Statutory Holiday Assist

Tip: This functionality is available to Powerpay People customers.

The Statutory Holiday Assist feature automates the calculation of statutory holiday pay for employees who do not work on the holiday.

All supported jurisdictions now include:

  • Alberta (AB)

  • British Columbia (BC)

  • Manitoba (MB)

  • Saskatchewan (SK)

  • Ontario (ON)

  • Quebec (QC)

  • Nova Scotia (NS)

For employers using Powerpay People with Daily Hours enabled. Additional jurisdictions will be supported in future releases.

When Statutory Holiday Assist is enabled, the Calendar tab.Closed From the People menu, select Calendar. displays and the statutory holidays available to your province display in the applicable month.

Note:

  • Powerpay does not automatically check for eligibility such as length of employment, if the employee worked their scheduled shift before or after the holiday, or if the holiday is a regular working day.

  • Powerpay does not support custom holidays with the Statutory Assist feature. For example, optional holidays that are not required by legislation.

  • This feature is available for hourly employees only.

When enabled, the Statutory Holidays section displays on the Time Review page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Regular Payment > Time Review. and includes:

  • Notifications of statutory holidays in the pay period

  • The calculation status: Calculation Required or Calculation Done

If there are no statutory holidays in the pay period, the following message displays:

No statutory holidays in this pay period.

If Daily Hours is enabled for your payroll but Statutory Holiday Assist is not, the following message displays:

Statutory Holiday calculations for British Columbia, Ontario, Quebec, and Alberta are now available. For more information see Powerpay Online Help.

Prerequisites

  • Powerpay People UX (user experience) is enabled.

  • Daily Hours functionality is set up and enabled. Service fees apply.

    Note: In the comments section of your request, indicate that you are also requesting Statutory Holiday Assist.

    1. Click the Exchange icon in the Powerpay toolbar.

    2. Select Powerpay Products.

    1. Select Powerpay Daily Hours.

    1. Click Contact Us.

    2. Complete the form and click Send.

      A Dayforce representative will contact you.

  • Statutory holiday pay codes are set up. Service fees apply.

  • The earning codes to include in the calculation for Statutory Holiday Assist are configured for your payroll. Review your provincial labour standards website to confirm your requirements.

  • Complete the Statutory Holiday Assist Setup form after being advised that Daily Hours functionality is enabled.

  • To calculate statutory holiday pay correctly, Powerpay requires the provincially mandated number of daily hours or daily earnings from one or more of the following pages:

    • Daily Hours Timesheet

    • Regular Timesheet

    • Manual page

    • Reversal page

    • Second Payment

    • Time Review page.

Note:

Due to the requirement for dated data, there may be a delay between when Daily Hours is first enabled for your payroll and when Statutory Holiday Assist can perform accurate calculations. If fewer than mandated number of dated data exists, the calculated statutory holiday pay may not be accurate. Possible reasons are:

  • Daily Hours was recently enabled and insufficient dated data is available.

  • Employee hours or earnings were not entered by date.

  • A new employee does not have a full lookback history.

Jurisdiction specific statutory holiday pay calculation

When Powerpay detects a statutory holiday in the current pay period for supported provinces, it looks back to determine if there are sufficient historical hours and earnings available to calculate the statutory holiday pay. If historical data exists, Powerpay uses the designated earning codes to include in the calculation as 'regular wages'.

Powerpay supports two look back options for Alberta to calculate the average regular wages earned divided by the number of days worked.

  • Four weeks immediately before the holiday.

  • Four weeks ending on the last pay period before the holiday.

Powerpay calculates statutory holiday pay by averaging regular wages earned by the number of days worked in the previous 30 calendar days.

Powerpay requires four work weeks of dated hours or earnings to calculate 1/20 of regular wages earned.

Powerpay supports two calculation methods for Quebec.

  • Non-commissioned employees: The calculation is 1/20th of the regular wages earned during the last 4 complete work weeks.

  • Commissioned employees: The calculation is 1/60th of the wages earned during the last 12 complete work weeks.

For detailed information about how Canadian compliance requirements are incorporated into the Powerpay Statutory Holiday Assist setup, click here.

How eligibility is evaluated

Statutory Holiday Assist assesses eligibility based on the data available in Powerpay and jurisdiction-specific rules.

Rule Description Jurisdiction
Before / After

Checks if employee has regular hours on the day before and after the holiday.

Since the actual Before / After rules require schedules beyond the day before and the day after a holiday, Powerpay will prompt you to Verify the employee’s schedule if the check performed was inconclusive .

 AB, MB, NS, ON, QC
Days Employed

Compares ROE First Day Worked to current date.

If the employee has been issued an ROE, this count may be understated.

AB, BC
5/9 Rule Counts of day of week in previous 9 where there are hours entries AB
Days with Earnings Check days with earnings in previous 30 based on daily timesheet entries BC, NS

Note: In Saskatchewan (SK), there are no eligibility requirements.

Eligibility hints provide guidance based on detectable data. They may not reflect every legislative detail. Always validate against applicable provincial legislation and organizational policy.

The Statutory Holiday Assist Guide is available to clarify the provincial requirements and automation limitations and/or assumptions that are made when eligibility hints are provided.

Tasks

Calculate statutory holiday pay

  1. Go to the Time Review page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Regular Payment > Time Review.

    Review the Calculation Required message, if shown. The message displays the number of jurisdictions where calculations are required for the statutory holiday.

  2. In the Statutory Holidays section, click Select Eligible Employees.

  3. Expand the Learn how statutory holiday pay is calculated section to review calculation details.

  4. In the Filter employees by province field, narrow the employee list by province, worked status, or eligibility.

  5. In the employees list, review the following columns:

    • Holiday Worked status

    • Pay Premium for hours worked on the holiday

    • Pay Holiday Average

    • Eligibility Hints - Powerpay provides guidance to help determine how employees should be paid when they work or do not work on a statutory holiday.

  6. Review the Eligibility Hints for each employee. Expand the drop-down to review the detailed eligibility hints.

    • Met indicates all detectable criteria are satisfied.

    • Review indicates some or all criteria require validation.

  7. Select how each employee should be paid for the holiday:

    • Select Pay Premium for hours worked on the holiday if the employee worked on the statutory holiday and is eligible for premium pay.

    • Select Pay Holiday Average if the employee qualifies for statutory holiday average pay.

    • Select both options if applicable.

  8. Click Calculate.

    Powerpay inserts and saves the value into the Time Review page.Closed From the Payroll menu, select Regular Payment > Time Review., next to the statutory holiday date, once the value is calculated.

  9. Repeat for each province.

  10. Review the values calculated.

Note: The payroll administrator can modify the value if required.

What happens when you click calculate

When you click Calculate:

  • If Pay Premium is selected, Powerpay converts regular timesheet hours worked on the holiday to holiday premium hours.

  • If Pay Holiday Average is selected, Powerpay calculates the holiday average based on payroll settings and inserts the calculated holiday average hours into the employee’s timesheet.

You can review the calculated entries in the employee’s timesheet.