Congress moves to guarantee holiday pay premium for millions of workers
S. 3867 — Holiday Pay Act · Filed by Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) · Introduced Feb 12, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Fair Labor Standards Act to require employers to pay employees 1.5 times their regular wage when they work on federal legal public holidays (like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year's Day). The bill applies to all employers engaged in interstate commerce and integrates holiday pay into existing wage-and-hour enforcement mechanisms, allowing workers to sue for unpaid holiday compensation just as they can for unpaid overtime.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is a mandatory wage floor for holiday work—a straightforward labor standard that increases compensation for a defined class of workers. It is not a tax measure, subsidy, or deregulation; it is a wage floor, functionally similar to the minimum wage and overtime rules already in the FLSA.
What the text implies
- Holiday pay will not count toward overtime thresholds, meaning an employee working 50 hours in a week that includes a holiday will owe overtime only on hours beyond 40 (excluding the holiday premium). This prevents employers from using holiday work to inflate overtime liability but may reduce total compensation in some scenarios.
- The bill does not preempt state or local laws requiring higher holiday pay, creating a patchwork of standards. Employers in high-cost-of-living states or cities with existing holiday-pay mandates face no additional burden, but national employers must track and comply with multiple regimes.
The full analysis lists 5 implications of this text.
Who stands to gain
employees working on federal legal public holidays; plaintiff employment attorneys (litigation and settlement fees)