If you open on public holidays — and most restaurants, cafes and takeaways do — getting the pay right is one of the trickiest parts of running the place. The Holidays Act 2003 is the rule book, and even the people who wrote about it admit it's hard work: "many New Zealand employers still struggle with public holiday regulations and correctly paying employees" (MyHR, 2024).
This is a step-by-step guide to paying your team correctly when they work a public holiday in New Zealand — what you owe, how to work it out in NZ$, which days Mondayise, and where owners most often slip up. It's general guidance, not legal advice; confirm any edge case with Employment New Zealand or your payroll provider.
Key takeaways
- Working a public holiday means at least time-and-a-half — the employee's relevant daily pay (RDP) for the hours worked, plus half that amount again (Employment New Zealand, 2026).
- If the day is an "otherwise working day" for that employee, you also owe an alternative holiday — a paid day off to take later, on top of the time-and-a-half.
- Two separate things can be owed at once: the higher pay for the hours worked and a day in lieu. Owners who pay only the 1.5x often miss the alternative day.
- Staff hired only to work public holidays don't get an alternative day — but they still get time-and-a-half.
- The full cost of an 8-hour public holiday shift can be roughly 2.5x ordinary pay once you add the alternative day's value.
- Some holidays "Mondayise" — Waitangi Day and ANZAC Day move to the Monday when they fall on a weekend and the staff member wouldn't normally work then.
How do you pay staff who work on a public holiday in New Zealand?
The short answer: you owe at least time-and-a-half for the hours worked, and — if that public holiday is a day the employee would normally have worked — you also owe an alternative holiday (a paid day off later). Those are two separate entitlements, and the most common mistake is paying the first and forgetting the second.
Here's how to work through it, step by step.
Step 1 — Confirm it's actually a public holiday
There are 11 national public holidays in New Zealand, and each region also observes its own provincial anniversary day — so an individual employee can get 12 in a year. The 11 national days are New Year's Day, the Day after New Year's Day, Waitangi Day, Good Friday, Easter Monday, ANZAC Day, King's Birthday, Matariki, Labour Day, Christmas Day and Boxing Day (Employment New Zealand, 2026).
These rules only apply on those days. A busy Saturday or a school-holiday Sunday is not a public holiday — it's just a normal trading day, paid at the normal rate (unless your employment agreement says otherwise).
Step 2 — Pay at least time-and-a-half for the hours worked
If an employee works on a public holiday, you must pay them the greater of two amounts (Employment New Zealand, 2026):
"time-and-a-half: the employee's RDP (ADP if applicable) for the time worked on the day (not including any penal rates in the employment agreement) plus half that amount again, or the employee's RDP (ADP if applicable) for the time actually worked on the day including any penal rates in the employment agreement."
In plain terms: take what they'd earn for those hours, add half again, and that's the floor. RDP (relevant daily pay) is "the amount the employee would have earned if they had worked on the day in question" — usual pay plus regular extras. If RDP can't be worked out, or pay varies, you use ADP (average daily pay): the daily average of gross earnings over the past 52 weeks.
Step 3 — Check if you also owe an alternative holiday
This is the step owners miss most. An employee gets an alternative holiday — a paid day off to take another time — if they (Employment New Zealand, 2026):
- work on a public holiday,
- the public holiday is an otherwise working day (a day they would usually work), and
- are not employed only to work on public holidays.
So a full-time chef rostered every Monday who works Labour Day (a Monday) gets time-and-a-half and a day in lieu. A casual brought in just for Christmas Day, who never otherwise works, gets time-and-a-half but no alternative day, because "Employees do not get an alternative holiday if they are employed to work only on public holidays."
What counts as an "otherwise working day"?
This is the test that decides whether the alternative day is owed, and it's where casual and part-time rosters get messy. An "otherwise working day" is a day the employee would have worked had it not been a public holiday.
For a salaried, fixed-roster employee it's obvious — if they always work Fridays, Good Friday is an otherwise working day. For irregular or casual staff, look at the pattern: the days and frequency they've actually worked, what the employment agreement says, and whether they'd have been rostered that day but for the holiday. If genuinely unclear, that's exactly the kind of edge case to confirm with Employment New Zealand or your payroll software before you run the pay.
How to calculate it: a worked NZ$ example
Say a waiter is on NZ$25.52 an hour — the New Zealand industry average for wait staff (RNZ, 2025) — and works an 8-hour shift on a public holiday that is an otherwise working day for them.
| Component | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Ordinary 8-hour day | 8 × $25.52 | $204.16 |
| Time-and-a-half for the shift | 8 × $25.52 × 1.5 | $306.24 |
| Alternative holiday (paid when taken) | 8 × $25.52 | $204.16 |
| Total cost of the day | time-and-a-half + day in lieu | $510.40 |
The hours worked cost $306.24 on the day. Then the alternative holiday — paid later, at the employee's RDP/ADP "for the hours they would have worked on the day they take the alternative holiday" — adds roughly another $204.16 of paid time off. Add them up and an ordinary $204 shift effectively costs about 2.5 times ordinary pay once the day in lieu is honoured.
