Public holiday pay and penalty rates: the basics

The starting point

Public holiday entitlements for most Australian workers come from the National Employment Standards in the Fair Work Act, which apply regardless of award or agreement. The standards say three things. You are entitled to be absent from work on a public holiday. If it is a day you would ordinarily have worked, you are paid your base rate for the hours you would have worked. And an employer can ask you to work, but only if the request is reasonable, and you can refuse if the request is unreasonable or your refusal is reasonable.

This guide is a plain-language summary, not legal advice. Your award, enterprise agreement or contract can give you more than the standards but never less. For anything that matters, the Fair Work Ombudsman is the authority, and its pay calculator gives figures for a specific award.

Paid time off without working

If a public holiday falls on a day you normally work, you get the day off and your ordinary pay for it. Full-time workers get this for every public holiday that falls on a weekday they work. Part-time workers get it only for holidays that land on their usual days: a part-timer who works Monday to Wednesday is paid for a Monday holiday but not for a Friday one.

Casual employees are not paid for a public holiday they do not work, because they have no ordinary hours. Their compensation for that is the casual loading on every shift. If a casual does work a public holiday, the public holiday penalty rate applies on top.

A public holiday that falls during a period of paid annual leave or paid personal leave is taken as a public holiday, not as leave. Your leave balance is not reduced for that day. That is why leave taken around Christmas stretches further than the same number of days in March.

Being asked to work

An employer can request that you work on a public holiday. Whether the request is reasonable depends on factors the act lists: the nature of the workplace and your role, your personal circumstances including family responsibilities, whether you could expect to be asked (hospitals and hotels obviously open on holidays), how much notice you were given, and whether you are compensated by penalty rates, a higher salary or time off in lieu. A request with a day's notice to someone with caring responsibilities in a workplace that does not usually open on holidays is likely to be unreasonable. A rostered shift in a hospital is not.

Penalty rates

The act itself does not set penalty rates. They come from your modern award or enterprise agreement, and they vary. Many awards pay full-time and part-time employees around two to two-and-a-half times the base rate for public holiday hours, with casuals a step higher to include their loading. Some awards instead, or in addition, provide a substitute day off or time off in lieu. Salaried employees whose contract says the salary covers public holiday work may have no separate loading at all.

Because the number is award-specific, this site does not publish rates. Use the Fair Work Ombudsman's pay calculator with your award, or check your enterprise agreement, for the exact figure.

Which days count

The entitlements apply to every day that is a public holiday in the state or territory where you work, including substitute and additional days, part-day holidays for the hours they cover, and regional holidays if your workplace is in the declared area. They do not apply to days that are holidays only for a particular group: the NSW Bank Holiday for banks, or Tasmania's Easter Tuesday for the state public service. This site marks those as restricted and leaves them out of its counts.

Awards can also let an employer and employee agree to substitute a different day for a public holiday. If that happens, the substitute day carries the entitlements and the original day becomes ordinary for you. Without an agreement the original day stands. The substitute and additional days guide covers the state-level rules for weekend clashes, which are a different thing.