Public Holiday Pay NZ: When Do You Get Time and a Half?

An otherwise working day is a day the employee would have worked if it were not a public holiday. A fixed Monday-to-Friday pattern is usually clear; changing rosters may require the agreement, recent work pattern, reasonable expectations and other relevant factors.

This test decides whether a non-working employee is paid for the day and whether someone who works earns an alternative holiday. It does not remove time and a half for actual public-holiday hours worked.

Mere normally works Mondays and works 8 hours on a Monday public holiday at a base rate of $30 an hour. Her minimum payment for those hours is $30 × 1.5 × 8 = $360 gross.

Because Monday is otherwise a working day for Mere, she also receives a full alternative holiday to take later. The $360 pays the public-holiday work; the alternative holiday is a separate paid day off when taken.

If an employee works only 2 hours on a public holiday that is otherwise a working day, time and a half applies to those 2 hours and the employee still receives a full alternative holiday.

Pay for the alternative holiday is based on what the employee would have earned on the day they later take it. It is not limited to the 2 hours worked on the original public holiday.

If the public holiday is otherwise a working day and the employee does not work, they are normally paid Relevant Daily Pay (RDP). Average Daily Pay (ADP) is used where daily pay varies and it is not possible or practicable to determine RDP.

If the date is not otherwise a working day, there is normally no statutory payment merely because it is a public holiday. An employment agreement can still provide something better.

For a shift that crosses into or out of a public holiday, time and a half normally applies only to the hours that actually fall on the public holiday. Payroll should split the shift at midnight unless the parties have a lawful written transfer arrangement.

The alternative-holiday question is separate: check whether the public-holiday date was otherwise a working day for that employee. Keep the roster and time record so both parts can be checked.

Match the roster to the observed public-holiday date, confirm whether it was otherwise a working day, count the hours actually worked on that date, and look for the time-and-a-half rate plus any alternative-holiday balance.

Use the Average Daily Pay calculator only where ADP is the appropriate method. If the otherwise-working-day test or contractual penal rate is disputed, ask payroll for the written calculation and compare it with current Employment New Zealand guidance.