Nova Scotia stat holiday pay.

Nova Scotia general holidays in 2026

The Labour Standards Code defines a “general holiday” as New Year’s Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day, Christmas Day and the third Monday in February, plus any day named by regulation or substituted for one of those days. The third Monday in February is Nova Scotia Heritage Day. The 2026 dates, from the calendar, are:

Remembrance Day (November 11) is not a general holiday under the Code. It has its own statute, the Remembrance Day Act.

How holiday pay is calculated

If you qualify and are given the day off, the employer must pay a regular day’s pay. When your hours change from day to day, the province says to average the hours worked over the 30 calendar days immediately before the holiday, divide by the days worked, and apply your wage rate.

Worked example: varying hours

You worked 20 of the 30 days before the holiday for 170 hours in total. 170 ÷ 20 = 8.5 hours per shift. At $19.00 an hour, holiday pay is 8.5 × $19.00 = $161.50.

Worked example: commissions

Commissions that you regularly earn are wages under the Code and are included. If you worked 17 of the 30 days and earned $2,040 in wages including commissions, an average day’s pay is $2,040 ÷ 17 = $120.00.

Worked example: working the holiday

If you qualify and work, you receive both a regular or average day’s pay and 1½ times your regular wage for the hours worked. With an 8-hour average day at $19.00 ($152.00) and an 8-hour shift on the holiday: $152.00 + (8 × $19.00 × 1.5 = $228.00) = $380.00.

Qualifying: “entitled to receive pay” is broader than “worked”

Section 42 of the Code requires that you have received, or are entitled to receive, pay for at least 15 of the 30 calendar days before the holiday, and that you worked your scheduled day before and after the holiday. The first test is about entitlement to pay, so paid sick days, paid training and recent vacation count. The second test is about scheduled days: if the day after the holiday is not one you were scheduled to work, you may still qualify, and if the employer told you not to report on the day before or after, that condition does not apply. An employer cannot add a probation period: the province says employers and employees cannot contract out of the minimum standards.

Special cases

• Holiday on your regular day off. A qualifying employee gets a different day off with pay: the next scheduled work day, an extra day added to annual vacation, or another day you agree on.
• Continuous operations. Employers whose operations run without stopping, including trucking, communications and services that normally run on Sundays and holidays, can instead pay straight time for hours worked and give another day off with pay. An employee in a continuous operation who is called in and does not report loses the entitlement.
• Vacation pay. Wages received for a holiday earn vacation pay.
• Remembrance Day. An employee who works on it and was entitled to pay for at least 15 of the 30 days before it may be entitled to another day off with pay, taken at the end of vacation or on a day agreed upon.

Who is not covered

The holiday pay rules do not apply to employees under a collective agreement, most farm employees, real estate and car salespeople, commissioned salespeople selling away from the employer’s premises (other than established routes), fishing-boat crews, petrochemical refining and manufacturing employees, some domestic and personal-care workers in private homes, and athletes during their sport.

This is a statutory-minimum estimate. A contract or union agreement can give more. Related: New Brunswick, stat holiday dates and stat holiday pay by province.