If you’re searching for stat holidays Ontario 2025, you’re probably trying to do one of three things: plan time off (and childcare), run payroll accurately, or settle a “wait—do we get paid for this day?” debate at work.
This guide is built for real people who need clear answers in plain English. It explains what counts as a statutory holiday (called a “public holiday” under the law), shows the stat holidays Ontario 2025 dates in a clean calendar format, and walks through the rules that matter most: who qualifies, how public holiday pay is calculated, what happens if you work the holiday, and why some widely celebrated days aren’t actually statutory in Ontario.
You’ll also see the biggest misunderstandings around stat holidays Ontario 2025—especially the difference between Ontario’s Employment Standards rules and separate retail-closing rules that affect when many stores are allowed to open.
Quick facts for stat holidays Ontario 2025
| Quick question | Quick answer |
|---|---|
| How many statutory holidays are there in Ontario each year? | Ontario has 9 public holidays under the Employment Standards Act—many people call them “stat holidays.” |
| Do these rules apply to part-time workers? | In most jobs covered by Ontario’s public-holiday rules, they apply whether you’re full-time or part-time, and regardless of how long you’ve worked there. |
| What are the stat holidays Ontario 2025 dates? | The 9 Ontario public holidays in 2025 are Jan 1, Feb 17, Apr 18, May 19, Jul 1, Sep 1, Oct 13, Dec 25, Dec 26. |
| How is public holiday pay calculated? | Generally: (regular wages + vacation pay in the 4 work weeks before the holiday week) ÷ 20. |
| What if you work on a public holiday? | You may get public holiday pay + premium pay (at least 1.5×) for hours worked, or regular wages for hours worked + a substitute day off with public holiday pay, depending on the arrangement and job type. |
| Are Civic Holiday or Remembrance Day stat holidays in Ontario? | Many employers observe them, but employers are not required to treat them as statutory holidays for provincially regulated employees in Ontario. |
Understanding what “stat holidays” means in Ontario
In everyday conversation, Canadians use “stat holiday” to mean a legally protected holiday with paid time off (or special pay rules if you work). In Ontario’s employment standards language, these are called public holidays. The province’s law defines “public holiday” as a specific list of days—New Year’s Day, Family Day, Good Friday, Victoria Day, Canada Day, Labour Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and December 26 (Boxing Day).
That list matters, because stat holidays Ontario 2025 searches often pull up calendars that mix in “commonly observed” days (like Civic Holiday) or federal holidays (like National Day for Truth and Reconciliation). Those days can be meaningful and widely recognized, but they don’t automatically trigger Ontario public-holiday pay rules for provincially regulated employees.
Another key point: the Ontario public-holiday rules apply to most jobs in the province, and the baseline rights don’t disappear just because someone is part-time, casual, or new. Community legal education guidance for Ontario workers highlights that if the Employment Standards Act public-holiday rules cover your job, they apply to full-time and part-time work, regardless of tenure, and even if the holiday falls on a day you don’t usually work.
Where it gets tricky—and where stat holidays Ontario 2025 confusion often comes from—is that some workers are not provincially regulated at all. If you work in a federally regulated industry (for example, banks, interprovincial transportation, telecommunications, or airlines), your minimum holiday standards come from federal law, not Ontario’s. The federal government publishes a clear list of federally regulated industries and workplaces so employees can check which rules apply.
For federally regulated employees, the federal labour standards guidance names 10 general holidays, including National Day for Truth and Reconciliation and Remembrance Day—days that are not statutory public holidays for most provincially regulated Ontario workers.
Bottom line: stat holidays Ontario 2025 is simple once you confirm which jurisdiction you’re in (provincial vs. federal) and which list of holidays actually triggers the pay rules that apply to you.
