19 Oct How to Calculate Stat Pay in Prince Edward Island
Statutory Holidays (also known as Paid Holidays) are great for employees to hit the reset button, relax for a day, exhale as it were, and go back to work re-envigored, happy, and refocused. Yes, as an employer it’s a paid day for no work, but studies show that the production increases after a period of rest. In that consideration, it might be helping your bottom line after all. Regardless, it’s an inescapable part of having employees anyhow, so here’s how to calculate Stat Pay in PEI. There’re a few things to consider and calculate and if it all seems a bit much, then sign up for a free 30 day trial of Payroll Connected and let our software do all the work for you completely automatically.
Here’s a list of the Paid Holidays/Stat Days in PEI:
– New Year’s Day
– Islander Day
– Good Friday
– Canada Day
– Labour Day
– National Day for Truth and Reconciliation
– Remembrance Day
– Christmas Day
Other days such as Easter Monday, Thanksgiving or Boxing Day are outside of this legislation so are not required to be given as a stat day.
Qualifying for Stat Pay
It may be surprising to know that not all employees get Stat Pay. There’s a few checks to run first to make sure they qualify for the additional day off in the first place, before you go calculating it for everyone. According to Prince Edward Island Labour Standards, an employee will qualify to receive Stat Pay only if they meet all of these criteria.
The employee with NOT receive Stat Pay if:
1. The employee has not been employed by the employer for at least 30 calendar days prior to the Stat Day
2. The employee has not worked for at least 15 of the 30 days prior to the paid holiday
3. The employee has not worked the last scheduled shift before, and the first scheduled shift after the statutory holiday date, without reasonable cause given
4. The employee does not work on a scheduled shift on the statutory holiday (aka: Stat Worked), without reasonable cause given
5. The employee is under a contract of service under which the employee may elect to work or not when requested to do so.
Of these rules, the third can be the most confusing, especially if a Stat Day falls at the end of a pay period. If a Stat Day is the last day of a pay period, and the employee’s next scheduled shift has not yet occurred before payroll is processed, are you allowed to retain the Stat Pay until that next shift is worked? The answer is yes. The Stat Pay would then be included on the next payroll run if that final obligation has been met. That said, for simplicity sake most employers will simply pay it on the pay period it occurs under the assumption that the employee will work their next scheduled shift.
Although salaried employees technically always qualify for Stat Pay, they receive no additional wages for it. Much like when they go on vacation, they just get their regular steady periodic pay as compensation.
Employees on an Averaging Agreement, where their overtime hours are being averaged over a one, two, three or four week period in consideration for calculation of overtime, they also automatically qualify for Stat Pay. A reminder that Averaging Agreements must be approved by the PEI Labour Standards office before implementation.
Calculating Stat Pay in PEI
Once the employee has qualified for Stat Pay, the calculation is actually pretty simple. According to the PEI Employment Standards website, (https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/information/workforce-and-advanced-learning/paid-holidays ):
“Holiday pay is calculated as five percent of the employee’s regular wages earned in the four weeks before the holiday (not including overtime). This amount includes any vacation pay or other holiday pay received during that time.”
For Christmas Day, as an example, just go four weeks (28 days) previous to the Stat Day. Hence, from Nov 27th, add up the hours worked to Dec 24th. Also add up the wages for this period. As defined above, ‘wages’ include Vacation and other Stat Holiday hours & pay, but does not include Overtime hours & pay. Once you have those two totals (hours and wages), simply multiply it by 5% and there’s your Stat Pay and insurable hours for the Stat Day.
For example, if an employee worked 160 hours in the 4 weeks prior to the Stat Day at $20.00 per hours and a 4% vacation rate, paid out each paycheck, their Stat Pay would calculate like this:
160 hrs x $20.00 = $3,200.00
$3,200.00 x 4% vac = $128.00
$128.00 + $3,200.00 = $3,328.00 Wages in the four week period
$3,328.00 * 5% Stat Rate = $166.40 in Stat Pay!
Notice that the employee is getting more money than if you just did 8 hrs * $20.00 = $160.00! The Labour Standards are written in such a way to give the employees just a tiny bit more on a Stat Day. Trying to skip this calculation by just paying a regular wage will actually be short-changing your employees.
Stop Calculating Payroll, Start Running your Business
That’s the break down of how to calculate Statutory Holiday Pay in Prince Edward Island. It’s not terribly difficult, but if you add that onto adding up hours, figuring overtime and calculating vacation pay, it gets to be enough time too. And if you add multiple employees into the mix, payroll can become a real time-sink. Not to mention that you always want to stay up to date with the Province’s Labour Standards (right here: https://www.princeedwardisland.ca/en/information/workforce-and-advanced-learning/employment-standards-in-pei ) for any changes, such as the recent work-week and vacation pay changes as of Jun 30 2026!
Or, you know an even better idea? Sign up today for a completely free 30 Day Trial of Payroll Connected, let the software do all this work for you, and get back to running your business.
Image by Ylanite Koppens from Pixabay