Stat holidays in Saskatchewan 2026 and 2027: Dates and pay rules explained

The Monday before Thanksgiving, the office manager at a Saskatoon machine shop opens the pay run and finds two sticky notes. One is about a welder who’s scheduled to work the holiday. The other is about a new hire who started on Friday and wants to know whether he’s paid for it. Both are questions about Saskatchewan stat holidays, and both have clear answers once you know where to look.

Where to look changed on January 1, 2026, when the Employment Standards Regulations, 2025 (ESR) took effect and consolidated the province’s employment standards framework into a single set of rules. Every province keeps its own holiday list and formulas, so managing statutory holidays by province takes close attention to local rules. Our statutory holidays by province resource compares them.

On the Saskatchewan stat holidays 2026 calendar, the next date is Thanksgiving on Monday, October 12. This guide covers all 10 recognized holidays, who qualifies for pay, the exact calculation and how the October 1 minimum wage increase to $15.70 lifted the floor under premium pay. It also explains how to move a holiday to another day without a permit.

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What are the statutory holidays in Saskatchewan?

Saskatchewan has exactly 10 statutory holidays, which the province’s employment standards legislation calls public holidays. The 10 are:

• New Year’s Day
• Family Day
• Good Friday
• Victoria Day
• Canada Day
• Saskatchewan Day
• Labour Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• Remembrance Day
• Christmas Day

Five of these are national holidays: New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day and Christmas Day. The other five are regional: Family Day, Victoria Day, Saskatchewan Day, Thanksgiving Day and Remembrance Day.

Saskatchewan statutory holidays 2026 and 2027

Thanksgiving always falls on the second Monday in October, Family Day on the third Monday in February and Saskatchewan Day on the first Monday in August.

Days that aren’t statutory holidays

Easter Monday, Christmas Eve and Boxing Day aren’t public holidays under Saskatchewan employment standards law. Employers can choose to observe them, and if you do, put the policy in writing.

What about September 30?

The National Day for Truth and Reconciliation is a statutory holiday for employees in federally regulated workplaces. It isn’t a public holiday under The Saskatchewan Employment Act, so it isn’t a minimum requirement for provincially regulated employers and their employees. A workplace can still observe it through an employer policy or a collective bargaining agreement. The provincial NDP renewed its call in late September 2026 for the day to become an official provincial holiday, and it remains unrecognized provincially.

When a holiday falls on a weekend

The rules differ by day of the week:

• Saturday. A public holiday that falls on a Saturday isn’t observed on another day. Christmas Day 2027 is a Saturday, so no weekday is added.
• Sunday. If your workplace is normally open on Sundays, the public holiday rules apply to that Sunday. If it’s normally closed on Sundays and New Year’s Day, Christmas Day or Remembrance Day falls on a Sunday, the following Monday is the public holiday. When Canada Day falls on a Sunday, federal legislation moves it to Monday, July 2.

None of the 2027 holidays land on a Sunday.

Saskatchewan statutory holiday eligibility rules

Saskatchewan sets no minimum length of service for public holiday pay. An employee is eligible from their first day on the job, which means the new hire in the machine shop is covered.

The other eligibility points are just as direct:

• Pay method doesn’t matter. Salaried and hourly employees are both eligible.
• Hours don’t matter. Full-time and part-time employees are both eligible.
• Salaried employees are entitled to public holiday pay, though their normal salary or a paid day off can satisfy some or all of the required amount. The calculation section below shows how.
• Employment must be ongoing. An employee who quits, is laid off or is terminated before the holiday isn’t entitled to public holiday pay for that day.
• Federally regulated employees follow federal general-holiday rules instead of Saskatchewan’s provincial rules.

For the wider picture on hiring, hours of work, leaves and more, see our Saskatchewan employment standards guide.

How to calculate statutory holiday pay in Saskatchewan

Public holiday pay in Saskatchewan equals 5% of the wages an employee earned in the 28 days (four weeks) before the holiday. That’s the amount owed to an employee who doesn’t work the holiday.

Public holiday pay = 5% × wages earned in the 28 days before the holiday

Follow these steps:

1. Add up all wages earned in the 28 days before the holiday.
2. Include vacation pay for vacation taken during those 4 weeks.
3. Include public holiday pay received for any other holiday that fell in the same period.
4. Leave out overtime.
5. Multiply the total by 5%.

Here’s how common pay types sort out:

Because vacation pay and earlier holiday pay both feed the total, a holiday that follows another one closely, such as Christmas Day and New Year’s Day, draws on a slightly larger base than an ordinary week would.

Worked example: Peter

Peter earns $18 an hour and worked 76 hours over the past 4 weeks, so his wages were $1,368. His public holiday pay is $1,368 × 5% = $68.40.

New hires

A new employee who has worked for less than 4 weeks is still paid. Their public holiday pay is 5% of the regular wages they earned before the holiday. If the machine shop’s new hire earned $1,200 in his first two weeks, his holiday pay is $60.

Salaried employees

A salaried employee who gets the day off with pay has already been paid part of the amount. Take the 5% figure and subtract the day’s salary. Say an employee earns $1,000 a week on a five-day schedule, which is $200 a day, and earned $4,000 over the 4 weeks. 5% of $4,000 is $200, and the $200 day’s salary covers all of it, so nothing more is owed. If that employee also earned $1,000 in commission, the total is $5,000, the 5% figure is $250 and the balance owed is $50.

