Paid Holidays in Washington State: Employer Rules and Your Rights

Paid holidays in Washington state are not guaranteed by law for private-sector workers. Neither state nor federal law forces a private employer to give you Thanksgiving off, to close on the Fourth of July, or to pay extra when you work on Christmas. Whether you receive holiday pay depends on your employer’s written policy, your employment contract, or a collective bargaining agreement. State and local government employees are the main exception: they get paid time off for the holidays listed in state law, plus one personal holiday of their choosing.

No Legal Requirement for Private Employers

The Fair Labor Standards Act does not require payment for time not worked, holidays included.¹ Washington’s Department of Labor & Industries says the same about state law: employers are not required to provide leave or pay for holidays.²

That has real consequences. Your employer can legally require you to work on any holiday and pay only your normal rate. There is no state or federal rule setting time-and-a-half for holiday shifts. Any premium — double-time, holiday bonuses, an extra floating day — exists only because your employer chose to offer it or agreed to it in a contract.

Nothing about the industry changes this. Retail, hospitality, healthcare, tech, manufacturing: the rule is the same. Many private employers voluntarily offer paid holidays as a recruitment and retention benefit, but the choice is theirs.

Who Does Get Paid Holidays

State and local government workers in Washington have a statutory right to paid holidays. RCW 1.16.050 designates the following as state legal holidays:³

New Year’s Day — January 1
Martin Luther King Jr. Day — third Monday in January
Presidents’ Day — third Monday in February
Memorial Day — last Monday in May
Juneteenth — June 19
Independence Day — July 4
Labor Day — first Monday in September
Veterans Day — November 11
Thanksgiving Day — fourth Thursday in November
Native American Heritage Day — Friday after Thanksgiving
Christmas Day — December 25

State agency employees and most other public employees receive paid time off for each of these dates, and part-time employees are paid on a prorated basis.⁴ They also receive one additional personal holiday each year that they can take on a day of their choosing after coordinating with their employer.³

A few carve-outs sit inside the statute. School district employees and certain non-classified higher education staff with appointments under twelve consecutive months get unpaid rather than paid holidays. When a state and federal holiday fall on different days, state employees observe the state date. Port districts and certain law enforcement and transit employees may observe either the state or federal date, but not both.³

Private employers can recognize all, some, or none of the days on that list. The list only creates mandatory paid time off in the public sector.

When Your Employer’s Policy Becomes Enforceable

Here is the practical pivot: while holiday pay isn’t required, a promise to pay it is. If your employer has a written holiday pay policy, an employee handbook provision, or a term in your employment contract that commits to paid holidays or premium holiday rates, that commitment is enforceable as a wage obligation.

For salaried exempt employees, this usually shows up automatically. Because exempt workers receive a fixed salary regardless of hours, an employer offering a paid holiday still owes the full weekly salary even when the holiday shortens the week. Working the holiday, though, does not entitle an exempt employee to anything extra unless the policy says so.

For hourly employees, the policy dictates everything. Some employers pay your regular hourly rate for a holiday day off, typically eight hours. Others pay a premium — time-and-a-half or double-time — for hours actually worked on the holiday. Some do both. Read the handbook rather than assuming an industry norm applies to you.

One trap catches hourly workers during holiday weeks: a paid holiday taken as a day off does not count as “hours worked” for overtime purposes.² If you work 32 hours and receive 8 hours of holiday pay, your paycheck reflects 40 hours of compensation, but only 32 of those are worked hours. You would not hit the overtime threshold.

Floating holidays follow the same rules. If your employer offers them, check whether they expire at year end and whether unused days are paid out when you leave. The answer varies entirely by policy.

Union members typically have the strongest holiday-pay language. Collective bargaining agreements in healthcare, transportation, and manufacturing often spell out designated paid holidays, premium rates for holiday work, and comp-time options. If your contract’s holiday terms are violated, you generally must move through the grievance and arbitration process before any legal action.

Religious Holiday Time Off

One right does exist regardless of your employer’s holiday policy: reasonable accommodation of your religious practices. Under Title VII, employers must reasonably accommodate sincerely held religious beliefs that conflict with work requirements, and that commonly means schedule adjustments for religious observances.⁵

An employer can refuse only if the accommodation would impose a substantial burden. In Groff v. DeJoy (2023), the U.S. Supreme Court held that an employer must show “substantial increased costs in relation to the conduct of its particular business” to deny a religious accommodation, not merely a minor inconvenience.⁶ Washington’s Law Against Discrimination separately prohibits employment discrimination based on creed.⁷

You do not need to submit a formal written request or use particular language. You need to make your employer aware that you need time off for a religious reason. The accommodation itself is often unpaid unless your employer’s policy or PTO bank covers it — the right is to the time, not to the pay.

What to Do If Promised Holiday Pay Isn’t Paid

The enforcement path for holiday pay looks different from other wage disputes. L&I explicitly does not enforce holiday, vacation, or bereavement leave agreements and directs workers to pursue private legal action instead.²⁸ Practically, that means hiring an attorney or filing in small claims court.

The legal grounding is in Washington’s wage payment statutes. Under RCW 49.52.050, an employer who willfully pays less than the contract requires commits a violation.⁹ A successful civil claim can recover double the unpaid amount as damages, plus attorney’s fees.¹⁰ Wage complaints filed through L&I’s standard process for other unpaid-wage disputes must be filed within three years of the violation.¹¹

Retaliation Is Separately Illegal

If your employer cuts your hours, reassigns you, or fires you after you raise a wage complaint or assert your rights, you can file a retaliation complaint with L&I within 180 days of the retaliatory action. If retaliation is found, the department can order lost earnings with 1% monthly interest, reinstatement, and civil penalties.¹² You keep the option of a private lawsuit alongside the L&I complaint.

Documentation Decides the Case

Whatever route you use, keep the paper trail. Save the section of the employee handbook covering holiday pay, any emails or memos about holiday compensation, pay stubs from the weeks in question, and schedules showing whether you worked or were scheduled off on the holiday. If a manager made a verbal promise, contemporaneous notes are more credible later than a recollection alone.

Holiday Pay When You Leave a Job

Washington does not require employers to pay out unused holiday time when employment ends. Like vacation pay, it’s a voluntary benefit, and whether accrued holidays or unused floating days get cashed out depends on the policy or contract.² Some employers use it or lose it. Others pay it out. If the written policy or your contract promises a payout, that promise is enforceable through the same private legal channels as any other holiday-pay dispute.

Before you assume anything, look at the policy language. That short read decides what, if anything, you’re owed.

1
U.S. Department of Labor. Holiday Pay
2
Washington State Department of Labor & Industries. Holiday, Vacation and Bereavement Leave
3
Washington State Legislature. RCW 1.16.050 Legal Holidays and Legislatively Recognized Days
4
Department of Enterprise Services. Leave and Holidays
5
U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Fact Sheet – Religious Accommodations in the Workplace
6
Supreme Court of the United States. Groff v DeJoy, 600 U.S. 447 (2023)
7
Washington State Legislature. Chapter 49.60 RCW – Discrimination
8
Lni.wa.gov. Getting Paid
9
Washington State Legislature. RCW 49.52.050 Rebates of Wages – False Records – Penalty
10
Washington State Legislature. Washington Code 49.52.070 – Civil Liability for Double Damages
11
Washington State Legislature. Chapter 49.48 RCW – Wages – Payment – Collection
12
Washington Administrative Code. WAC 296-128-780 Enforcement – Retaliation