One of the few things most employees look forward to at work, whether they admit it or not – is the holidays. However, as the holidays come in few and (sometimes) far in between a year, it’s quite disheartening to learn that on some days, you just have to show up for work even on a holiday.
To boost employee morale and in consideration of employees’ rights, companies are required by the law to provide an increase in employees’ pay rate for working on a holiday. So, the question then, is “How much should I be paid for working on a holiday?” In this post, we will take a look at what the Employment Act (EA) of Singapore says about that.
Know How Much You Should be Paid if You Work on a Holiday
According to the EA, all employees are entitled to 11 paid public holidays in a year.
The 11 official holidays are as follows:
- New Year’s Day
- Chinese New Year (two days)
- Hari Raya Puasa
- Hari Raya Haji
- Good Friday
- Labour Day
- Vesak Day
- National Day
- Deepavali
- Christmas Day
If I work on a holiday, how much should I be compensated?
If you have been requested by your employer to report on any of the above-listed holidays, you should be paid an extra day’s basic pay on top of your gross daily pay rate (or 200% pay).
Also, if the holiday falls on your rest day, the next working day shall serve as the replacement paid holiday.
Furthermore, the employee must report to work a day before and after the public holiday.
Are part-time employees also entitled to extra pay for working on a holiday?
By definition, a part-time employee’s contractual working hours should be less than 35 hours per week. As per the law, employers are allowed to pro-rate the employment benefits of their part-time employees based on those who work full-time according to the hours they put in at work.
The part-time employees’ public holiday entitlement, therefore, is pro-rated based on the number of hours worked as compared to a full-time employee.
To illustrate, here is the formula employers use to compute the pro-rated public holiday payment for part-time employees:
A part-timer is entitled to the pro-rated public holiday pay regardless of whether or not the holiday falls on his/her work or rest day. If an employee works on a holiday, he/she should be paid for the hours worked on top of the holiday pay.
Disclaimer: All information gathered here in this article is released for the purpose of information-sharing only. To know more about labour provisions under the Employment Act of Singapore, you may visit the Ministry of Manpower’s official website for reference.