Does an employer have to pay holiday overtime pay to employee’s working holidays?

I had a blog reader pose this question recently:

Does an employer have to pay an employee overtime pay for requiring the employee to work on a holiday, such as the Fourth of July?

Short Answer? No.  The federal law controlling overtime, the Fair Labor Standards Act (“FLSA”) make no distinction about which days employees can or cannot work.  The FLSA requires overtime for hours worked in addition to 40 in one work week.  Holidays do not receive any different treatment.

Practically, many employers pay more for working on holidays simply to be fair and motivate people to work on days when most people do not want to work.

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Posted by Shawn Roberts

On this blog, I write about and try to answer practical Oklahoma legal questions. My focus and most experience is in estate planning and business issues including Oklahoma non-compete law. I make a living as an attorney in the law firm I founded, Shawn J. Roberts, P.C. in Oklahoma City. I live in Edmond with my wife Amy and my two children, Sam (19) and David (11). We live precisely in the path of where the "wind comes sweeping down the plains."