Construction employees

Hourly-paid construction employees follow a different formula. Their public holiday pay is 4% of wages earned in the calendar year, excluding overtime and vacation pay. It must be paid on or before December 31 of the year it was earned, or within 14 days of termination. An hourly construction employee who earned $52,000 in regular wages during the year is owed $2,080.

The Government of Saskatchewan also offers a public holiday pay calculator for checking individual cases, and our statutory holiday pay guide explains how the concept works across Canada.

Tired of rebuilding the four-week wage total every time a holiday comes around?

Rules and premium pay for working on a statutory holiday

Employees who work on a public holiday generally receive two things: their public holiday pay (the 5% calculation) plus premium pay of 1.5 times their regular hourly rate for every hour worked. The 1.5 times rate applies to most employees, including managers and professionals.

Here’s the quick reference for a standard employee:

Worked example: Jane

Jane earns $16 an hour and works four 8-hour shifts each week, and she works an 8-hour shift on a public holiday.

• Regular public holiday pay: 4 weeks × 4 shifts × 8 hours = 128 hours. 128 × $16 = $2,048. $2,048 × 5% = $102.40
• Premium pay: 8 hours × $16 × 1.5 = $192.00
• Total: $102.40 + $192.00 = $294.40

The minimum wage effect

Saskatchewan’s general minimum wage rose to $15.70 an hour on October 1, 2026, up from $15.35. At that rate, the lowest premium an employer can pay is $15.70 × 1.5 = $23.55 an hour. An employee working 8 hours at that rate earns $188.40 in premium pay. The higher wage also flows into the 5% calculation as the 4-week window moves past October 1. Our guide to the Saskatchewan minimum wage tracks the rate.

A common misconception about substitute days

Some HR blogs tell employers they can pay a working employee regular wages plus a substitute day off with pay instead of the premium. Saskatchewan’s employment standards legislation has no general option like that. A standard employee who works a public holiday must receive 1.5 times their regular hourly rate for all hours worked on top of their public holiday pay. The employee doesn’t choose between premium pay and a substitute day, and neither does the employer.

Where a day off does come into play

There are two situations where a different day off enters the picture:

• Exempt industries. Full-time employees in hospitals, educational institutions, nursing homes, hotels and restaurants who work a public holiday receive 1.5 times their regular rate for the hours worked, plus either public holiday pay or a day off at regular pay within the four-week period in which the holiday falls.
• A substituted holiday. If the holiday itself has been moved for the workplace before anyone works it, the substitute day is the holiday. The next section explains how that works.

Special public holiday rules also exist for employees who operate well drilling rigs and those who work in commercial hog operations.

Substituting statutory holidays under the 2026 rules

Since the ESR took effect on January 1, 2026, an employer no longer has to apply to the Director of Employment Standards for a permit to observe a public holiday on another day. Under section 5-7, an employer can substitute another day for a public holiday by written agreement with the employee, or with a majority of employees when several are affected, as long as two conditions are met:

• The holiday isn’t Remembrance Day. Remembrance Day can’t be moved through the ordinary substitution process.
• The substituted day falls within four weeks of the original holiday.

A permit from the Director is still the route when either condition can’t be met, for example when the new day would fall beyond four weeks.

Here’s what changed in practice:

• Before January 1, 2026: every move needed an application to the Director of Employment Standards and a permit.
• Since January 1, 2026: a written agreement covers most moves, provided it’s with the employee or a majority of employees and the new day falls within four weeks.

The ESR also added a record-keeping requirement. Employers must keep a record of any public holiday substitution agreement for two years. Store the signed agreement with your payroll records so it’s easy to find if a question comes up later.

Overtime rules during a statutory holiday week

In a week that includes a public holiday, Saskatchewan employees generally qualify for weekly overtime after 32 hours instead of the usual 40. Hours worked on the holiday itself aren’t counted toward those 32 hours, because they already earn the 1.5 times holiday premium.

Take the week of Labour Day 2027. An employee takes Monday, September 6 off, works eight hours a day from Tuesday to Friday and then four hours on Saturday. Tuesday to Friday gives them 32 hours, and the four hours on Saturday are all overtime. If they had worked Monday instead, those eight hours would have earned the holiday premium and still wouldn’t have counted toward the 32.

Daily overtime rules still apply as well. They follow the employee’s regular schedule, so overtime kicks in after 8 or 10 hours in a day regardless of the weekly total.

What the machine shop’s pay run looked like

By Tuesday morning, the office manager had both answers. The new hire was eligible from his first day, and his public holiday pay was 5% of what he’d earned so far. The welder was owed his public holiday pay plus 1.5 times his hourly rate for every hour he worked on Monday.

Most holiday pay questions in Saskatchewan resolve in the same order. Confirm the employee is still on the payroll, calculate 5% of the 28-day wages without overtime, add 1.5 times the hourly rate for any hours worked and check whether the holiday has been moved by a written agreement within four weeks. The ESR rules have been in effect since January 1, 2026, so there’s nothing left to wait for.

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