Are worked public holidays paid?

Yes. If you work a public holiday, the company must either give you another day of rest or pay you separately for that day’s hours at a rate at least 75% higher. That is on top of your normal salary, which already includes the holiday. The collective agreement (convenio colectivo) can improve on this, but never lower it.

For the company, the practical question is which of the two options applies, how much each one costs and how to prove it if a claim comes in.

Quick answer

Situation	What the employee is entitled to
Public holiday not worked	Their normal salary. The holiday is already included and is not made up on another day.
Public holiday worked, with another day off in exchange	Normal salary and a day of rest. The collective agreement can set exactly how much rest (see below).
Public holiday worked, with no day off in exchange	Normal salary and that day’s hours with a supplement of at least 75% (art. 47 of Royal Decree 2001/1983).

The public holiday is already included in the salary

Article 37.2 of the Workers’ Statute (Estatuto de los Trabajadores, ET) sets a maximum of 14 public holidays a year, two of them local, and makes them paid and non-recoverable.

“Public holidays, which shall be paid and non-recoverable, may not exceed fourteen a year, two of which shall be local.”

Paid means the public holiday is already paid for in the monthly salary: an employee earns the same in a month with Easter as in a month with no holidays. Non-recoverable means the company cannot ask them to work another day to make up for that holiday. That is why, when someone works the holiday, what is being compensated is the work itself, which comes on top of the salary.

Is it paid double?

If there is no day off in exchange, in practice the employee earns more than double what they would on an ordinary day. Take an ordinary hourly rate of €12 and an 8-hour public holiday worked with no rest day in exchange:

• The monthly salary does not change and already includes those 8 hours of holiday (€96).
• On top of that, the company pays for the 8 hours worked with a supplement of at least 75%, so 8 × €21 = €168.
• In total, that day earns the employee at least €264, compared with €96 for an ordinary working day.

The idea that “public holidays are paid double”, which you hear in many workplaces, comes from some collective agreements that set it that way, not from the law. That formula is only valid if it does not fall below the legal minimum. Before promising anything, read the applicable collective agreement, because the hospitality agreement in one province and the retail agreement in another can treat the same public holiday very differently: a fixed supplement per shift, a percentage on top of the hourly rate, a day off or both at once.

The 75% minimum and why the collective agreement cannot lower it

Almost all of Royal Decree 2001/1983 has been repealed, but article 47 is still in force: Royal Decree 1561/1995 expressly excluded it from its repealing provision. It says that when, “exceptionally and for technical or organisational reasons”, the public holiday cannot be taken, the company must pay, “in addition to the wages for the week”, the hours worked that day “increased by at least 75 per cent, unless compensatory rest is given”.

For years many companies read that “exceptionally” in their own favour: if the sector always works on public holidays, art. 47 would not apply. The Supreme Court closed that door in its judgment STS 1132/2020 of 18 December, concerning the national collective agreement for contact centres, a sector where working on public holidays is the norm. That agreement paid a 60% supplement for public holidays worked without rest, and the Supreme Court upheld the National High Court’s (Audiencia Nacional) ruling that the clause was void. According to the judgment, what is exceptional is not being able to take the holiday. The judgment also describes the two possible routes: giving compensatory rest or paying, “in addition to the ordinary salary”, the hours worked with a supplement of at least 75%.

For the company, the usual risk lies in agreements or arrangements that pay for a public holiday worked without a day off with a fixed supplement or at the agreement’s overtime rate. If that amount falls below what the hours would cost at 75% extra, the difference can be claimed, and it falls short first in the job categories with the highest hourly rates.

If it is compensated with a day off

Giving another day of rest is the alternative that art. 47 itself provides for, and in that case no supplement has to be paid. What is not settled is how much rest has to be given:

• STS 1132/2020 refers to a rest day that replaces the holiday, “reasonably close” to it.
• STS 372/2025 of 30 April, which dealt with a different issue (public holidays that coincide with weekly rest), mentions in passing that this rest must be an equivalent amount of time increased by 75%.

This is not settled case law. If the collective agreement sets how a public holiday worked is compensated, the agreement decides. If it says nothing, the lowest-risk option is to give the rest day close to the date of the holiday and apply the 75% increase the Supreme Court mentioned in 2025.

Who proves the public holidays worked

When an employee brings a claim for public holidays, the first step is to establish which ones they worked and which were compensated, and only then is the amount calculated. The company is required to keep daily time records (art. 34.9 ET), and those records are its main evidence.

The Supreme Court has clarified who bears that burden of proof in STS 372/2026 on overtime. If there is a known schedule, the employee has to provide evidence that they worked outside it. With public holidays that evidence is usually easy to obtain, whether it is the month’s rota, a team chat group or the simple fact that the premises were open. From there, if the company has no records, it has no data to dispute how many holidays were worked or whether any were compensated with a day off.

A mistake in the supplement percentage is fixed with a payroll adjustment. If the company cannot show which public holidays each person had off, the judge starts from the list the employee provides, which may include every holiday on which the premises were open.

Working a public holiday vs a public holiday on your day off

• Working a public holiday, which is what this article covers, is compensated with pay or time off according to the agreement and art. 47.
• A public holiday that falls on your day off, when you do not work, entitles you to another day off. The Supreme Court has said so for people whose rest days fall midweek or who work shifts, and in 2026 the National High Court extended this to Saturdays. We cover it in detail in whether a public holiday falling on a Saturday is compensated.

How Cleverfy solves it

Cleverfy cross-checks each workplace’s work calendar against clock-ins, detects who has worked on a public holiday and records how they were compensated.

• Work calendar per workplace, with national, regional and local public holidays imported based on the municipality.
• Detects who has clocked in on a public holiday or on their day off and flags it for HR review, with a history of every decision.
• Compensation as rest days or as hours to be paid, at the ratio your collective agreement sets, for example 1.75 hours of rest for each hour worked.
• If a rotating shift falls on a public holiday, it is cancelled or replaced by another shift, depending on your settings.
• Hours report with public holidays marked day by day, and every clock-in correction logged with the approval of both employee and company.

You can see everything else in features.

Conclusion

If your collective agreement pays public holidays worked without a day off with a fixed supplement or at the overtime rate, run the numbers for the job categories with the highest hourly rates. That is where the amount can fall below the 75% extra on those hours required by art. 47, and the difference can be claimed holiday by holiday within the one-year limitation period (art. 59.2 ET). To back up those numbers you need to know who worked each holiday and whether they were given a day off in exchange, and only records kept from day one give you that.

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Legal note: this article is for information only and does not constitute legal advice. It is based on articles 34.9, 37.2 and 59.2 of the Workers’ Statute, article 47 of Royal Decree 2001/1983 and the Supreme Court judgments cited. The applicable collective agreement may lay down more favourable conditions; check yours before making decisions.

Sources:

• Workers’ Statute, art. 37.2 (public holidays)
• Royal Decree 2001/1983, of 28 July, art. 47 (BOE)
• Royal Decree 1561/1995, sole repealing provision (keeps arts. 45 to 47 of RD 2001/1983 in force)
• STS 1132/2020, of 18 December, ROJ STS 4408/2020 (CENDOJ)
• STS 372/2025, of 30 April, ROJ STS 2062/2025 (CENDOJ)