One of the more confusing matters, for employees and HR people alike, is the computation of holiday pay, complicated by the fact that there are different “kinds” of holidays. This is cleared by Memorandum Circular No. 1 of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), the full text of which is reproduced and discussed below.
(8 March 2004)
Pursuant to the provisions of the Labor Code, as amended in relation to the observance of declared holidays and in response to the queries received every time a Presidential Proclamation or a law is enacted by Congress which declares certain days either as a regular holiday, a special day or a special working holiday, the following guidelines shall be observed by all employers in the private sector:
1. For regular holidays as provided for under EO 203 (incorporated in EO 292) as amended by RA 9177:
New Year’s Day – January 1
Maundy Thursday – Movable Date
Good Friday – Movable Date
Araw ng Kagitingan – April 9
Labor Day – May 1
Independence Day – June 12
National Heroes Day- Last Sunday of August
Bonifacio Day – November 30
Eidul Fitr – Movable Date
Christmas Day – December 25
Rizal Day – December 30
the following rules shall apply:
1. If it is an employee’s regular workday
* If unworked – 100%
* If worked
- 1st 8 hours – 200%
- excess of 8 hours – plus 30% of hourly rate on said day
2. If it is an employee’s rest day
* If unworked – 100%
* If worked
- 1st 8 hours – plus 30% of 200%
- excess of 8 hours – plus 30% of hourly rate on said day
2. For declared special days such as Special Non-Working Day, Special Public Holiday, Special National Holiday, in addition to the two (2) nationwide special days (November 1, All Saints Day and December 31, Last Day of the Year) listed under EO 203, as amended, the following rules shall apply:
1. If unworked
* No pay, unless there is a favorable company policy, practice or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) granting payment of wages on special days even if unworked.
2. If worked
* 1st 8 hours – plus 30% of the daily rate of 100%
* excess of 8 hours – plus 30% of hourly rate on said day3. Falling on the employee’s rest day and if worked
* 1st 8 hours – plus 50% of the daily rate of 100%
* excess of 8 hours – plus 30% of hourly rate on said day
3. For those declared as special working holidays, the following rules shall apply:
For work performed, an employee is entitled only to his basic rate. No premium pay is required since work performed on said days is considered work on ordinary working days.
Please be guided accordingly.
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Note: If you still don’t know it yet, one of the more helpful government websites is that of the DOLE. It boasts of useful features such as the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and, to my delight, a fully functional email-query system.
To test the email-query system, I sent a query regarding holiday pay for regular holidays falling on the employee’s rest day (in this case, 29 April 2006, Araw ng Kagitingan). In an hour or so, I received a reply. Here’s my e-mail:
Gentlemen:
I write in connection with DOLE Memorandum Circular No. 01, which provides a summary of an employee’s entitlement to holiday pay for regular, special working and special non-working holidays.
As stated in said Circular, if a regular holiday falls on an employee’s rest day and it is UNWORKED, the employee receives 100% of his/her daily salary. This, however, has caused confusion because some MONTHLY-paid employees believe that they are entitled to an additional payment of one day. This is exacerbated by the news item which appeared on 7 April 2006 on your website (“DOLE issues Araw ng Kagitingan pay rules“), which states that “[i]f the day falls on an employee’s rest day and is unworked, he or she is paid on that day. xxx” Kindly clarify that there should be a distinction between monthly-paid and daily-paid employees, as the former is deemed paid for the entire month, even on regular holidays.
Your usual prompt action on this matter is highly appreciated.
Here’s the reply:
Dear Mr. Pamaos:
Good afternoon.
Anent your query, MONTHLY PAID EMPLOYEE refers to one who is paid his wage or salary for every day of the month, including rest days, Sundays, regular or special days, although he does not regularly work on these days.
DAILY PAID EMPLOYEE refers to one who is paid his wage or salary only on the days he actually worked, except in cases of regular holidays wherein he is paid his wage or salary even if he does not work during those days, provided that he is present or on leave of absence with pay on the working day immediately preceding the regular holiday.
As distinguished from monthly-paid employees who are assured of being paid for every day of the month, the provision of the Labor Code on holiday pay is principally intended to benefit a daily-paid employee who is normally bound by the principle of “no work no pay”. Before the advent of the Labor Code, they are not paid for unworked regular holidays.
We hope that this answers your query.
