How New Zealand public holidays work
New Zealand's public holiday system is built on the Holidays Act 2003, which sets the framework for both nationwide and regional holidays. Every worker in New Zealand is entitled to 11 nationwide public holidays each year, plus one provincial anniversary day specific to their region. That's 12 public holidays in total.
These holidays apply to all full-time employees, part-time employees (on days they would normally work), and casual workers (who receive equivalent payment or time off). The system is designed to be consistent across the country while also respecting the regional character of each area through the anniversary days.
The 11 nationwide public holidays 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. Most workers will have these same dates off. Some of these dates can move to a Monday if they fall on a weekend, a process called mondayisation.
Who decides the dates
Parliament sets the nationwide public holidays by statute. Dates are written into the Holidays Act 2003 and do not change year to year. However, the date of Matariki, New Zealand's Maori New Year, is determined separately under the Public Holidays Act 2022, which established the Te Kahui o Matariki Public Holiday Commission to identify the Matariki date each year. This date is announced several months in advance.
Easter dates are different. They follow the Western Christian calendar and are calculated based on the lunar calendar, so they change year to year. The dates for Good Friday and Easter Monday are derived from Easter Sunday, which is the first Sunday after the first full moon following the spring equinox (21 March).
Provincial anniversary days are set under section 44 of the Holidays Act 2003. Each of New Zealand's 12 historic provinces has one anniversary day. Most are observed on the Monday closest to a historic date (Wellington Anniversary Day, for example, is the Monday closest to 22 January), while a few follow unique rules — Southland observes Easter Tuesday, Hawke's Bay observes the Friday before Labour Day.
Mondayisation: when holidays fall on weekends
Mondayisation is the rule that protects workers' public holiday entitlements when a holiday falls on a day they don't normally work. Under the Holidays Act, six public holidays can be mondayised: Waitangi Day, Anzac Day, Christmas Day, Boxing Day, New Year's Day, and the Day after New Year's Day.
Here's how it works: if one of these holidays falls on a Saturday or Sunday, it automatically transfers to the following Monday. Your employer must give you Monday off instead. However, mondayisation only applies if the holiday falls on a day you don't normally work. If your job requires you to work on weekends as a matter of course (such as in retail, hospitality, or healthcare), you don't get the Monday off automatically. Instead, you are entitled to an alternative day off at another time, and you must be paid at least time-and-a-half for any hours you work on the actual holiday.
In practice, if Monday is also a day you don't normally work, you get the benefit of mondayisation. But if you're a five-day-a-week worker and the holiday falls on a Saturday, you get Monday off. If it falls on a Sunday and you work Mondays, you work as normal on Monday. The key principle is that mondayisation gives you an extra day off in lieu, but only if you would otherwise have a weekend day off anyway.
Provincial anniversary days
Section 44 of the Holidays Act 2003 lists 12 statutory anniversary days, each tied to a 19th-century colonial province or locality. Modern New Zealand has 16 regional councils, not 12 — so the mapping from where you work to which anniversary day you observe is custom and practice, not statute. Every worker observes the anniversary day of the region in which they work, regardless of where they live.
The 12 statutory anniversary days are: Wellington, Auckland, Nelson, Taranaki, Otago, Southland, South Canterbury, Hawke's Bay, Marlborough, Canterbury, Westland, and Chatham Islands. Each has its own rule — some on a fixed date, most on the Monday closest to a historic date, and a few following unique conventions.
Canterbury Anniversary Day is tied to Show Day — the second Friday after the first Tuesday in November. South Canterbury is observed as a separate day on the fourth Monday of September. Because most of these days are already pinned to a Monday by rule, they don't need mondayisation the way the nationwide holidays do.
If you work near a regional boundary, custom and practice determine which anniversary day you observe. Generally, your employer's location or your place of work determines which region's anniversary day applies, but it's worth checking with your employer if you work close to a boundary. The Ministry of Education publishes a clear mapping of geographic boundaries and their corresponding anniversary days for schools.
Your public holiday entitlements as a worker
If you work on a public holiday, the Holidays Act 2003 guarantees you three things: payment, an alternative day, and fair terms of notice. Let's break down each entitlement.
First, payment. If your employer requires you to work on a public holiday, you must be paid at least time-and-a-half for those hours. This is a minimum rate, and many collective agreements provide more. If you're paid on an hourly basis, your time-and-a-half is calculated from your ordinary hourly rate. If you're salaried, your employer calculates your hourly rate from your annual salary and applies the time-and-a-half multiplier.
Second, the alternative day. In addition to being paid time-and-a-half, you are entitled to take another day off in lieu. This day must be taken by the end of the next calendar year. Your employer cannot force you to take it immediately (or on a specific date without your agreement), and they cannot pay you out in cash instead of giving you the day off, unless both you and your employer agree in writing.
Part-time workers get public holidays on days they would normally work. If a public holiday falls on a day you don't normally work, you don't get the day off. Casual workers are treated differently under the Holidays Act. They are entitled to paid public holidays equivalent to their average ordinary hours, calculated across their ordinary working pattern over the past 12 weeks.
Your employer cannot force you to work on a public holiday. If they ask you to work and you decline, they cannot punish you. However, they can require you to work if you are in an essential service (emergency response, healthcare, utility provision) and it is essential to life, health, or safety that you work.
Finding accurate public holiday information
The Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) is the official source for public holiday dates and rules. Their employment.govt.nz website has comprehensive guidance for both workers and employers, including detailed explanations of mondayisation, pay calculation, and alternative day entitlements.
For school term dates and school-specific public holiday information, the Ministry of Education publishes the national term dates and a map of regional boundaries for anniversary days. Local schools often publish their own term calendars as well.
If you have a dispute about public holiday entitlements, your first port of call should be your employer or your union representative if you have one. If you cannot resolve it, you can lodge a personal grievance with the Employment Relations Authority. For general questions, employment.govt.nz has answer sheets covering most common scenarios.