How US holidays affect pay dates and our turnaround times

Last updated: October 28, 2026

Applies to: staffing Partners and their account teams planning work around US public holidays. If you want to know whether a worker is owed extra for working a holiday, that is a different question. See Holiday and premium pay.

Summary: No payments are processed on a US bank holiday. Weekly pay for US and Canadian employees is usually paid on Friday; when a bank holiday falls on that Friday, weekly pay usually goes out on the Thursday before. Other payments due on a holiday (daily pay, late or adjusted time, contractor payments) move to the next business day, and time approved on a holiday is picked up the next business day. Our US team is out as well, so reviews such as Authorized Representative requests, assignment approvals and background-check reviews also pause. Build a day or two of slack into anything you need live around a holiday.

How a bank holiday moves pay dates

Payroll and payments run on business days only.

  • Weekly payday on a holiday Friday: weekly pay is usually issued on the Thursday before, not the following Monday. See When do I receive my paycheck?.

  • Any other payment due on a holiday (daily pay, late time, adjustments, contractor net-terms payments): paid on the next business day.

  • Time approved on a holiday: not picked up that day. It goes into the next business day's run, under the same daily cutoff as any other day.

Approval is still the gate, and after a payment is sent the receiving bank decides when the money appears. See Your worker's hours are approved: when do they get paid, and can a payment be expedited? for the full sequence, and How long does direct deposit take to reach my bank? for the bank leg.

If an assignment is on daily pay, the same business-day rule applies. See How daily pay works (US W-2 employees).

Our review turnaround on federal holidays

A holiday is not only a payments event. Our US team is out of office, so anything that needs a person to look at it takes longer. The reviews most likely to sit are:

  • Authorized Representative requests for Form I-9

  • Assignment approvals

  • Background-check reviews

The published targets for these are business-day targets. Assignment approval usually takes about 24 hours (see How long does it take for an assignment to be approved?), but a holiday in the middle of that window stretches it. The same is true of screening turnaround. See How long do background checks and drug tests take?.

What to do about it

  • Get approvals in on the last business day before the holiday, ahead of that day's payroll cutoff, if you want the worker paid on the normal schedule.

  • Submit new assignments earlier than usual. If you need someone starting the day after a holiday, submit ahead of the holiday, not the morning of.

  • Chase Authorized Representative and screening steps before the break rather than during it. A candidate who completes their part on the holiday still waits for a reviewer.

  • Tell the worker. Most "where is my pay" tickets around a holiday are timing, not a fault, and one sentence from you prevents them.

We email you before each holiday

Ahead of each US holiday we send partners a notice with the specific dates affected: the check date that moves, the day payments resume, and which reviews will be delayed. That notice is the authority for that particular holiday, because the dates differ every year and some holidays are bank holidays without being ours. This article is the general rule; the notice has the calendar.

A US holiday does not necessarily affect workers employed outside the US, whose payroll and public holidays follow their own country's calendar. Canadian statutory holidays are a separate calendar again. See Vacation pay and statutory holidays in Canada.

Who to contact

If a payment you expected has not moved by the end of the first business day after a holiday, or an assignment approval is holding up a start date, email support@ascen.com with the worker's name and the assignment. Timesheet entry, scheduling and placement questions go to the worker's staffing Partner as usual.