Please be informed that our opinion on the matter is strictly advisory and may not be invoked in any court of law or before any administrative body.
Thank you for writing.
Legal Service, DOLE
By the way, please note that the opinion contained in the reply is merely “advisory” and, for one reason or another, you may not necessarily agree that it’s correct.
Nevertheless, credit must be given where it is due. Congratulations to the DOLE’s electronic portal team.
(Added: Please note that Congress enacted R.A. 9492, rationalizing the celebration of national holidays. Here’s the list of 2008 holidays.)
I have the same issue with Darryl.
My supervisor keep telling me that i will not be paid since the Holiday is my off and day before the holiday is also my off. Please enlighten us on this.
More powers.
Good day Sir! Thank you for putting up this post and more power to you.
We pay our family driver following the guidelines on minimum wage ncr and we are trying to figure out how to correctly compute his salary for apr 2, 3, 4 and 9. We normally compute his overtime pay based on basic which now stands at P466.00 and although we also give him his daily cola of P15.00, we do not include this in computing for his OT. This is my understanding of how to compute OT up to now. When DOLE released Labor Advisory No. 18 Series of 2015, it says at 1.1 “If employee did not work, he/she shall be paid 100% of his/her salary for that day [(Daily rate + COLA) X 100%].” May I ask for clarification if this means OT at least for Apr 2, 3, 4 and 9 is computed based on (P466 basic + P15 cola) and not the P466.00 only?
Good Day!
I just to know if it is right that we are not paid one day in a work?We are nightshift that time and management declared no work for whatever reason. That day was Saturday and dayshift has work but selected only, meaning production was not fully working. Management said, to be fair we will not pay you because some monthly paid employees worked in dayshift schedule..
Thanks!
Hi,
I just want to know if before or after is the entitlement for legal holiday.
Thank you.
Good afternoon, my question is we have local holiday tomorrow and our school is telling us to come tomorrow, if we don’t want to attend because it is a local holiday are we dedecuted with our salary?
I am a contractual employee. Are we entitled to be paid during the Eid’l Fittr?
Hoping to get answers from you.
Sir/Madam,
When can an employee be given a vacation leave and sick leave? Thank you very much.
Hi can i ask.,if the employee is 6 to 7 person only and the employer said no work no pay it is right not give the daily wage on regular holiday? This is a private company and we didn’t receive a daily wage when regular holiday,he said no work no pay
Appreciate your answer thank you
HI Atty. just want to clarify if there is such ruling that says that an employee is not allowed to file leave of absence before or after a given legal or special holiday.
would appreciate your reply thanks and God bless.
Hi, I’m currently a technical support representative in a bpo company. I was advised about the ” no work no pay policy ” here in our company. And upon reading the article above, it is clearly mentioned that if the employee was on rest day there should be still a 100% pay. I am confused. Before doing an act here in our company, I just want to ask if bpo company should follow this policy?
I am confused of computing the Holiday pay on regular Holiday .
What should be the correct computation for this scenario:
“A daily paid employee is working on a regular holiday for 4 hours only;
then my computation will be the amount of his 4 hrs. work x 200%.
But the employee insisted that he has to be paid for 1 day as his regular holiday pay + the 4 hrs worked x 200%.
Please we need to clarify who computed correctly with regards to this scenario.
thank you.
hi…may i ask if it is right that an employee must be present the day before a regular holiday for an employee to get paid for that holiday…ex…. December 25 is a regular holiday and we will not report for work, will the company pay us even if we did not work the day before that which is Dec. 24? we were told that you will only get paid for holidays if you are present on the day before a declared holiday. Thank you.
SCENARIO:
On December 23, the employee was not able to go to work. The company decided not to have schedules on Dec 24 and 25.
Is it legal to deduct the employees salary for the 24th and the 25th?
I am a monthly paid employee. If I worked for 4 hours on a regular holiday (say Dec 30), how much shall I received for said overtime?? Can you please provide illustration for my OT pay??
Thank you very much.
hi …i’m a monthly paid employee.and my salary computed a basic 500 peso per day….my question ..it is right that if i am present of work during legal holiday my company computed my salary like a 3 times a day? = 1500 8 hours on that day sir? and it was computed by our previous HR… now my new hr computed basic 500 plus 500 holiday pay. please help me atty… alin po ba ang tama dito. thank you very much god bless ..