has had holiday time and a half or double time for holiday work. In some states, it’s even a legal requirement.

Yes, I do expect there to be PTO holidays, but that seems to be entirely up to the will of the employer if they actually give that. Unless I was desperate there's no way I would accept a job offer if the company didn't give the major holidays off (or extra vacation days to allow for flexible holidays)

I only got paid extra when I worked in IT for the government. Not sure why people would expect extra pay though in a non-unionized, private sector job if it wasn’t part of the employment contract.

Time-and-a-half or double wages are common holiday pay in the US. They’re not required everywhere, though.

They are not required anywhere in the US. It only depends on whether or not an employer wants to or has to give more pay due to supply/demand of labor.

Edit: I was incorrect, Massachusetts and Rhode Island do stipulate higher pay for some days/dates:

https://dlt.ri.gov/regulation-and-safety/labor-standards/lab...

https://www.mass.gov/guides/working-on-sundays-and-holidays-...

Federal employees anywhere are required to receive it as well. They're roughly 1% of the population, so larger in aggregate than a dozen or so individual states.

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