Skip to content
Calculadora Capital

Public Holiday Pay Calculator

Did you work on a public holiday in Portugal? Anyone who performs normal work on a holiday in a company not obliged to close that day is entitled, at the employer’s choice, to a 50% uplift on those hours or to compensatory rest of half the hours worked. This calculator starts from your monthly salary, computes the official hourly value and shows both scenarios: what the uplift is worth and how many hours of rest would be the alternative.

Enter your monthly gross salary, your weekly schedule and the hours you worked (or will work) on the public holiday. The legal uplift is 50%; adjust it if your collective agreement sets a higher value.

Holiday uplift (if it is paid)
€23.08
For 8 hours worked on the holiday
Or compensatory rest
4 h
Half the hours worked. The choice between paying the uplift and giving the rest belongs to the employer.
Base hourly value (art. 271)€5.77
Uplift per hour (50%)+€2.88
One hour worked on the holiday€8.65
The same 8 hours on a normal day€46.15
Holiday uplift+€23.08
Value of the holiday hours (with the uplift)€69.23
Alternative: compensatory rest (half of 8 h)4 h

The choice between the 50% uplift and compensatory rest of half the hours belongs to the employer (article 269(2) of the Portuguese Labour Code).

Gross values: the holiday uplift pays income tax and Social Security like the rest of the salary.

Estimate for normal work on a public holiday in a company not obliged to close on that day (article 269). If the company must suspend operations on the holiday, the work is overtime, with its own overtime uplifts.

Educational estimate, not advice. The 50% uplift is the general legal minimum and the employer chooses between paying it and giving rest; your collective agreement may set more favourable rules. Always check your payslip.

What the law says about working on a holiday

A public holiday is, as a rule, a paid rest day: the worker is entitled to the holiday’s pay without having to make up for it with extra work (article 269(1) of the Portuguese Labour Code). Working on a holiday in a company not obliged to suspend operations that day earns an additional right: compensatory rest of half the hours worked, or a 50% uplift on the pay for those hours. The choice between the two belongs to the employer (article 269(2)).

How the 50% uplift is calculated

The base is the official hourly value of article 271: (monthly salary × 12) ÷ (52 × weekly hours). With €1,000 a month and 40 hours a week, one hour is worth €5.77. The 50% uplift is €2.88 per hour: an 8-hour holiday adds €23.08 to the payslip. Because the holiday itself is already paid inside the monthly salary, the uplift is the extra cash the payment option adds.

The alternative: compensatory rest

Instead of paying the uplift, the employer may grant compensatory rest of half the number of hours worked: 8 hours worked on a holiday earn 4 hours of paid rest. The law sets no deadline for taking this rest; the collective agreement or an agreement between the parties fills that in.

Companies obliged to close: that is overtime

The 50% rule applies to companies that may operate on the holiday (restaurants, hotels, healthcare, authorised retail, continuous operations). If the company is obliged to suspend activity on the holiday and the employee still works, that work is overtime: it pays the overtime uplifts for rest days and holidays, 50% per hour, doubling to 100% once the worker has done more than 100 overtime hours in the year. Use the overtime calculator for that case.

Which days are mandatory public holidays

Portugal has 13 mandatory public holidays (article 234): 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, 25 April, 1 May, Corpus Christi, 10 June, 15 August, 5 October, 1 November and 1, 8 and 25 December. Carnival Tuesday and the municipal holiday are optional (article 235): they only count if the company observes them, by collective agreement or contract.

The uplift pays income tax and Social Security

The holiday uplift is ordinary employment pay (category A): it enters income tax (IRS), at your rate, and pays the 11% employee Social Security like the rest of the salary. The figures in this calculator are gross; to see the net effect, use the net-salary calculator.

Worked example

Imagine a €1,000 monthly salary, 40 hours a week and 8 hours worked on the holiday. The hourly value is (1,000 × 12) ÷ (52 × 40) = €5.77. The 50% uplift is worth €2.88 per hour, so the holiday adds €23.08 to the payslip; counting the value of the hours themselves, the 8 hours are worth €69.23 instead of €46.15. The alternative, if the employer prefers, is 4 hours of paid compensatory rest.

Frequently asked questions

What are you entitled to for working on a public holiday?
In a company not obliged to suspend operations that day, anyone performing normal work on a holiday is entitled to compensatory rest of half the hours worked or to a 50% uplift on the pay for those hours. The choice between the two belongs to the employer (article 269(2) of the Labour Code).
How much more do you earn for working on a holiday?
If the employer opts for payment, the uplift is 50% of the pay for the hours worked. With an hourly value of €5.77, each holiday hour earns an extra €2.88; an 8-hour day adds €23.08. The sector’s collective agreement may set a higher uplift.
Can the worker choose between the money and the rest?
No. The law expressly gives the choice to the employer: either pay the 50% uplift or grant compensatory rest of half the hours worked. A collective agreement or the contract may set more favourable rules, including giving the choice to the worker.
What if the company must close on the holiday?
Then the work performed on the holiday is not normal work: it is overtime, paid with the 50%-per-hour uplift for rest days and holidays (100% after 100 overtime hours in the year), under article 268. Use the overtime calculator for that scenario.
Is the holiday itself paid?
Yes. The worker is entitled to the pay corresponding to the holiday, and the employer cannot offset it with extra work (article 269(1)). Hourly or daily paid workers cannot lose pay because of the holiday; for monthly-paid workers the holiday is already included in the salary.
Which are the mandatory public holidays in Portugal?
There are 13 (article 234 of the Labour Code): 1 January, Good Friday, Easter Sunday, 25 April, 1 May, Corpus Christi, 10 June, 15 August, 5 October, 1 November, 1 December, 8 December and 25 December. Carnival Tuesday and the municipal holiday are optional.
Does night work on a holiday accumulate both uplifts?
Yes. Hours worked in the night period of a holiday add the 25% night uplift (article 266) to the holiday regime. This calculator handles the holiday uplift only; for the night part, see the night-work calculator.
Does the holiday uplift pay taxes?
Yes. The uplift is ordinary employment income (category A): it pays income tax at your rate and the 11% employee Social Security, like the rest of the salary. It does not benefit from the reduced withholding that applies to overtime; that rule is specific to trabalho suplementar.

Related calculators & reading

Embed this calculator

Paste this code on your site to show the calculator. It includes an attribution link.

Language
Theme
Colour

Preview

Free to use. The code auto-adjusts its height.

Sources

Author: Thorben Rasmus Idel · Reviewed by: Nahar Geva · Last reviewed: 2026-07-10