Calculating average pay for someone without any previous paycheques
Question: How is the public holiday pay of a new employee calculated if the employee just started that week, or a part-time employee who didn’t work during the calculation period?
Answer: Most employees are entitled to take general holidays and receive holiday pay. The calculation of public holiday pay is specified in provincial employment standards legislation which generally stipulates:
• The eligibility period in which an employee must work to be eligible for holiday pay
• The earnings calculation that determines how much holiday pay to which an employee is entitled.
For example, the provisions of Alberta’s Employment Standards Code govern public holiday pay (or, “general holiday pay”). As of Jan. 1, 2018, when Bill 17, the Fair and Family Friendly Workplaces Act came into force and amended the Alberta Employment Standards Code, the requirement that an employee work for 30 days or more in the 12 months immediately preceding the general holiday in order to be eligible for general holiday pay was removed.
In other words, all employees are entitled to holiday pay in Alberta unless an employee, without the consent of the employer, does not attend work when required on either the general holiday, the last regular work day preceding the general holiday, or the first regular work day following the general holiday. In any of these circumstances, the employee will not be eligible for general holiday pay.
Regardless of whether the employee works on the public holiday, holiday pay is calculated as five per cent of the employee’s wages, vacation pay, and holiday pay earned in the four weeks immediately preceding the public holiday. Wages do not include overtime pay, termination pay, expenses, gratuities, or a discretionary gift or bonus that is not related to hours of work, production or efficiency.
In Alberta, in the case of an employee who commences work on a week where there is a public holiday, the employee would be entitled to holiday pay of five per cent of the wages, vacation pay and holiday pay earned from the days the employee did work that week.
In the case of a part-time employee who did not work during the calculation period (such as the previous four weeks), and therefore did not receive any wages, vacation pay, or holiday pay, the employee would not receive any general holiday pay.
In addition to the holiday pay detailed above, if the employee works the general holiday, she is entitled to either 1.5 times her wage rate on the general holiday, or one day’s holiday to be taken at a different time. This applies to every employee who works on the general holiday, and therefore would apply to both a new employee and an existing part-time employee.
The specifics of holiday pay entitlement varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, with some jurisdictions in addition to Alberta — such as Ontario — making recent changes.
