The United States has eleven federal holidays, and they legally apply only to federal employees and the District of Columbia. No law requires any private employer anywhere in the country to close on them, to give paid time off for them, or to pay a premium for working them. Each state sets its own list, and the practical experience of an American worker depends entirely on their employer. The United States is the only advanced economy with no statutory paid annual leave at all.
The Eleven Federal Holidays
| Date | Holiday | Description |
|---|---|---|
| January 1 | New Year's Day | Celebrates the start of the new year; parades and football bowl games |
| January 19 | Martin Luther King Jr. Day | Honors the civil rights leader; observed third Monday of January |
| February 16 | Presidents' Day | Honors George Washington and all presidents; observed third Monday of February |
| May 25 | Memorial Day | Honors fallen military personnel; marks the unofficial start of summer |
| June 19 | Juneteenth | Commemorates the end of slavery in the United States (1865) |
| July 4 | Independence Day | Celebrates the Declaration of Independence (1776); fireworks nationwide |
| September 7 | Labor Day | Honors the labor movement; marks the unofficial end of summer |
| October 12 | Columbus Day | Commemorates Christopher Columbus's arrival; increasingly observed as Indigenous Peoples' Day |
| November 11 | Veterans Day | Honors all military veterans; parades and ceremonies |
| November 26 | Thanksgiving Day | Day of giving thanks; traditional turkey dinner; fourth Thursday of November |
| December 25 | Christmas Day | Celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ; widely celebrated culturally |
Federal Holidays Are Not National Holidays
The eleven days are established under Title 5 of the United States Code, section 6103, which governs the pay and leave of federal employees. Nothing in the statute reaches beyond the federal workforce.
States generally mirror the federal list for their own employees, and most do. But a state is free to differ, and several do: Texas does not observe Columbus Day as a paid state holiday, while several states have their own additions.
Banks close because the Federal Reserve does, and financial markets close on their own published schedules, which are similar but not identical — the New York Stock Exchange closes on Good Friday, which is not a federal holiday, and stays open on Columbus Day and Veterans Day, which are.
No Statutory Paid Leave
The United States has no federal law requiring paid vacation, paid public holidays or paid sick leave for private-sector workers. It is the only country in the OECD in that position; every European Union member state mandates at least twenty days of paid annual leave plus public holidays.
Provision is therefore entirely a matter of employer policy and collective bargaining. Bureau of Labor Statistics data has consistently shown that around three-quarters of private-sector workers get some paid holidays, with coverage far higher among full-time and higher-paid workers and much lower in part-time, service and low-wage work.
Several states and cities have legislated paid sick leave since 2010, and a handful have paid family leave programmes. None mandates paid public holidays.
The Monday Holiday Act
Four federal holidays float to Mondays because of the Uniform Monday Holiday Act, passed in 1968 and effective from 1971. Washington's Birthday moved to the third Monday in February, Memorial Day to the last Monday in May, Labor Day was already the first Monday in September, and Columbus Day became the second Monday in October.
Veterans Day was also moved, to the fourth Monday in October, and the change was so unpopular that Congress reversed it in 1975 and returned the holiday to 11 November — the anniversary of the 1918 armistice, which is the entire point of the date.
The act's purpose was to create three-day weekends, and it succeeded. The side effect is that Memorial Day and Labor Day now function primarily as the bookends of the American summer rather than as commemorations.
It Is Not Called Presidents' Day
The February holiday is legally Washington's Birthday. Congress has never renamed it, and federal documents use the original name.
Presidents' Day is a marketing term that spread in the 1980s, helped by the fact that the Monday Holiday Act placed the holiday between Lincoln's birthday on 12 February and Washington's on 22 February, so that it never falls on either. Around a dozen states have officially adopted some version of the Presidents' Day name; others use Washington's Birthday, and Alabama pairs Washington with Thomas Jefferson.
