Arkansas holiday pay laws guarantee 11 paid holidays to state government employees under Arkansas Code 1-5-101, but they impose no holiday pay obligation at all on private employers.1Justia. Arkansas Code 1-5-101 – Official Holidays If you work in the private sector, your right to a paid holiday, or to extra pay for working one, comes from your employer’s policy or your employment contract. Nothing in state or federal wage law requires it.
If You Work for a Private Employer
No Arkansas statute requires private employers to provide paid holidays, to give you the day off, or to pay a premium rate for holiday shifts. The federal Fair Labor Standards Act takes the same position: the U.S. Department of Labor describes holiday benefits as “generally a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee (or the employee’s representative).”2U.S. Department of Labor. Holiday Pay
Check your handbook, offer letter, or union contract. That is where your actual holiday rights live. Many Arkansas employers do offer paid holidays or premium rates voluntarily, but those are company policies and not legal entitlements.
One federal rule still applies on holidays: overtime. Hours you work on a holiday count toward your 40-hour workweek. If a Thanksgiving shift pushes you past 40 hours in that week, you are owed time-and-a-half on the excess hours, same as any other day.3U.S. Department of Labor. Overtime Pay The holiday itself does not trigger premium pay under federal law; only crossing 40 hours does.
State Employees: The 11 Official Holidays
Arkansas Code 1-5-101 designates these paid holidays for state workers:1Justia. Arkansas Code 1-5-101 – Official Holidays
- New Year’s Day, January 1
- Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, third Monday in January
- George Washington’s Birthday and Daisy Gatson Bates Day, third Monday in February
- Memorial Day, last Monday in May
- Independence Day, July 4
- Labor Day, first Monday in September
- Veterans Day, November 11
- Thanksgiving Day, fourth Thursday in November
- Christmas Eve, December 24
- Christmas Day, December 25
- The employee’s own birthday, as a floating holiday
When a holiday falls on a Saturday, state employees observe it the preceding Friday. When it falls on a Sunday, the following Monday becomes the observed day. The rule applies to every holiday on the list, so a weekend date never erases the benefit.1Justia. Arkansas Code 1-5-101 – Official Holidays
The Rule That Trips People Up: Pay Status Before and After
To receive holiday pay as a state employee, you must be on pay status both the last scheduled workday before the holiday and the first scheduled workday after it.4Justia. Arkansas Code 1-5-104 – Entitlement to Paid Holiday or Equivalent Time Pay status means you are either working or on approved paid leave. Call in without approved leave on either bookend day, and you lose the holiday pay entirely.
If you are planning time around a holiday, make sure those two bookend days are covered by paid leave that has been approved in advance.
When a Holiday Falls During Your Leave
If a holiday falls inside a stretch of annual or sick leave, it is charged as a holiday and not deducted from your leave balance.4Justia. Arkansas Code 1-5-104 – Entitlement to Paid Holiday or Equivalent Time Take a week of vacation that includes Thanksgiving and you spend four days of annual leave, not five.
FMLA leave works differently. Because FMLA leave is typically unpaid, the Department of Labor says entitlement to benefits like holiday pay during FMLA leave “is determined by the employer’s established policy for providing such benefits when the employee is on other forms of leave, paid or unpaid.”5U.S. Department of Labor. Family and Medical Leave Act Advisor – Maintenance of Employee Benefits If your agency does not pay holidays to employees on other unpaid leave, it does not have to pay you for holidays during FMLA leave either.
When the Holiday Is Your Regular Day Off
If an official holiday falls on your regular scheduled day off, you are entitled to equivalent time off on another day.4Justia. Arkansas Code 1-5-104 – Entitlement to Paid Holiday or Equivalent Time This matters for compressed schedules and rotating days off: you do not lose the benefit because the calendar did not line up with your workweek.
If You Have to Work on a Holiday
Agency and department directors decide when operational needs require employees to work on a holiday. State employees who work on a holiday are entitled to a compensatory day off at a later date, scheduled at a time approved by the supervisor and as soon as practical.4Justia. Arkansas Code 1-5-104 – Entitlement to Paid Holiday or Equivalent Time
The statute does not provide premium pay such as time-and-a-half for holiday work. The remedy is a comp day, not extra money.
What Happens to Unused Holiday Time When You Leave
When a state employee separates by resignation, termination, retirement, or death, accrued unused annual leave may be paid out as a lump sum, up to 30 working days (240 hours) for regular state employees. Any unused birthday or holiday time rolls into that annual leave cap.6Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. OPM Policy 54 – Leave Transfer and Leave Payout
Sick leave is not paid out. Unused compensatory time, however, must be paid in a lump sum by the separating agency.6Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration. OPM Policy 54 – Leave Transfer and Leave Payout So if you worked a holiday and never took the comp day, that time should show up in your final check.
Time Off for Religious Holidays
Whether you work in the public or private sector, Title VII of the Civil Rights Act applies to employers with 15 or more employees and requires reasonable accommodation of sincerely held religious beliefs that conflict with a work schedule, unless doing so would impose a substantial burden on the business.7U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fact Sheet – Religious Accommodations in the Workplace
Scheduling flexibility for religious observances is one of the most common accommodations the EEOC recognizes. You do not need a formal written request. The EEOC says there are “no magic words required.” You simply have to make your employer aware that you need time off for a religious observance.7U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fact Sheet – Religious Accommodations in the Workplace
The Supreme Court’s 2023 decision in Groff v. DeJoy raised the bar for employers to deny these requests, holding that “undue hardship” means a burden that is substantial in the overall context of the employer’s business. Coworker complaints rooted in hostility to the religion itself do not qualify as undue hardship.