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Saudi Arabia Public Holidays 2026: Payroll, Leave, and Compliance

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If you employ people in Saudi Arabia, public holidays are one of those details you can’t treat as an afterthought. They affect payroll, scheduling, staffing coverage, and employee trust all at once.

Public holidays at a glance

The biggest public holidays follow the Hijri calendar. Eid dates can move slightly and are confirmed through official announcements.
Private-sector employees generally receive paid leave on the key official holidays. In most cases, that means Eid al Fitr, Eid al Adha, Saudi National Day, and, in current practice, Founding Day when officially announced for the private sector.
Holiday work is treated as overtime. If someone works on an official public holiday, you either pay the applicable overtime rate or, with the employee’s agreement, provide compensatory paid leave.

2026 Saudi Arabia public holiday calendar

Holiday	What it is	Typical timing	Who it applies to	Paid day off	If they work	Notes
Eid al Fitr holiday	Religious holiday after Ramadan	Hijri calendar, officially announced	Private sector employees	Yes	Treated as overtime or compensatory paid leave	Starts from the day following 29 Ramadan under HRSD guidance
Eid al Adha holiday	Religious holiday during Hajj season	Hijri calendar, officially announced	Private sector employees	Yes	Treated as overtime or compensatory paid leave	Starts from Arafat Day under HRSD guidance
Saudi National Day	National public holiday	September 23	Private sector employees	Yes	Treated as overtime or compensatory paid leave	If it overlaps a weekly rest day, an equivalent day is generally given before or after
Founding Day	National public holiday	February 22	Public, private, and non-profit sectors when officially announced	Usually yes	Typically treated as overtime or compensatory paid leave	Confirm the year-specific announcement and your policy before payroll closes

How public holiday dates are set

Eid holidays are not handled like a fixed date on the Gregorian calendar. They follow the Hijri calendar, and the final timing can depend on official announcements and moon-sighting confirmation. That is why you should not rely on an old spreadsheet from last year and assume the same timing will work again.

HRSD’s private sector leave rules for Eid and National Day set the framework for paid public holidays. For current-year examples, Saudi authorities also publish or surface announcements for specific holidays, including the 2026 Founding Day holiday for private sector and non-profit workers and the 2026 Eid al Fitr holiday window for private-sector employees. For payroll and staffing, that means you need to watch the official holiday window each year and lock your schedule only after you have the latest notice.

Paid public holidays

Private sector employees are entitled to paid leave for the official public holidays recognized under Saudi labor rules. At a minimum, that typically covers Eid al Fitr, Eid al Adha, and Saudi National Day. Founding Day is also an official holiday when the government announces it as such for the relevant sectors, which it did for the private sector in 2026.

Your employment contract or company policy can always be more generous than the legal minimum. You can add extra paid days, company shutdowns, or longer holiday breaks. What you cannot do is give less than what local law requires. If you are hiring in Saudi Arabia, this is one of the reasons your contract language, holiday calendar, and payroll setup all need to line up. It might also help to benchmark your approach against paid vacation days by country if you are trying to build a broader regional leave policy.

How holiday pay works if an employee works on a public holiday

The core rule is simple: Work performed on an official public holiday counts as overtime.

Under HRSD’s overtime guidance, the worker is entitled to the hourly wage plus 50% of the basic hourly wage for overtime hours.

If your broader rewards strategy also includes variable seasonal payments, it is worth reviewing how holiday bonuses work in several countries so you do not mix up discretionary perks with mandatory holiday pay rules.

This is also where clean payroll coding matters. Holiday hours should not be buried inside ordinary time. They should be tagged correctly so finance, HR, and auditors can all see what happened.

When compensatory time off can replace holiday overtime pay

Saudi rules allow an alternative, but only if the employee agrees.

The employer may calculate compensatory paid leave instead of overtime pay with the worker’s consent. That means you can’t choose to substitute leave in lieu of holiday overtime pay unless the employee consents.

Keep this part well documented. Confirm the employee’s written consent, identify which holiday hours are being swapped for paid time off, and record when the substitute day will be taken. A simple paper trail can save you a lot of cleanup later.

What happens when a public holiday falls on a weekly rest day

If an official holiday falls on the employee’s weekly rest day, you typically give an equivalent day off before or after.

Don’t assume the holiday disappears just because it landed on a normal day off. Your calendar and payroll processes should account for the substitute day.

What happens when public holidays overlap with annual leave or sick leave

If an official holiday overlaps with annual leave, the annual leave extends by the number of overlapping holiday days. The employee should not lose annual leave because a public holiday happened during that period.

If an official holiday overlaps with sick leave, the employee is entitled to full wages for those overlapping holiday days under the implementing regulations. That point matters because sick leave can otherwise be paid at different rates depending on the leave period.

There is one notable exception worth flagging: If Saudi National Day overlaps with Eid days, the employee is not compensated with extra days. That overlap rule is specifically addressed in the regulations, so it is worth building into your internal guidance.

Compliance checklist

A clean setup leads to clean results.

Confirm the holiday schedule. Use the latest official announcement and keep a copy in your payroll or compliance files.
Decide who is scheduled to work. Be clear about business needs, staffing rotations, and manager approvals.
Capture consent for compensatory leave. If you want to give paid time off instead of holiday overtime pay, get the employee’s written agreement.
Tag holiday work correctly in payroll. Public holiday work should be coded as overtime, not regular hours.
Keep accurate records. Retain attendance data, time entries, approvals, and any substitute-day tracking.

Payroll and scheduling tips for Saudi public holidays

The best holiday process is the one that doesn’t require last-minute heroics.

Set a recurring reminder to verify Eid timing each year. Decide early whether you will keep operations running with a rotation model. Communicate expectations in writing before the holiday period starts, especially if some employees will be scheduled to work.

It also helps to align HR, payroll, and finance before the holiday window opens. That way, managers know who is off, payroll knows which hours need premium treatment, and finance is not trying to reconcile exceptions after salaries have already been processed. If you manage teams across multiple countries, a single global payroll workflow can make this much easier.

How an Employer of Record (EOR) can help

An employer of record is a third party that legally employs your team member in Saudi Arabia on your behalf. This allows you to hire without establishing a local entity, avoiding the hidden costs of entity establishment.

The EOR handles salary offers, employment contracts, payroll, tax withholding, statutory benefits, and all ongoing compliance. You manage the day-to-day work normally while the EOR takes care of just about everything else.

For employers testing the market or those who need to scale quickly, an EOR is usually the right choice. You get to reduce risk, move faster, and know all local laws and regulations will be followed.

Pebl handles holidays in Saudi Arabia

If you’ve made it this far, you’ve got your sights set on Saudi Arabia. Maybe you’ve even found the perfect talent. There’s a lot that needs to be taken care of before you can start hiring—researching taxes, finding experts in local labor law, finding a payroll processor, and more. It takes a lot of time and a lot of money. Wouldn’t it be great if there were an easier way?

With Pebl, there is.

Our EOR platform allows you to hire, pay, and manage employees in 185+ countries around the world without setting up your own local entity. That means your new talent starts in days, not months. We handle it all: onboarding, benefits, salary benchmarking, payroll, and compliance with all local regulations. Every public holiday, overtime or double time pay the law requires, we make sure it happens. All you have to do is stay focused on leading your team.

When you’re ready to do things the easy way, let us know.

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.