Stat holidays Ontario 2025 calendar
Here are the stat holidays Ontario 2025 dates for Ontario’s 9 public holidays, shown with weekdays so you can plan schedules, vacation days, and payroll deadlines with confidence. The dates below align across reputable holiday calendars and are consistent with standard Canadian calendar calculations for 2025.
| Ontario public holiday | Date in 2025 | Day of week | What it usually means in practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| New Year’s Day | January 1, 2025 | Wednesday | Midweek day off for many; shift workers may work it with public-holiday rules applying. |
| Family Day | February 17, 2025 | Monday | A classic long weekend; Ontario law defines Family Day as the third Monday in February. |
| Good Friday | April 18, 2025 | Friday | Long weekend for many workplaces; commonly mistaken for “Easter weekend” rules (Ontario’s statutory day is Good Friday). |
| Victoria Day | May 19, 2025 | Monday | Long weekend for many; often viewed as the “start of summer” weekend. |
| Canada Day | July 1, 2025 | Tuesday | Not a built-in long weekend in 2025 unless you add a vacation day. |
| Labour Day | September 1, 2025 | Monday | Long weekend; common schedule reset for schools and many businesses. |
| Thanksgiving Day | October 13, 2025 | Monday | Long weekend; popular travel weekend within the province. |
| Christmas Day | December 25, 2025 | Thursday | In many workplaces, this sets up a multi-day break when combined with Boxing Day and weekend time off. |
| Boxing Day | December 26, 2025 | Friday | Another Ontario public holiday; in 2025 it lands on Friday, creating a natural long weekend for many. |
A helpful detail about stat holidays Ontario 2025: although all nine public holidays fall on weekdays in 2025, that doesn’t automatically mean they land on your working day. If a public holiday falls on a day you don’t ordinarily work, Ontario’s rules often require a substitute day off with public holiday pay, unless an alternative agreement is made.
Public holiday pay and time-off rules in Ontario
People searching stat holidays Ontario 2025 typically want more than dates—they want to know what they’re entitled to, and what an employer is allowed (or required) to do.
Ontario’s Employment Standards Act sets out the core framework in plain legal steps: when the holiday is an ordinary working day, the default is a day off with public holiday pay; when the holiday is worked, the law describes specific compensation options; and when the holiday lands on a non-working day (or vacation), the law often shifts the benefit to a substitute day.
The default rule when the public holiday is a normal workday
If a public holiday falls on a day that would ordinarily be a working day for the employee, and the employee isn’t on vacation that day, the employer must give the employee the day off and pay public holiday pay for that day. This is the baseline “day off with pay” idea behind stat holidays Ontario 2025.
There’s an important eligibility condition often called the “last and first” rule. Under the Act, an employee can lose entitlement to that day-off-with-pay benefit if they fail, without reasonable cause, to work all of their last regularly scheduled day before the holiday, or all of their first regularly scheduled day after the holiday.
How public holiday pay is calculated
Ontario’s statutory formula is straightforward but easy to misapply if you’re not careful about what counts as “regular wages” and which weeks are in scope. For most employees, public holiday pay is:
(regular wages earned + vacation pay payable in the 4 work weeks before the work week of the holiday) ÷ 20.
“Regular wages” is a defined term in the Act, and it excludes various special payments such as overtime pay, public holiday pay itself, premium pay, and several other categories. That definition matters because it prevents “double counting” and keeps public holiday pay focused on normal earnings.
If you’re dealing with employee questions about stat holidays Ontario 2025, it helps to explain the logic: the formula averages out earnings across four weeks, so both full-time and part-time employees get a public holiday payment that reflects their recent work pattern rather than a fixed “8-hour day.”
What happens if you work on a public holiday
Ontario does not treat public holidays as automatic “no work allowed” days for every workplace. Instead, the Employment Standards Act describes the pay and substitute-day outcomes when an employee works the public holiday.
If an employee and employer agree that the employee will work on a public holiday that would ordinarily be a working day, the law sets out two main options. The employer must either (a) pay regular wages for the hours worked and provide a substitute day off with public holiday pay, or (b) pay public holiday pay plus premium pay for each hour worked on the holiday.
Premium pay is not vague in Ontario—it’s defined as at least one and one-half times the employee’s regular rate when premium pay is required. That “time-and-a-half” rule is one of the most practical pieces of the stat holidays Ontario 2025 conversation for shift workers, restaurants, and continuous operations.
