Stat holidays in Manitoba 2027: List and employer pay rules

Picture the Tuesday before Labour Day in a Winnipeg bakery. Marcus works eight hours every weekday, so his holiday pay takes one line on the pay run. Priya’s schedule swings between 12 and 31 hours a week, and her holiday pay rests on a different formula: a 4-week window of past earnings and two particular shifts, the last one before the long weekend and the first one after it.

That gap between steady hours and variable hours is where most of the confusion over stat holidays in Manitoba 2027 begins. The dates are easy to find. The pay rules for part-time and varying-hours staff take more care, and a few recent changes, including a new limit on sick notes and a higher minimum wage, have shifted some familiar habits.

This guide covers all nine 2027 dates, the exact eligibility test, the math for each type of employee and the edge cases that catch payroll teams out. Every rule comes from Manitoba’s Employment Standards Code and the province’s own fact sheets, so you can plan your next holiday pay run with confidence.

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What are the statutory holidays in Manitoba in 2027?

Manitoba has nine statutory holidays, which the Employment Standards Code (the Code) calls general holidays. Employers regulated by the Code must give employees time off with pay on these days or pay a premium to those who work.

• New Year’s Day
• Louis Riel Day
• Good Friday
• Victoria Day
• Canada Day
• Labour Day
• National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (Orange Shirt Day)
• Thanksgiving Day
• Christmas Day

Here are the Manitoba stat holidays 2027 employers need to plan around, with dates taken from the Manitoba government’s published schedule:

Two dates deserve a second look. Louis Riel Day always lands on the third Monday in February, which makes it February 15 in 2027, so last year’s February 16 won’t carry over. Christmas Day falls on a Saturday, which matters for anyone who doesn’t normally work weekends. The scheduling section below explains what they’re owed.

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, also known as Orange Shirt Day, is a recognized provincial statutory holiday in Manitoba and falls on Thursday, September 30, 2027. It’s also the one general holiday that can’t be swapped for another day.

These rules apply to provincially regulated employers. Federally regulated employers, such as banks, telecoms and interprovincial transport companies, follow the Canada Labour Code instead. If you manage people in more than one province, our statutory holidays by province resource is a useful companion.

Non-statutory and optional holidays in Manitoba

Several days feel like holidays without being general holidays under the Code. Easter Sunday (March 28), Terry Fox Day (the first Monday in August, which is August 2 in 2027) and Boxing Day (December 26) aren’t general holidays, so employees who don’t work those days don’t have to be paid for them. Easter Monday isn’t one either. Employers can choose to treat any of these days as paid, and if you do, put it in writing in your policy or employment agreements so everyone knows where they stand.

Remembrance Day follows its own rules

Remembrance Day (Thursday, November 11, 2027) sits in a category of its own. The Remembrance Day Act governs it as an official day of observance, with operating restrictions and pay rules that no optional holiday comes with.

The headline restriction hits retail. Retail businesses can open on November 11 but must stay closed between 9:00 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. The rule covers most businesses that sell goods or services, including tradespeople, professional services, rental companies and venues that charge admission. A short list of exceptions applies, such as businesses selling medicines or gasoline. Restaurants and hotels can operate normally, and industries like hospitals, emergency services, utilities and farming can work the day.

Employees who don’t work on Remembrance Day aren’t required to be paid, though many employers choose to. Employees who do work are paid at least half a normal workday at 1.5 times their regular wage. Someone who normally works eight hours and comes in for two is paid four hours at 1.5 times. If they work more than half their normal hours, they receive 1.5 times for every hour worked. Either way, they also receive a regular day’s pay, or 5% of their gross earnings from the 28 days before November 11 if their hours vary. Unlike general holidays, Remembrance Day can’t be moved to another day.

Eligibility rules for general holiday pay in Manitoba

Nearly every employee in Manitoba qualifies for general holiday pay, part-time and brand-new staff included. Attendance around the holiday decides who doesn’t.

Length of service doesn’t matter

The Code sets no minimum time on the job. An employee who starts one day before a general holiday receives 5% of the wages earned on that day as general holiday pay. If a new hire earns $160 on that first day, that’s $8.00. The amount is small, and the obligation is the same.

The first and last shift rule

To receive general holiday pay, an employee must work their last regularly scheduled shift before the holiday and their first regularly scheduled shift after it. An employee who is scheduled to work on the holiday itself and doesn’t show up loses the pay too.

Online advice often adds a “reasonable cause” exception for missed shifts. The Code doesn’t contain one. The only exception is permission: an employee who is absent from either shift with the employer’s permission still qualifies for the pay. An employee who is absent without permission doesn’t.

Take Canada Day 2027, which lands on a Thursday. If Priya is scheduled on Wednesday, June 30 and again on Friday, July 2, those are the two shifts that count. Suppose she misses the Wednesday shift after phoning in and getting a yes from her manager. Her holiday pay stays. Suppose she doesn’t show up and doesn’t call. Her holiday pay goes. That makes your response to a call-in the deciding moment.

