2024 Guide to Holiday Wages in the Philippines

Holidays are a significant aspect of Philippine culture; employers have a particular responsibility to uphold the rules enforced by the Labor Code of the Philippines, specifically on how to issue holiday pay to their employees in the Philippines.

Laws in the Philippines require employers to compensate employees during specific dates despite not reporting to work. This article presents a guide on correctly calculating your employee’s wages for proper payment during holidays.

Importance of Holiday wage pay

Adhering to the country’s holiday pay rules is an essential aspect of the corporate environment, and, as an employer, you are duty-bound to pay your employees properly, lest you get penalised for violating the holiday rules enforced by the country’s Labor Code and avoid incurring salary disputes with your workers. In contrast, as an employee, it is your right to be correctly compensated if you decide to work during a holiday for a pay bonus.

To better ensure accurate and timely holiday wage payment, companies can work with a payroll outsourcing service company like Forvis Mazars. These firms also occasionally provide updates reporting on upcoming holiday wages or taxes. This short guide aims to help employers correctly issue holiday wage pay to their employees affected by Philippine holidays.

What is a Holiday Pay in the Philippines?

Holiday pay is defined as paying employees a regular daily average wage during an unworked holiday.
It is a legislated benefit enacted as part of the state’s constitutional imperative toward protecting Filipino labour. “It is also intended to enable the worker to participate in the national celebrations held during the days identified with great historical and cultural significance, “as mentioned by the Asian Transmission Corporation v. CA (Commonwealth Act), G.R. No. 144664, 15 March 2004).

In the Philippines, holiday pay is considered a legally mandated benefit that all employers must pay to their employees on holidays, whether they worked during that time.

But there are certain employees exempt from holiday pay; this benefit does not apply to the following employees:

• Government Employees
• Housekeepers or individuals personally serving another (Kasambahays)
• Managerial Employees
• Officers and staff members of managerial staff that are compliant with the Labor Code conditions
• Retail workers and service establishments with less than ten (10) workers
• The Employer’s family members are currently dependent on the employer for support
• Employees under contract, undergoing a task, or those currently under commission and are unsupervised by their respective employers

Note that there is a difference in the payments rates for the various kinds of holidays in the Philippines, divided between regular holidays and special non-working holidays.

Special Employee groups

Holiday wage pay rules are applied differently toward certain specific groups in the company. These include the following:

Piece-rate workers must be given holiday pay that must not be less than their daily earnings for the last seven (7) days of actual work after the preceding regular holiday. However, the holiday cannot be less than the applicable minimum wage rate, as said in the Department of Labour and Employment (DOLE) Handbook, Rule IV, Book III, Omnibus Rules Implementing the Labour Code.

Seasonal Workers are not entitled to holiday wages during regular holidays in the off-season.

Workers without regular holidays are entitled to holiday pay.

Computing the Holiday Pay in the Philippines

The computation for the holiday wage rates was issued by the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) on Memorandum Circular No. 1 of March 8, 2004. It is currently implementing two separate groups of holidays rules, one for regular holidays and another for special non-working holidays.

A. Employee wage payment for regular holidays

President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. issued Proclamation No. 727, s. 2024 declaring the regular holidays and special (non-working) days for 2025. The proclamation was signed by Executive Secretary Lucas P. Bersamin on 30 October 2024 and was published in the Official Gazette on 31 October.

It states that the regular holidays for 2025 are as follows:

Employees who did not report for work during a regular holiday are still beholden to receiving their full 100% salary for that day and should not be given reduced pay for not working during the holiday.

 Employees who reported for work on a regular holiday must be paid double their salary. The computation for the pay wage is as follows:  

Normal Hours

 Employees who work overtime during a regular holiday, with the first eight (8) hours being given a 200% bonus, while those working for extra hours being given a plus 30% hourly rate on that same day, with basic wage added with cost-of-living allowance.

Overtime Hours

Employees who report for work on their rest day (Saturday or Sunday) during a regular holiday will be given a 30% bonus of their 200% salary and 200% compensation.

Rest day hours

Employees who report for work and go overtime on their rest day (Saturday or Sunday) on a regular holiday will be given a 30% bonus of their 200% salary and 200% compensation and receive an added 30% hourly rate.

Rest day with overtime hours

B. Special Holiday Pay Computation

The proclamation also states that there would be eight (8) non-working holidays for 2025. 
These are as follows:

Additional Special (Non-Working) Days

Special (Working) Day

Employees who did not report for work during a special non-working holiday are subject to the “no work, no pay rule” this will take effect until the employer implements a policy or collective bargaining agreement (CBA) allowing payment during these dates.

Employees who report for work during a special non-working holiday must be provided with an added 30% of their basic wage for their first eight hours worked. To correctly compute this wage payment, consider the following formula.

Normal Hours

 Employees who work overtime during a special non-working holiday will receive an added 30% on their hourly rate. The computation is as follows:

Overtime Hours

Employees who report for work on their rest day (Saturday or Sunday) during a special non-working holiday will be given an added 50% bonus of their basic wage for their first eight (8) hours. The computation for this instance can be seen below:

Rest day hours

Employees who work overtime on their rest day (Saturday or Sunday) during a special non-working holiday will receive an added 30% hourly rate and other bonuses. The computation for this holiday pay is as follows:

Holiday wage pay Rules

A. Holiday Absences

Suppose an absent employee is paid on the workday once the day after a regular holiday. In that case, they are entitled to holiday pay, as said in the DOLE Handbook, Rule IV, Book III, Omnibus Rules Implementing the Labor Code.

If an employee is absent the day after a regular holiday, they will be paid if they applied for their leave credits for that day’s absence and were approved by the management. If no leave credit is applied, they will not be paid. If they are not paid on the workday after the holiday, they will not be spent.

The same rule on absences applies to the following regular holidays or two/more holidays lining up after another (e.g., Maundy Thursday and Good Friday). When absent employees are paid after the regular holiday, they will be paid for the regular holidays. If they are not paid after a regular holiday, they will not be given a holiday for the following regular holidays.

But in the case when an absent employee is not paid on the workday after a regular holiday but reports for work on the first regular holiday during successive regular holidays, they will be paid for the next holiday/s even without having to work.

B. Temporary Periodic Shutdown during Holidays

Because of Covid-19, DOLE quoted a piece in their handbook, saying that “In cases of temporary or periodic shutdown and temporary cessation of work of an establishment, as a yearly inventory or when the repair or cleaning of machinery and equipment is undertaken, the regular holidays falling within the period shall be compensated following the rules implementing the Labor Code, as amended.”

DOLE then explains that employers can use a temporary work suspension (TWS) to suspend work on their establishment for a legitimate business decision; it cannot be exceeded by six (6) months.

C. On holiday wage taxability

Regarding taxability, it is said that the minimum wage workers (MWE) are exempt from paying their withholding taxes for their holiday pay. This rule also applies to benefits such as overtime pay, hazard pay, and night differential pay.

Payroll services and management with Forvis Mazars

Organising each employee’s salary can become a hassle and take excessive time if left unattended. However, you can make salary distribution much easier by using the services of a reliable payroll outsourcing company. Forvis Mazars computes special rates, payroll wages, income taxes, and contributions. Other benefits include dealing with employee payments and mandatory requirements from government institutions.