Ontario also requires documentation in situations where a day is substituted: the employer must provide a written statement before the public holiday that sets out which holiday will be worked, the substituted day, and the date the statement is given. Many payroll disputes quietly disappear when that statement is handled consistently.
When the employer can require work on a public holiday
Some jobs and sectors don’t run on the standard “closed for the day” logic. Ontario explicitly addresses this by allowing employers to require work on a public holiday in certain settings such as hospitals, continuous operations, and hospitality businesses like hotels, motels, tourist resorts, restaurants, and taverns.
Even in those settings, employees don’t lose public-holiday protections. The Act still provides an entitlement structure: the employer must either pay regular wages for the hours worked and provide a substitute day off with public holiday pay, or pay public holiday pay plus premium pay for each hour worked.
If you’re building a workplace resource around stat holidays Ontario 2025, this is a credibility moment: clearly separate “you may have to work” from “you don’t get anything.” The law distinguishes between being scheduled (or required) to work and how pay or substitute days must be handled.
When the public holiday falls on a non-working day or during vacation
A common misconception about stat holidays Ontario 2025 is that you only benefit if the holiday lands on a day you would have worked anyway. Ontario’s rules often provide the opposite: if the public holiday falls on a day that would not ordinarily be a working day, or a day the employee is on vacation, the employer generally must substitute another day that would ordinarily be a working day for the employee to take off with public holiday pay.
Timing also matters. Substitute days are typically required to be within three months of the public holiday, unless the employee and employer agree to a longer window (up to 12 months).
There’s also flexibility for those who prefer “pay now, day off later (or not at all).” Under the Act, an employer and employee may agree that instead of providing the substitute day off, the employer will simply pay public holiday pay for the holiday. That option matters in scheduling-heavy workplaces where adding another day off is operationally difficult.
Common misunderstandings and non-statutory days
Most frustration around stat holidays Ontario 2025 happens when people mix up three different things: Ontario public holidays under employment standards, federal general holidays, and “commonly observed” days that exist mostly by workplace policy or tradition.
A clear example is Civic Holiday (first Monday of August). It appears on many calendars and is widely recognized in Ontario, but Ontario employers are not necessarily required to treat it as a statutory public holiday for provincially regulated employees. Trusted holiday calendars even include reminders that employers are not required to provide a holiday for certain widely observed dates such as Civic Holiday, Easter Sunday, Easter Monday, or Remembrance Day.
Another major point of confusion is National Day for Truth and Reconciliation (September 30). Federally regulated employees have it as one of their 10 general holidays under federal labour standards guidance, but that does not automatically make it a statutory public holiday for provincially regulated Ontario workplaces. This is one reason stat holidays Ontario 2025 search results can look inconsistent from one site to another.
Remembrance Day is similar: it appears in many national holiday lists, and some Ontario employers choose to observe it, but that doesn’t mean it is one of Ontario’s nine statutory public holidays under the Employment Standards Act.
Retail closures are a separate issue from statutory holiday pay
If you work in retail—or you’re a manager scheduling retail staff—there’s another layer that can affect what “holiday” feels like: retail opening rules. The LCBO explains that Ontario’s Retail Business Holidays Act requires retail businesses to close on nine specified days each year, and that list includes Easter Sunday (which is not one of Ontario’s nine Employment Standards public holidays) and does not include Boxing Day (which is a public holiday under Ontario employment standards).
This distinction matters for stat holidays Ontario 2025 because a “store must be closed” day and a “statutory holiday pay applies” day are not perfectly identical lists. In practice, some retail employers provide paid time off (or other benefits) that go beyond employment standards, but the legal floor depends on which rulebook applies to the question you’re asking.
Retail closures can also vary due to exemptions. For example, Niagara Region notes that there are exceptions depending on store type, what’s sold, size, staffing, and that some geographic areas have tourism-exemption by-laws that may apply to only a few of the listed holidays.
If your goal is to publish an authoritative page about stat holidays Ontario 2025, you’ll build trust by stating the difference clearly: “public holiday pay rights” and “retail-opening rules” overlap, but they are not interchangeable.
