Thanksgiving: At Home with Your Loved Ones or At Work? 

This year, Thanksgiving falls on Monday, October 14^th. Most employees will have a paid day off work, but not everyone. Here’s a look at what you’re entitled to.  

Thanksgiving has been a national holiday in Canada since Parliament declared it in 1879. It originated as a Christian holiday celebrating the abundance of the harvest. It’s celebrated on the second Monday in October in Canada and the fourth Thursday in November in the United States. We celebrate Thanksgiving before our southern neighbours due to the earlier end of the harvest in Canada. 

 For most people: a paid day off 

A public holiday — sometimes called a statutory holiday — is a day when you don’t usually work, but you get paid anyway. 

But you don’t get paid a salary like on a regular workday: you get money as compensation. The amount is calculated based on various factors, such as the length of your normal work week. For most people working full-time, this compensation works out to a day’s salary. The amount is usually less for people working part-time. 

If you’re not scheduled to work on the holiday 

If you don’t normally work on Monday, you must be given another day off. But your employer can give you money instead of a day off. This applies whether you work full-time or part-time.  

If the Thanksgiving holiday falls during your annual vacation, your employer must either compensate you or give you a paid replacement holiday on a date agreed to by you and your employer or set by a collective agreement or a decree if either of these applies to you. 

If you must work on the holiday 

Maybe the nature of your job means you must work on Thanksgiving. If so, your employer must pay you your regular wages for the hours you worked and either pay you additional compensation or give you a paid replacement holiday in the three weeks before or after the holiday. 

These same rules apply even if you work part-time!