--- title: "How to Calculate Stat Pay in BC (2026): Formula + Calculator" url: https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog/statutory-holiday-pay-canada-employers description: "How to calculate stat pay in BC: the average day’s pay from the 30 days before, worked examples, who qualifies and pay for working it. Use the calculator." type: guide updated: 2026-10-08 summary: "In British Columbia an employee qualifies for statutory holiday pay after 30 calendar days of employment and having worked or earned wages on 15 of the 30 days before the holiday. The amount is an average day’s pay: total wages divided by days worked, with overtime excluded." faq_count: 15 publisher: EverStone CPA Inc., a Chartered Professional Accountant firm registered with CPA British Columbia and CPA Alberta service_area: British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba language: en-CA contact: info@everstonecpa.com · https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online --- [Home](https://www.everstonecpa.com/) [Blog](https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog) Statutory Holiday Pay for Employers Statutory holiday pay # Statutory holiday pay: *who qualifies, how it is calculated, and where payroll goes wrong* By EverStone CPA · Reviewed July 2026 · 10 min read Statutory holiday pay is fiddly: a qualifying test many employers get wrong, a calculation that is not simply “a day’s wages”, and a premium for working the day that stacks on top. It is easy to get quietly wrong for years. An employer in BC also needs [WorkSafeBC registration](https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog/workers-compensation-registration-bc). Related: [Home care agency accounting and shift payroll](https://www.everstonecpa.com/accountant-for-home-care-agencies-bc). **Free: The 2026 payroll remittance calendar** The payroll dates that surround every stat holiday, on one page. No email wall — it’s just useful. [Download the PDF](https://www.everstonecpa.com/downloads/everstone-payroll-remittance-calendar.pdf) **Quick answer:** In British Columbia an employee qualifies for statutory holiday pay after 30 calendar days of employment and having worked or earned wages on 15 of the 30 days before the holiday. The amount is an average day’s pay: total wages divided by days worked, with overtime excluded. **Stat pay on every holiday, done right?** We run your payroll with stat pay, vacation pay and remittances calculated each time, included in bookkeeping from $325 a month. [Get My Fixed Quote](https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online?service=payroll#enquiry-form) **Want the number now?** Use the [BC stat pay calculator](https://www.everstonecpa.com/bc-stat-holiday-pay-calculator), then come back for the rules behind it. The four errors at the end of this guide are the ones that turn up in a PIER report. [Have payroll handled](https://www.everstonecpa.com/payroll-services-canada), or [ask about one employee’s pay](https://www.everstonecpa.com/quick-question). When employment ends or is interrupted, [a record of employment is due within days](https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog/roe-record-of-employment-canada). BC: the day-before/day-after rule is not the test here. **Employment standards are provincial.** Vacation entitlement, statutory holidays and termination notice are set by each province or territory (or by the *Canada Labour Code* for federally regulated employers such as banks, airlines, telecoms and interprovincial trucking). This guide is written for **British Columbia**. If you employ people in Alberta, Ontario or anywhere else, the minimums are different — check your own province’s employment standards branch before you run the numbers. The payroll and tax treatment described further down is federal and applies across Canada. ## B.C. stat holiday rules: the 2026 statutory holidays British Columbia recognizes eleven statutory holidays. For 2026 they fall on New Year’s Day (Thursday, January 1), Family Day (Monday, February 16), Good Friday (Friday, April 3), Victoria Day (Monday, May 18), Canada Day (Wednesday, July 1), B.C. Day (Monday, August 3), Labour Day (Monday, September 7), National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Wednesday, September 30), Thanksgiving Day (Monday, October 12), Remembrance Day (Wednesday, November 11) and Christmas Day (Friday, December 25). Easter Sunday, Easter Monday and Boxing Day are *not* statutory holidays in B.C. Closing on them is a contractual benefit, not a statutory one. Employers and employees can also agree **in writing** to substitute a different day, which is then treated exactly like the holiday. ## Stat pay eligibility in B.C.: the qualifying test This is the single most commonly misapplied rule in B.C. payroll. An employee qualifies for statutory holiday pay if they have: - been employed for **30 calendar days**, *and* - worked or earned wages on **15 of the 30 days** immediately before the statutory holiday. Any day with wages earned counts — paid vacation, other paid statutory holidays and employment-standards paid sick days all count toward the 15. The “work the day before and the day after” rule does *not* apply in B.C. An employee who does not qualify gets regular pay for working the holiday. Some employees are excluded entirely by regulation, including managers, farm workers, fishers, and certain commissioned and high-technology roles. Car and truck salespeople and silviculture workers can be excluded where they receive 4.4% on each cheque in lieu. If your workforce includes any of these, confirm the specific regulation before assuming the general rule applies. **Employer with staff to pay for the holiday?