Planning around stat holidays Ontario 2025
For most readers, the value of stat holidays Ontario 2025 is in planning—turning a list of dates into better choices for vacation time, shift scheduling, payroll workflow, and family logistics.
Start by noticing the “shape” of the 2025 calendar. Family Day, Victoria Day, Labour Day, and Thanksgiving all fall on a Monday, and Good Friday falls on a Friday—meaning multiple built-in long weekends for Monday-to-Friday schedules. Canada Day is on a Tuesday, which is a classic “bridge day” opportunity if you can take Monday off. Christmas Day and Boxing Day fall on Thursday and Friday, which often creates a natural four-day break when paired with the weekend.
From an employee perspective, the best use of a stat holidays Ontario 2025 calendar is timing your vacation requests early. In many workplaces, the highest-friction requests are the ones that combine a public holiday with adjacent time off—because multiple people try to do the same thing. Putting in requests earlier doesn’t just help you; it gives managers time to arrange coverage without scrambling.
From an employer or payroll perspective, your biggest risk isn’t the date list—it’s inconsistent handling of substitute days and “worked holiday” agreements. The Employment Standards Act includes written-statement requirements when a day is substituted, and it also sets clear compensation options (public holiday pay plus premium pay, or regular wages plus a substitute paid day off). Tight documentation practices are a practical way to reduce disputes about what was promised versus what was paid.
A strong content strategy tip—especially if you’re building topical authority—is to treat stat holidays Ontario 2025 as part of a small cluster of genuinely helpful workplace guides. On a real website, this page naturally connects to internal resources like “How Ontario vacation pay works,” “Overtime rules explained,” “Paid and unpaid leaves of absence,” and “What to do if your paystub looks wrong.” The intent match is strong because readers who care about holiday pay often have related questions about wages, scheduling, and time off.
If you operate in a federally regulated sector, or you serve customers who do, it’s also helpful to link out (and internally compare) federal general holiday rules. The federal labour standards guidance names the federal general holidays and explains general holiday pay basics, including situations where the holiday falls on a non-working day and how pay works when employees are required to work.
Conclusion
The most reliable way to use stat holidays Ontario 2025 is to separate the calendar from the rules. The calendar tells you the nine Ontario public holiday dates, but the rules tell you what happens when the holiday is worked, when it falls on a non-working day, and how public holiday pay is calculated. When you combine Ontario’s legal definitions with a clear 2025 date list, you can plan time off confidently and avoid the most common pay misunderstandings.
FAQ about stat holidays Ontario 2025
Are there 9 or 10 stat holidays in Ontario in 2025?
For provincially regulated employees, Ontario recognizes 9 public holidays under the Employment Standards Act. Some workplaces voluntarily add extra paid days (such as Civic Holiday), and federally regulated employees have a different set of general holidays, which is why some lists look bigger than nine.
Is Easter Monday a statutory holiday in Ontario for 2025?
Easter Monday appears on some calendars and is a holiday in some jurisdictions, but Ontario employers are not generally required to provide it as a statutory holiday for provincially regulated employees. In Ontario, the statutory/public holiday around Easter is typically Good Friday.
If I work part-time, do I still get stat holiday pay in Ontario?
In most jobs covered by Ontario’s public-holiday rules, the entitlement applies to employees who work full-time or part-time. The amount of public holiday pay is calculated using the statutory formula that averages recent earnings (regular wages plus vacation pay over the prior four work weeks, divided by 20).
If I work on a stat holiday, do I get time-and-a-half plus holiday pay?
Ontario’s rules allow a “public holiday pay plus premium pay” option in many cases, and premium pay must be at least 1.5× the employee’s regular rate. Another common lawful option is regular wages for hours worked plus a substitute day off with public holiday pay. The exact result depends on whether the employee agreed to work and the type of operation.
Why are some stores closed on Easter Sunday if it’s not a stat holiday pay day?
Retail closing requirements can come from retail-opening legislation, not the Employment Standards public-holiday list. For example, Ontario retail-closing rules described by the LCBO include Easter Sunday as a mandatory closure day for many retail businesses, even though Easter Sunday is not one of Ontario’s nine Employment Standards public holidays. More News
