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Liechtenstein Public Holidays in 2026: What Employers Need to Know

Couple riding bicycles through the forests during Liechtenstein’s public holidays

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Liechtenstein public holidays are not hard to manage once you know which dates are official, which ones are commonly observed in practice, and which days are treated like Sundays under local labor rules. That’s the part you need to pay attention to.

If you employ someone in Liechtenstein, you’re not just working from a holiday calendar. You’re making decisions about paid time off, scheduling, premium pay, and when approvals may be needed for work on restricted days.

The official framework is fairly clear. Liechtenstein’s Office of Economic Affairs says that public holidays are treated as equal to Sundays. That one line does a lot of work. It tells you these are not just ceremonial dates. They can affect whether work is allowed at all, and what extra steps may apply if you need coverage.

Official public holidays in Liechtenstein

For 2026, local guidance provides an overview of non-working days and public holidays in Liechtenstein, and the labor guidance identifies which of those are treated like Sundays. For employers, this is the core list to build into your HRIS, payroll calendar, and manager planning docs.

Holiday	2026 date	What this means for employers
New Year’s Day	January 1	Usually treated as a paid day off. Working on this day is treated like Sunday work.
Epiphany (Holy Three Kings)	January 6	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.
Easter Monday	April 6	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.
Labour Day	May 1	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.
Ascension Day	May 14	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.
Whit Monday	May 25	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.
Corpus Christi	June 4	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.
National Day / Assumption Day	August 15	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.
Nativity of Mary	September 8	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.
All Saints’ Day	November 1	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.
Immaculate Conception	December 8	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.
Christmas Day	December 25	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.
St. Stephen’s Day	December 26	Usually treated as a paid day off. Sunday work rules apply.

If you are hiring in Liechtenstein, the movable holidays deserve extra attention. Easter Monday, Ascension, Whit Monday, and Corpus Christi are the dates most likely to create scheduling mistakes when teams rely on fixed-date calendars.

Other days you may see on local calendars

This is where things get a little more nuanced.

You may see dates on local calendars that many employers still treat as non-working days, shortened days, or days with reduced operations. But that doesn’t automatically make them statutory public holidays under the Labour Act. The official tourism calendar lists January 2, February 17, April 3, December 24, and December 31 with an asterisk noting they are not public holidays. The government leaflet also states that February 2, March 19, and Good Friday are not treated as Sundays under the Labour Act.

That distinction matters. A day can be widely observed in practice without triggering the same rules as a Sunday-equivalent holiday.

Day	2026 date	What this usually means for you
Berchtold’s Day	January 2	Commonly treated as a non-working day in some settings, but not a statutory Sunday-equivalent holiday.
Candlemas	February 2	Sometimes observed in practice, but not treated as a Sunday under the Labour Act.
Shrove Tuesday	February 17	Often appears on local calendars, but not a statutory public holiday under the Labour Act.
St. Joseph’s Day	March 19	Commonly observed by some employers, but not Sunday-equivalent under labor rules.
Good Friday	April 3	Often a non-working day in practice, but not Sunday-equivalent under the Labour Act.
Christmas Eve	December 24	Frequently treated as a shortened or non-working day, but not a statutory public holiday.
New Year’s Eve	December 31	Frequently treated as a shortened or non-working day, but not a statutory public holiday.

This is why your internal policy matters. If your business closes early on Christmas Eve, say that clearly. If Good Friday is a normal workday unless leave is approved, say that clearly, too. People do better with a rule they can read than an ambiguous rule they’re expected to guess.

Do employees get the day off with pay?

In most Liechtenstein employment setups, official public holidays are treated as paid days off. The cleanest move is to spell that out in the employment agreement and handbook instead of relying on local assumptions.

That becomes even more important if you employ part-time staff, shift workers, or people on nonstandard schedules. You want a written rule for which holidays you observe, how holiday pay is handled, and what happens when a holiday falls on a day the employee would not normally work.

A simple policy usually covers the key points:

Observed holidays. List the statutory holidays your business treats as paid days off.
Eligibility and pay method. Explain how full-time, part-time, and shift-based employees are paid for holiday time.
Weekend treatment. State whether you offer a substitute day off when a holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday.

That last point is worth deciding up front. Employer practice can vary, and vague policies nearly always lead to the same result: inconsistent decisions, extra payroll questions, and more cleanup than anyone wants.

What happens if someone works on a public holiday?

This is the part to handle carefully.

Because the main statutory holidays are treated like Sundays, work is generally restricted unless an exception applies or approval is in place. The National Administration states that temporary Sunday work requires a 100% wage supplement and a substitute rest day in the week before or after the work takes place.

That gives you a practical rule of thumb. If you need someone to work on a Sunday-equivalent holiday, do not treat it like an ordinary shift. Treat it like an exception that needs to be approved, documented, paid correctly, and tracked properly.

Tips and resources for successful compliance

If you want holiday compliance to stay simple, build it into your normal operating rhythm instead of treating it like a one-off admin task.

The employers that handle this well usually do a few things consistently:

Track movable dates early. Easter Monday, Ascension, Whit Monday, and Corpus Christi should be in your systems before the year starts.
Document coverage rules. Spell out who can work, when approval is needed, how premium pay works, and how substitute rest is recorded.
Keep employee language simple. Your holiday policy should make sense on a first read.

It also helps to keep your key documents aligned. Your contracts, handbook, payroll instructions, and manager guidance should all reflect the same rules. If one document says one thing and payroll applies another, you’ll feel that friction quickly.

How EOR providers can help

If you’re planning global hiring and don’t have a local entity in Liechtenstein, support from an Employer of Record (EOR) provider can take a lot of pressure off your team.

An employer of record is a third-party partner that legally employs your worker in the country where they live and work. You still manage the employee’s day-to-day role, goals, and performance. The EOR handles the local employment infrastructure that makes the relationship work compliantly.

In Liechtenstein, that can help you stay organized around holiday treatment, payroll setup, approvals, and the practical rules tied to Sunday-equivalent holidays.

Pebl: Your compliant and streamlined global hiring solution

Liechtenstein may look straightforward at first. Then you start connecting the dots and realize the real challenge is not the holiday list itself. It’s how that list affects contracts, payroll, scheduling, approvals, and employee expectations.

That’s where international hiring gets more operational than theoretical. Not because the rules are impossible, but because they’re easy to underestimate.

This is also where Pebl thrives as a leading EOR in compliance. Pebl’s EOR services support companies that want to hire internationally without getting buried in local admin. If you are growing in Liechtenstein, our EOR in Liechtenstein can help you put compliant employment terms in place, run payroll cleanly, and keep holiday rules easy for managers and employees to understand.

Your next best step? Reach out, and let’s discuss your global expansion plans.

This information does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal or tax advice and is for general informational purposes only. The intent of this document is solely to provide general and preliminary information for private use. Do not rely on it as an alternative to legal, financial, taxation, or accountancy advice from an appropriately qualified professional. The content in this guide is provided “as is,” and no representations are made that the content is error-free.