** EverStone runs the qualifying test and the average-day calculation inside your payroll, with payroll part of monthly bookkeeping from $325 a month. If you are the employee checking your own cheque, the guide above is all you need. See [our payroll service](https://www.everstonecpa.com/payroll-services-canada), or [get a payroll quote](https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online). [Get My Fixed Quote](https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online) ## Stat pay calculation in B.C.: an average day’s pay The arithmetic below is done for you by the [BC stat pay calculator](https://www.everstonecpa.com/bc-stat-holiday-pay-calculator), which settles the qualifying test first and shows every step. It is the stat pay calculator BC employers can use to check a part-timer’s average day before the pay run. - **Add up total wages for the 30 calendar days before the holiday** — regular wages, salary, commission, statutory holiday pay, paid vacation and paid sick days. Leave overtime out. - **Count the days worked in those 30 days** — any day wages were earned, including paid vacation days, other paid statutory holidays and paid sick days. - **Divide total wages by days worked.** That is the statutory holiday pay: an average day, not eight hours at the usual rate. Statutory holiday pay is not “eight hours at the usual rate.” The formula is: **Total wages number of days worked = statutory holiday pay** — measured over the **30 calendar days before the statutory holiday**. Include all wages: regular wages, salary, commission, statutory holiday pay, paid vacation and employment-standards paid sick days. **Exclude overtime.** Days worked means any day on which wages were earned, including paid vacation days, other paid statutory holidays and paid sick days. Part-time and irregular-hours staff get a genuine average, not a notional full day; a busy month lifts it, overtime does not. For fixed-hours salaried staff it is close to a normal day’s pay, so the formula gets ignored until a part-timer joins. That is how to calculate stat pay in BC: an average day’s pay, worked out as total wages divided by days worked, with overtime left out. ## Working on a stat holiday under B.C. employment standards The premium stacks: a qualifying employee who works the holiday gets **time-and-a-half for hours worked**, **double time for hours worked beyond 12**, *plus* an average day’s pay. B.C.'s example, with a $150 average day: seven hours earns time-and-a-half for seven hours plus $150; 14 hours earns time-and-a-half for 12, double time for 2, plus $150. A statutory holiday on an employee’s regular or scheduled day off still earns an average day’s pay. One that lands during annual vacation may qualify for statutory holiday pay, but not an extra day off. The interaction with [vacation pay](https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog/vacation-pay-rules-canada-employers) often causes quiet underpayment. ## Four errors that recur - **Using the wrong qualifying test.** The day-before/day-after rule is not B.C. law. Use 30 days employed and 15 of the last 30 days with wages earned. - **Including overtime in the average.** It inflates the average day’s pay and, over a year, meaningfully overstates the cost. - **Treating the premium as a replacement.** Time-and-a-half is *in addition to* the average day’s pay for a qualifying employee, not instead of it. - **Forgetting accrued statutory holiday pay on termination.** It is one of the wage categories that must be settled in the [final pay](https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog/terminating-an-employee-canada-final-pay). ## The payroll side Federally, withholding is simple: income tax, [CPP contributions](https://www.everstonecpa.com/tax-update/cpp-base-rate-reduction) and EI premiums on holiday pay are calculated as for regular salary, and the amount goes on the T4 as employment income. The complexity is in the entitlement. Keep the 30-day calculation in your [year-end payroll file](https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog/payroll-year-end-checklist-canada); it answers a complaint quickly. For a largely part-time or shift-based workforce, having a CPA set it up once through [payroll services](https://www.everstonecpa.com/payroll-services-canada) usually costs less than rebuilding three years of averages later. Running payroll through your own corporation puts you on the other side of these rules. For the answer that fits your company, [send the question](https://www.everstonecpa.com/quick-question); a CPA usually replies the same business day. The averaging and eligibility rules are