Where Bill 11 fits in

Since October 1, 2026, Bill 11 (The Employment Standards Code Amendment Act, Sick Notes for Employee Absences) has limited when employers can ask for medical notes. An employer can require one only when an illness or injury absence runs for more than 7 consecutive days, or when the employee has been absent for illness or injury on more than 10 scheduled workdays in the calendar year.

For holiday pay, that changes the paperwork around short absences. A single sick shift before a long weekend usually falls below both thresholds, so a note isn’t something you can require. Record the call-in instead: who phoned, when and whether you gave permission. The Code doesn’t spell out how the sick note limit and the permission test work together, so for grey areas, Manitoba Employment Standards is the best place to ask.

Who doesn’t qualify

Election officials, enumerators and other temporary people appointed under The Elections Act aren’t entitled to general holiday pay. Employees who resign before a holiday also lose the entitlement, which the termination section below covers.

For a wider review of your obligations under the Code, our Manitoba employment standards compliance checklist helps you work through the rest.

How to calculate general holiday pay in Manitoba

General holiday pay depends on how predictable the schedule is. Employees who work the same number of hours each day receive one regular day’s pay. Employees whose hours or wages vary receive 5% of their gross wages, excluding overtime, from the 4 weeks immediately before the holiday. Our statutory holiday pay guide explains how the concept works across Canada, and the table below sets out Manitoba’s methods side by side.

The 4-week window counts back from the holiday itself, so every holiday has its own set of earnings to total. Priya’s weeks before Labour Day were 12, 31, 20 and 25 hours at $18 an hour. That’s 88 hours and $1,584 in gross wages, so her general holiday pay is $79.20.

Minimum wage earners sit at the bottom of these calculations. Manitoba’s general minimum wage rose to $16.40 an hour on October 1, 2026, which sets the floor under most employees’ regular wage. Eight hours at $16.40 is $131.20. Our Manitoba minimum wage rates page tracks the history if you need to check a rate for an earlier pay period.

Construction is the exception to the 5% method. Workers in the industry receive 4% of their gross earnings as general holiday pay, and employers often add it to every cheque. A new Construction Industry Minimum Wage Regulation, made under The Construction Industry Wages Act, came into force on September 1, 2025. It updated the minimum wage schedules for the industrial, commercial and institutional (ICI) and heavy construction sectors and sets further increases on May 1 in 2026 and 2027. Because the 4% applies to gross earnings, those schedules shape the earnings the percentage is taken from.

Got a payroll calendar full of part-time and varying-hours schedules?

Working on a general holiday: Premium pay and exceptions

Employees who work on a general holiday are normally entitled to 1.5 times their regular rate of pay for the hours worked, on top of their general holiday pay.

Take an employee earning $20 an hour on a steady 8-hour schedule who works Labour Day (September 6, 2027). Eight hours at $30 is $240. Add the $160 of general holiday pay, and the day totals $400.

Some workplaces have an alternative. Employers operating a gas station, hospital, hotel, restaurant, place of amusement, continuously operating business, climate-controlled agricultural business or seasonal industry (construction excluded), or employing domestic workers, can pay regular wages for the hours worked on the holiday. In exchange, they must give another day off with general holiday pay within the next 30 days. If the employer and employees agree, that day off can be taken any time before the employees’ next annual vacation.

Special scheduling, substitutions and termination rules

These are the situations that send payroll administrators back to the Code.

Holidays on weekends and days off

When a general holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday that an employee doesn’t normally work, the employee gets the next regular workday off with general holiday pay. When it falls on a weekday the employee doesn’t normally work, the employer gives them a normal workday off with pay before their next vacation or at another time they agree on. Christmas Day 2027 is a Saturday, so for a Monday-to-Friday employee that means Monday, December 27 off with pay.

Holidays during a vacation

General holidays don’t count as vacation days. If one falls during an employee’s vacation, the employee receives another day off with pay, plus general holiday wages for the day of the holiday.

Substituting another day

Employers may substitute another day for any general holiday except Orange Shirt Day, for both general holiday pay and wages for hours worked. The substitution needs either a collective agreement or the written agreement of a majority of employees, and the substituted day must fall within 12 months of the general holiday. Employment Standards doesn’t need to approve it, but keep a copy of the agreement on file.

When employment ends

If an employer ends employment before a general holiday, the employee is still entitled to general holiday pay of 5% of total wages, excluding overtime but including wages in lieu of notice, for the 4 weeks immediately before the holiday. That pay goes out with the final wages, no later than 10 business days after employment ends. An employee who resigns before the holiday has no entitlement to pay for it.

Before your next long weekend

Back at the bakery, Marcus’s holiday pay is a single line: eight hours at his regular rate. Priya’s takes a little more. Total her earnings from the 4 weeks before the holiday, take 5% and confirm she worked the shifts on either side or had permission to miss one. Neither task is hard once you know which rules apply to which employee.

Load the nine 2027 dates into your payroll calendar, with Louis Riel Day on February 15. Before each holiday, sort your team by steady hours and varying hours, pull the 4-week earnings for the second group and keep a written record of any call-ins around the long weekend. When a situation falls outside these rules, Manitoba Employment Standards is the authority to ask.

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