Veterans Day falls on Wednesday, November 11 this year. It honors people who served in the US armed forces. For workers planning their week, however, a holiday on the government calendar and a paid day off are different things.
Veterans Day is a federal holiday, meaning it is recognized by the national government. That designation does not create a general right to paid time away from a private-sector job, such as work for a shop, restaurant or company.
The Department of Labor says the Fair Labor Standards Act, the main federal law on wages and working hours, does not require employers to pay for holidays when no work is performed. Paid holiday arrangements are generally agreed between employers and workers or their representatives.
Part-time workers are less likely to have the benefit
Daylight Post found that part-time workers were much less likely to have paid holidays. Figures for March 2026 from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the government statistics agency, show that 92% of full-time workers in private industry had access, compared with 47% of part-time workers. The difference was 45 percentage points.
| Workers | Share with access |
|---|---|
| Full time | 92% |
| Part time | 47% |
Having access means the job offers a paid-holiday benefit. These figures do not identify which holidays are covered, or how many people will have November 11 off. A worker can have paid holidays in their employment package without Veterans Day being one of them.
The difference still shows why the kind of job matters. More than half of part-time workers in this survey did not have access to paid holidays at all. For someone without the benefit, taking time away can mean losing pay.
Working part time can also mean being unable to get enough hours in the first place. Our report on Americans seeking more paid hours looks at that separate problem. Not everyone working part time wants a full-time job, and the holiday figures cover the whole part-time group.
Some workers have stronger rights
The federal wage-and-hours law is a starting point, rather than the complete rule for every workplace. State rules, employment agreements and union contracts can give workers additional rights.
The Labor Department also identifies exceptions for some work carried out under federal government contracts. The pay-and-benefit rules attached to a covered contract can require holiday benefits. That is what an official “wage determination” means in this context: rules setting the wages and benefits for that contract work.
For a private-sector worker, the practical question is whether their job’s holiday policy, contract or another applicable rule provides paid leave. The date’s federal status alone does not answer it. The gap between full-time and part-time benefits helps explain why workers can experience the same public holiday very differently.