easier to apply against the year’s actual figures — the [2026 payroll quick card](https://www.everstonecpa.com/payroll-quick-card) puts the CPP, CPP2 and EI numbers on one page. Sources - [B.C. Employment Standards — Statutory holidays (2026 dates)](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/employment-standards-advice/employment-standards/statutory-holidays) - [B.C. Employment Standards — Qualify for statutory holiday pay](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/employment-standards-advice/employment-standards/statutory-holidays/qualify-for-statutory-holiday-pay) - [B.C. Employment Standards — Calculate statutory holiday pay](https://www2.gov.bc.ca/gov/content/employment-business/employment-standards-advice/employment-standards/statutory-holidays/calculate-statutory-holiday-pay) - [Canada Revenue Agency — Vacation pay and public holidays (payroll deductions and reporting)](https://www.canada.ca/en/revenue-agency/services/tax/businesses/topics/payroll/payroll-deductions-contributions/special-payments/vacation-pay-public-holidays.html) This article is general information, current as of July 2026, not tax, legal or accounting advice. Please [speak with a CPA](https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online) before acting on it. About this article **EverStone CPA** Prepared and reviewed by a CPA at EverStone CPA, serving businesses in BC, Alberta, Ontario and Manitoba. [About the firm →](https://www.everstonecpa.com/about) · [Send an enquiry →](https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online) Working through this locally? We advise owners on it as a [CPA for Abbotsford owners](https://www.everstonecpa.com/accountant-abbotsford). ### Keep reading [Vacation pay rules for employers →](https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog/vacation-pay-rules-canada-employers) [Hiring your first employee →](https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog/hiring-first-employee-canada-checklist) [Payroll services →](https://www.everstonecpa.com/payroll-services-canada) ## Stat pay in the Fraser Valley: four situations we see **A Mission trades crew.** Crews that move between sites in Mission, Maple Ridge and Abbotsford are still one employer’s employees; the statutory holiday is owed by the employer, not the site. The eligibility test above is applied per employee, and a new hire who started three weeks ago usually fails it for the first holiday. [Accountant in Mission BC](https://www.everstonecpa.com/accountant-mission). **A Chilliwack farm.** BC’s Employment Standards Regulation treats farm workers differently and excludes some categories from statutory-holiday pay. Check the exclusion for the actual role first. [Farm accountant in Chilliwack](https://www.everstonecpa.com/farm-accountant-chilliwack). **A Surrey construction company.** Where a holiday falls inside a project, the day is paid at the stat rate and the cost belongs to that job’s labour line, not to overhead — which matters when the job is bid on hours. [Contractor accountants in Surrey](https://www.everstonecpa.com/contractor-accountant-surrey). **A Maple Ridge employer with a first hire.** The first stat holiday after hiring is where most small payrolls first go wrong; it is one of the reasons we set up the payroll calendar before the first pay run. [Payroll services in Maple Ridge](https://www.everstonecpa.com/payroll-services-maple-ridge). Common questions Never miss it again Subscribe to our Canadian tax deadline calendar — the fixed CRA dates land in your calendar every year with a reminder a week ahead. Payroll with us is part of the monthly package, from $325 a month with bookkeeping and GST/PST filings included. [Add the deadline calendar](https://www.everstonecpa.com/cra-tax-deadlines#ics) ## Frequently asked questions about statutory Holiday Pay for Employers **Who qualifies for statutory holiday pay in B.C.?** An employee qualifies after 30 calendar days’ employment, having worked or earned wages on 15 of the 30 days before the holiday. Paid vacation, another paid statutory holiday and employment-standards paid sick leave count toward the 15. The “day before and day after” rule used elsewhere is not B.C.’s test. **How is statutory holiday pay calculated?** Divide total wages, excluding overtime, by days worked over the 30 calendar days before the holiday; the result is an average day’s pay. Wages include regular pay, salary, commission, statutory holiday pay, paid vacation and employment-standards paid sick days, and any day wages were earned counts as a day worked. **What do I pay an employee who works on a statutory holiday?** A qualifying employee gets time-and-a-half for hours worked, double time for hours beyond 12 in the day, plus an average day’s pay. The premium is in addition to the holiday pay, not a replacement for it. An employee who does not qualify receives regular pay for the hours worked. **Is Boxing Day a statutory holiday in British Columbia?** No. Boxing Day, Easter Sunday and Easter Monday are not B.C. statutory holidays. The 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, Remembrance Day, Christmas Day. Closing on other days is contractual, not statutory. **What if a statutory holiday falls on a day off or during vacation?