The True Cost of Holiday Pay: A Free Holiday Pay Policy Template

Regardless of what you’ve heard, holiday pay, or the lack thereof, can have an enormous impact on your employees’ lives and livelihoods. That’s why you need to pay attention to how much holiday pay you offer, who gets it, and how much they receive. By taking the time to create a holiday pay policy that’s right for your company, you can ensure that you are doing right by your workers while also following the law.

What is holiday pay?

Holiday pay, while not required by federal law, can often be a required item on an employment contract. This is especially true for those in higher-level or entry-level managerial positions. Some salaried employees who do not get overtime pay may receive holiday pay as part of their salary compensation package. For example, let’s say that Bob is the chief financial officer of a company and makes $4,000 per week when he works 50 hours per week.

Why do companies provide holiday pay?

On the surface, holiday pay seems like an unnecessary expense. It’s great that employees get time off and enjoy time with family and friends over the holidays, but what are the costs to a company? There is actually a significant cost for a company to provide paid holidays for its workers. Employees need to be paid for the days that they would have worked, which costs money in terms of base salary and benefits. Further, when these employees leave early from work during holidays in order to spend more time with their loved ones, it will require other people within the company to cover their shifts. This causes an increase in labor hours as well as recruitment costs as companies scramble to find qualified staff who are able or willing to work these shifts at short notice.

Do employers have to pay for bank holidays in the UK?

Many countries have paid holidays, and most countries require employers to provide the following days off with pay to their employees:

1) a day off after working on a holiday.
2) a weekday off in the event of illness.
3) weekends off.
However, this is not always the case. In the United Kingdom, for example, only bank holidays are paid leave with pay

How does your company handle public holidays and annual leave? 

To be honest, the company I work for doesn’t really give a damn about us. They don’t take any notice of public holidays, and they just expect us to deal with it and make sure we carry on working as usual. However, it’s not always that easy; if you’re on a shift-based job, you might have to do lots more hours than usual to cover for other people that are off work!

Examples of good holiday policies

A healthy, happy, and productive workforce is a profitable one. According to research conducted by KPMG, 88% of employees are planning to work during their time off this year, either because they can’t afford to or because they can’t stand the thought of sitting at home twiddling their thumbs. Despite the fact that more and more employees are willingly coming into the office for holiday shifts – largely due to financial and psychological pressure – many employers have come up with clever ways to help their employees take time off for family, friends, and mental health.