That's why the alternative day matters so much to your numbers: skip it and you've underpaid; the cost doesn't disappear, it just turns into a back-pay risk.
The 2026 New Zealand public holiday calendar
Plan your rosters around these. Note Matariki is observed on Friday 10 July 2026 (Employment New Zealand, 2026), and that some holidays "Mondayise" — they shift to the next available working day when they fall on a weekend and the employee wouldn't normally work then.
| Public holiday | Mondayises? |
|---|---|
| New Year's Day & Day after | Yes — transfers to Monday/Tuesday if on a weekend |
| Waitangi Day (6 Feb) | Yes — to the following Monday if on a weekend |
| Good Friday & Easter Monday | No (date-based) |
| ANZAC Day (25 Apr) | Yes — to the following Monday if on a weekend |
| King's Birthday | No (always a Monday) |
| Matariki (Fri 10 Jul 2026) | No (always a Friday) |
| Labour Day | No (always a Monday) |
| Christmas Day & Boxing Day | Yes — transfer to Monday/Tuesday if on a weekend |
On Mondayisation, Employment NZ is explicit: "The public holidays for ANZAC Day and Waitangi Day are 'Mondayised' (moved to the following Monday) if they fall on a Saturday/Sunday and the employee would not normally have worked on that Saturday/Sunday" (Employment New Zealand, 2026). The Christmas, Boxing Day and New Year holidays transfer similarly. The catch: the holiday only moves for staff who wouldn't normally have worked the weekend — so on the same date you can owe public-holiday rates to one person and ordinary pay to another.
What it costs to get it wrong
Payroll is already your biggest controllable line. NZ hospitality operators have reported "wage costs had reached an average 40 percent of outgoings," with the average hourly wage across the industry at "$27.84 ... up 2.54 percent from the previous year" (RNZ, 2025). On top of that, the adult minimum wage rises from "NZD$23.50 to NZD$23.95 per hour" on 1 April 2026 (Employment New Zealand, 2026), which lifts holiday pay and on-costs with it.
Get public-holiday pay wrong and the error compounds across every long weekend and every affected staff member — and unpaid entitlements can surface later as a back-pay claim. The fix is process, not panic: know which days are public holidays, run the time-and-a-half, check the otherwise-working-day test for the alternative day, and keep clean records of what each person was paid and why.
Rising labour costs also make every dollar lost elsewhere sting more — which is why owners increasingly push customers to order through their own website rather than hand 30% to an aggregator on top of a payroll that's already climbing. If commissions are the other line eating your margin, our breakdown of what Uber Eats really costs New Zealand restaurants runs the same teardown for delivery. (DineHere builds restaurant websites with ordering, if owning that channel is on your list.)
Frequently asked questions
Do I have to pay double time on a public holiday in New Zealand?
No. The legal minimum is time-and-a-half (1.5x) for the hours worked, not double time. Some employment agreements offer more, but time-and-a-half is the floor set by the Holidays Act (Employment New Zealand, 2026).
What is an alternative holiday (day in lieu)?
It's a paid day off, taken at another time, that an employee earns by working a public holiday that is an otherwise working day for them. It's separate from — and on top of — the time-and-a-half for the hours they worked.
Does every employee who works a public holiday get a day in lieu?
No. Only those for whom the public holiday is an otherwise working day and who are not employed solely to work public holidays. A casual brought in just for Christmas Day, who never otherwise works, gets time-and-a-half but no alternative day.
How is the alternative holiday paid when the staff member takes it?
At the employee's RDP (or ADP if applicable) "for the hours they would have worked on the day they take the alternative holiday" (Employment New Zealand, 2026) — so it reflects what that future day would have paid, not the public holiday rate.
What's the difference between RDP and ADP?
RDP (relevant daily pay) is what the employee would have earned on the day in question — usual pay plus regular extras. ADP (average daily pay) is the daily average of their gross earnings over the past 52 weeks, used when RDP can't be determined or pay varies.
How many public holidays are there in New Zealand?
There are 11 national public holidays, plus each region's own anniversary day — so an individual employee can have 12 public holidays in a year (Employment New Zealand, 2026).
What does "Mondayisation" mean for my roster?
When Waitangi Day, ANZAC Day, or the Christmas/New Year holidays fall on a weekend, the public holiday shifts to the next working day for staff who wouldn't normally have worked that weekend. On the same calendar date, you may owe public-holiday rates to one employee and ordinary pay to another.
When is Matariki in 2026?
Matariki is observed on Friday 10 July 2026 (Employment New Zealand, 2026).
If we're closed on a public holiday, do I still pay anything?
If the day would otherwise have been a working day for the employee, they're entitled to be paid their relevant daily pay for the day even though they didn't work — that's the standard public-holiday entitlement for a day they'd normally work. They don't get time-and-a-half or an alternative day, because they didn't work it.
Where can I get the rules confirmed for an edge case?
Employment New Zealand's public-holiday pages are the authoritative source, and a payroll provider can apply the calculations to your specific rosters. For anything genuinely unclear — irregular casuals, mixed shifts, the otherwise-working-day test — confirm it before you run the pay rather than after.
