BC stat pay calculator
Statutory holiday pay in British Columbia is two separate amounts: an average day’s pay for the holiday, and a premium for hours actually worked on it. Most payroll errors come from paying one and not the other.
This tool does both, on the B.C. rules, and shows its work. It also settles the qualifying test first, because an employee who does not qualify is owed something different. The full rules are on the statutory holiday pay guide.
Quick answer: How to calculate stat pay in B.C.: take total wages earned in the 30 calendar days before the holiday, excluding overtime, and divide by the number of days worked in those 30 days. That average day’s pay is what the holiday itself is worth. An employee qualifies after 30 calendar days of employment having worked or earned wages on 15 of the 30 days before the holiday. Work on the holiday is paid on top: time-and-a-half to 12 hours, double time beyond 12.
Opens your own email app with the numbers filled in — add your question and a CPA replies, usually the same business day.
B.C. rules, for one employee and one statutory holiday. Averaging periods set by a collective agreement, and federally regulated employers, work differently. Estimate for orientation, not advice.
How stat pay is calculated in B.C., exactly
British Columbia does not pay a statutory holiday at the employee’s scheduled hours. It pays an average day’s pay, which is a calculation with a defined window and a defined exclusion:
| Step | What goes in |
|---|---|
| The window | The 30 calendar days immediately before the statutory holiday |
| Wages included | Regular wages, salary, commission, statutory holiday pay, paid vacation and employment-standards paid sick days |
| Wages excluded | Overtime |
| The divisor | The number of days worked — and any day on which wages were earned counts as a day worked |
| The result | Total wages ÷ days worked = an average day’s pay |
Two consequences follow, and both catch payroll out. A part-time employee who worked eight days in the window gets a larger average day than their usual shift, because the divisor is small. And a salaried employee whose pay did not vary still gets the calculation run: the answer usually lands near a normal day, but it is the calculation that is owed, not the assumption.
How you qualify for stat pay in B.C.
The entitlement is not automatic on the first day of a job. An employee qualifies when both of these are true:
- They have been employed for 30 calendar days before the statutory holiday; and
- They worked or earned wages on 15 of the 30 days immediately before it.
Days with paid vacation, another paid statutory holiday, or employment-standards paid sick leave count toward the 15 — which is why the calculator above asks for days on which wages were earned, not days at the workplace. The “work the day before and the day after” rule that some employers apply is not the test in British Columbia; it belongs to other jurisdictions.
An employee who does not qualify is not owed an average day’s pay. If they work the holiday they are paid their regular wage for the hours worked, with no premium and no holiday pay.
If the employee works the holiday
Work on a statutory holiday is paid in addition to the average day’s pay, not instead of it. For a qualifying employee:
- Time-and-a-half for the hours worked, up to 12 hours in the day;
- Double time for any hours worked beyond 12 in that day;
- Plus an average day’s pay, calculated as above.
The single most common error in the four we see is paying the premium and stopping there. The premium is compensation for working; the average day’s pay is the holiday itself. Both are owed, and the calculator above adds them so the total for the day is visible in one figure.
Which days are statutory holidays in B.C.
There are eleven: New Year’s Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, B.C. Day, Labour Day, National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, Thanksgiving Day, Remembrance Day and Christmas Day. Boxing Day, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday are not statutory holidays in British Columbia, and neither is a day an employer chooses to close. Closing on one of those is a contractual benefit, and what is owed for it is whatever the contract or the practice says — not this calculation. The dated list for the current year is on the statutory holiday pay guide.
What this calculator leaves out, on purpose
Three things, because guessing at them would make the number less useful rather than more:
- Payroll deductions. Statutory holiday pay is ordinary employment income: income tax, CPP and EI come off it the same way they come off salary, and it lands on the T4 with everything else. The payroll deduction calculator handles that side.
- Averaging agreements and collective agreements. Either can set a different averaging period, and where one applies it governs.
- Federally regulated employers. Banks, telecoms, interprovincial trucking and the rest run on the Canada Labour Code, not the B.C. Employment Standards Act, and the general holiday calculation there is a different one.
If any of the three is in play, the arithmetic above is still the right starting point — it is the rule it sits under that changes.
Stat pay questions
How do you calculate stat pay in B.C.?+
How much is stat pay in B.C.?+
How do you qualify for stat pay in B.C.?+
Do sick days count towards stat pay?+
Is Labour Day a super stat in B.C.?+
What if the holiday falls on a day off?+
Is stat pay taxed in B.C.?+
The penalty stops growing the day you file
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