** A regular or scheduled day off that falls on a statutory holiday earns an average day’s pay. A holiday falling during annual vacation may qualify for statutory holiday pay for that day, with no additional day off. Employer and employee can also agree in writing to substitute a different day. **How is statutory holiday pay taxed?** The same way as regular salary: income tax, CPP contributions and EI premiums are calculated as for ordinary earnings, and the amount is reported as employment income on the T4. The complexity is in the entitlement. **How do you calculate stat pay in B.C.?** Total wages in the 30 calendar days before the holiday, excluding overtime, divided by the days worked in that window. The [BC stat pay calculator](https://www.everstonecpa.com/bc-stat-holiday-pay-calculator) does the arithmetic and settles the qualifying test first. [Ask about your case →](https://www.everstonecpa.com/quick-question) **How much is stat pay in B.C.?** One average day’s pay, which is a calculation rather than a fixed number of hours. Add time-and-a-half to 12 hours and double time beyond if the employee also works the day. **Do sick days count towards stat pay?** Employment-standards paid sick days count as days on which wages were earned, so they count both toward the 15-of-30 qualifying test and in the divisor of the average day’s pay. Unpaid sick days do not. **Is Labour Day a super stat in B.C.?** There is no “super stat” in British Columbia law. Labour Day is one of the eleven statutory holidays and is paid like the rest: an average day’s pay, plus the premium if it is worked. **Is vacation pay taxed in B.C.?** Yes. Vacation pay and statutory holiday pay are employment income: income tax, CPP and EI are withheld as they are on salary, and both appear on the T4. **How does stat pay work in B.C.?** Qualify first — 30 calendar days employed, wages earned on 15 of the 30 days before the holiday. Then the holiday itself is worth an average day’s pay, and any hours actually worked on it are paid on top at a premium. **Do part-time employees get stat pay in B.C.?** Yes, on the same test as everyone else: 30 calendar days of employment, and wages earned on 15 of the 30 days before the holiday. Paid vacation and paid sick days count toward the 15. The amount is the same average day’s pay: wages over those 30 days divided by the days worked. **What are the B.C. stat pay rules, in short?** Qualify with 30 calendar days of employment and wages on 15 of the last 30 days; pay an average day’s pay for the holiday, with overtime left out of the average. The “work the day before and the day after” rule from other provinces does not apply in B.C. **How much is holiday pay in B.C.?** A qualifying employee gets an average day’s pay for each of the eleven statutory holidays: total wages over the 30 calendar days before the holiday, excluding overtime, divided by the days worked in that window. If they also work the holiday, add time-and-a-half for the hours worked and double time beyond 12 hours. An employee who does not qualify gets regular pay for hours worked. ## Running payroll for a B.C. team? Send us your head count and pay frequency. A CPA replies by email within one business day with a fixed monthly fee that covers stat pay, remittances, ROEs and T4s. [Get My Fixed Quote](https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online)[Book a Paid Advice Call](https://www.everstonecpa.com/advice-call) ## Have a question about this? Ask free through [the quick-question form](https://www.everstonecpa.com/quick-question); a CPA replies within one business day. Need more? A 45-minute **Advice Call** is $225 plus GST, credited to your first invoice if you become a client within 60 days. Want us to take it on? [Send an enquiry](https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online). [Ask a Free Question](https://www.everstonecpa.com/quick-question) [Book a Paid Advice Call](https://www.everstonecpa.com/advice-call) Email info@everstonecpa.com ★★★★★ “…have been completing my bookkeeping, taxes and financials for the last 2 years and they have been amazing. Thank you!” R. H. · Google review **Run your own numbers with the free calculators:** [estimate your instalment payments](https://www.everstonecpa.com/tax-instalment-calculator) · [Salary vs dividends calculator](https://www.everstonecpa.com/salary-vs-dividends-calculator) · [when the T2 has to be filed](https://www.everstonecpa.com/t2-deadline-calculator) [← Small business deduction: the $50,000 passive income rule](https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog/small-business-deduction-passive-income-canada) [Subcontractor or employee? CRA’s tests for construction businesses →](https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog/subcontractor-vs-employee-cra) More on this subject: [everything on payroll and remittances](https://www.everstonecpa.com/payroll-hub). --- Source: https://www.everstonecpa.com/blog/statutory-holiday-pay-canada-employers Prices: https://www.everstonecpa.com/pricing · Contact: info@everstonecpa.com · https://www.everstonecpa.com/book-online