WHD Publishes Opinion Letter Clarifying How Holidays Count Against an Employee’s FMLA Leave

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The Wage and Hour Division (WHD) published the opinion letter FMLA2023-2-A, “Whether Holidays Count Against an Employee’s FMLA Leave Entitlement and Determination of the Amount of Leave Taken.” The letter responds to a request for clarification concerning calculating the amount of leave used when an employee takes leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) during a week with a holiday.

In this letter, WHD explains that, under the Family and Medical Leave Act, the employee’s standard workweek is the basis of the employee’s leave entitlement. Therefore, if a holiday occurs during an employee’s workweek, and the employee works for part of the week and uses FMLA leave for part of the week, the holiday does not reduce the amount of the employee’s FMLA leave entitlement unless the employee was required to report for work on the holiday.

In sum, if the employee was not expected or scheduled to work on the holiday, the fraction of the workweek of leave used would be the amount of FMLA leave taken (which would not include the holiday) divided by the total workweek (which would consist of the holiday).

This is a link to the opinion letter; https://www.dol.gov/sites/dolgov/files/WHD/opinion-letters/FMLA/2023_05_30_02_FMLA.pdf