Sponsors
The bill guarantees higher, enforceable holiday pay protections for workers but raises costs and enforcement burdens for employers, which could reduce holiday work opportunities or increase prices.
Employees who work on federal legal public holidays (particularly low- and middle-income workers) will receive at least 1.5× their regular pay for those hours, increasing holiday earnings.
Employees (especially low- and middle-income workers) gain an enforceable private right to recover unpaid holiday pay and liquidated damages, giving workers a legal mechanism to collect owed holiday compensation.
Workers in states and localities that already require higher holiday pay retain those stronger protections, preserving existing local standards.
Small businesses and other employers face higher labor costs for holiday work, which may lead them to raise prices, reduce hiring, or cut employee hours.
Employers face expanded enforcement, criminal penalties, and greater legal exposure, increasing compliance costs and litigation risk for businesses and potentially imposing costs on taxpayers.
Employees who rely on extra holiday shifts (particularly low-income workers) may see fewer offered holiday hours or increased automation as employers avoid higher pay obligations.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Requires FLSA-covered employers to pay at least 1.5× regular rate for work on federal "legal public holidays" and treats unpaid holiday pay as an enforceable wage violation.
Introduced February 12, 2026 by Ruben Gallego · Last progress February 12, 2026
Requires employers covered by the Fair Labor Standards Act to pay employees at least one and one-half times their regular rate for work performed on any "legal public holiday" (the holidays listed in 5 U.S.C. 6103(a)). It treats unpaid holiday pay the same as unpaid minimum wage and unpaid overtime for enforcement and remedies, makes conforming edits across the FLSA, and preserves higher federal, state, or municipal holiday-pay rules. The bill adds a new FLSA provision creating the holiday-pay requirement, updates enforcement, penalties, and exemptions language to cover unpaid holiday compensation, repeals an existing FLSA provision, and updates statute-of-limitations cross-references related to Portal-to-Portal claims.