Virginia calls it George Washington Day. Arkansas observed it jointly with Daisy Gatson Bates Day until 2017, when the legislature separated the two.
Juneteenth, the Newest One
Juneteenth National Independence Day, on 19 June, was signed into law on 17 June 2021 — the first new federal holiday since Martin Luther King Jr Day in 1983, and the fastest a bill has moved from introduction to a federal holiday in modern history.
The date marks 19 June 1865, when Union Major General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas and issued General Order No. 3 announcing that enslaved people in Texas were free — two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation took effect, and two months after Lee's surrender.
Texas had made it a state holiday in 1980, and the observance spread from there. Adoption by state governments accelerated sharply after 2020, and it is now observed in most states in some form.
Columbus Day and Indigenous Peoples' Day
The second Monday in October remains Columbus Day in federal law, and it is the most contested date on the calendar. It became a federal holiday in 1937, promoted in large part by Italian-American organisations for whom Columbus was a point of ethnic pride at a time when Italian immigrants faced substantial discrimination.
South Dakota replaced it with Native Americans' Day in 1990, and Berkeley, California adopted Indigenous Peoples' Day in 1992. Numerous states and hundreds of cities have since renamed or replaced it, and several observe both.
Presidents have issued proclamations recognising Indigenous Peoples' Day since 2021 while the federal holiday's statutory name has not changed. Both names now appear on the same day in different jurisdictions.
What Happens When a Holiday Falls on a Weekend
Federal rules handle weekend holidays by observation. If a holiday falls on a Saturday, federal employees generally get the preceding Friday off; if it falls on a Sunday, they get the following Monday.
That produces the odd situation in which the observed holiday and the actual date differ, and both appear on calendars. Independence Day on a Saturday means federal offices close on 3 July, and the fireworks still happen on the 4th.
Private employers are not bound by any of this and vary widely. Retail is the clearest case: most large chains open on almost every federal holiday, and Thanksgiving and Christmas are the two on which closure is close to universal.
State-Only Holidays
Some of the most distinctive American holidays are observed in one state only. Patriots' Day, the third Monday in April, is a holiday in Massachusetts and Maine and marks the battles of Lexington and Concord; it is the day the Boston Marathon is run.
Alaska observes Seward's Day; Hawaii observes King Kamehameha Day and Prince Kuhio Day; Texas observes Texas Independence Day and San Jacinto Day; Louisiana observes Mardi Gras in some parishes; Vermont observes Town Meeting Day; Utah observes Pioneer Day on 24 July.
Several southern states retain Confederate observances in some form, which has been the subject of repeated legislative fights. Alabama and Mississippi observe Confederate Memorial Day, and Alabama's Washington's Birthday is officially shared with Robert E. Lee's.
Thanksgiving Moves Around
Thanksgiving is the fourth Thursday in November by federal law, fixed by Congress in 1941. It was not always so.
Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving on the last Thursday of November in 1863, and presidents issued annual proclamations after that. In 1939 Franklin Roosevelt moved it a week earlier to lengthen the Christmas shopping season, a change that split the country — 23 states followed and 22 did not, and the two dates were nicknamed Franksgiving and the Republican Thanksgiving.
Congress settled it in 1941 by statute, choosing the fourth Thursday, which is usually but not always the last. It is the busiest travel period in the United States, with the Sunday after typically the single heaviest day for domestic air travel.
The Days That Are Not Holidays
Several of the most observed American occasions are not federal holidays at all. Halloween, Valentine's Day, St Patrick's Day, Mother's Day, Father's Day, Easter and Christmas Eve are all ordinary working days in federal law.
Good Friday is a state holiday in around a dozen states and is not federal. Easter Sunday falls on a Sunday and so never needs to be.
Election Day is not a federal holiday either, which is unusual internationally and is a recurring subject of legislative proposals. A handful of states make it a state holiday, and some employers give time off to vote, but there is no national requirement. For related context, see religion in the United States and the count of countries in North America.
