Whether interns get paid for holidays depends on how the intern is classified. No federal law requires holiday pay for anyone, so the office closing on Thanksgiving or the Fourth of July does not automatically put money in your pocket. Unpaid interns receive nothing because they receive no wages at all. Hourly paid interns are compensated only for hours they actually work, so a closed office generally means an unpaid day. Salaried interns who qualify as exempt keep their full weekly salary even when the employer shuts the doors.
Your internship agreement can promise more than the law requires, and some states add protections on top of the federal floor. The details below walk through each situation.
Unpaid Interns Do Not Receive Holiday Pay
If you are a legally unpaid intern, the holiday question has a short answer: you are not paid for holidays because you are not paid for anything. The Department of Labor uses a “primary beneficiary test” to decide whether an intern is really an employee under the Fair Labor Standards Act or a trainee who falls outside it.1U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 71: Internship Programs Under the Fair Labor Standards Act When the arrangement is genuinely educational and both sides understand no pay is expected, the internship can lawfully be unpaid, and there is no legal basis for compensation on a holiday or any other day.
Some unpaid programs still provide occasional perks, like travel stipends, meal allowances, or housing assistance. Those are set by the employer or sponsoring institution rather than by wage law. If your offer letter or program materials mention any form of holiday compensation, that written commitment still binds the employer. Absent something specific in writing, there is nothing to claim.
Hourly Paid Interns Are Paid Only for Hours Worked
Most paid interns earn an hourly wage and are classified as non-exempt, meaning federal minimum wage and overtime rules apply. The FLSA requires employers to pay non-exempt workers only for hours actually worked.2U.S. Department of Labor. Holiday Pay When the workplace closes for a federal holiday and you do not come in, your employer has no federal obligation to pay you for the day, even if you were on the schedule.
Federal law draws no distinction between a holiday closure, a snow day, or a personal day off. Compensation follows hours worked, and zero hours means zero required pay.3eCFR. 29 CFR Part 785 – Hours Worked
What if You Actually Work the Holiday
If your employer asks you to come in on a holiday, you are entitled to your regular hourly rate for those hours. Federal law does not require premium pay just because the work falls on a holiday. There is no time-and-a-half rule for holiday hours as such.
Overtime is a separate question. If your holiday hours push your total for the workweek past 40, your employer must pay one and one-half times your regular rate for every hour above 40.4Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 207 – Maximum Hours The trigger is the 40-hour threshold, not the calendar date.
Salaried Exempt Interns Keep Their Full Salary
Some internships, especially those with management, analytical, or professional responsibilities, are structured as salaried positions that qualify for the FLSA’s white-collar exemptions. To qualify as exempt, you generally must earn at least $684 per week (about $35,568 annually). That is the threshold the Department of Labor is currently enforcing after a 2024 rule that would have raised it was struck down by a federal court.5U.S. Department of Labor. Earnings Thresholds for the Executive, Administrative, and Professional Exemption You also have to meet the job-duty requirements for the executive, administrative, or professional exemption.
Here is where holidays actually favor the intern. If you perform any work during a workweek, your employer must pay your full salary for that week. Holiday closures are treated as absences caused by the employer, and deductions for employer-directed closures violate the salary basis rule.6eCFR. 29 CFR 541.602 – Salary Basis
Deductions from an exempt worker’s pay are permitted only in narrow situations: full-day absences for personal reasons unrelated to illness, full-day absences for sickness under a qualifying leave plan, or unpaid disciplinary suspensions for serious workplace conduct violations.7U.S. Department of Labor. Fact Sheet 17G: Salary Basis Requirement and the Part 541 Exemptions Under the FLSA A holiday is none of those. If your employer improperly docks salary for a holiday closure in a week you worked, that could jeopardize your exempt classification entirely and potentially make you eligible for back overtime pay.
State Laws Sometimes Add Protection
Federal law sets the floor. State and local rules can layer more on top, particularly for interns who report to work on a holiday.
Reporting Time Pay
A handful of states have reporting time pay laws that require employers to pay a minimum number of hours, typically two to four, when a worker shows up for a scheduled shift and gets sent home early or told there is no work. If you are a paid intern who reports on a holiday expecting a full shift but leaves after an hour, one of these laws could entitle you to additional pay. There is no federal reporting time requirement, so this protection depends entirely on where you work.
Holiday Premium Pay
A small number of states require a premium rate for work performed on designated holidays. Rhode Island and Massachusetts are among the states that have enacted such requirements for certain workers. If you are working in one of those states, you may be entitled to a higher rate for holiday hours regardless of what your internship agreement says. Check your state labor department’s website for the specifics that apply to your job.
Your Internship Agreement Can Promise More
Even when federal law does not require holiday pay, many employers voluntarily offer it. Companies competing for strong intern candidates often extend the same holiday schedule they give full-time staff. These benefits are governed by whatever the employer puts in writing: your offer letter, internship contract, or employee handbook.
Look for language that spells out which holidays are paid, whether interns are included alongside regular employees, and whether the benefit is prorated for part-time schedules. If your contract explicitly promises pay for certain holidays, that promise is enforceable as a contractual obligation even though no statute required it.
Ask about holiday pay during onboarding, or ideally before you accept the offer. For an internship that spans several federal holidays, such as a summer program running through Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day, the answer can meaningfully change your total earnings.
If You Suspect You Were Misclassified
One situation deserves a flag. If your employer labels you an unpaid intern but you spend most of your time doing productive work that mainly benefits the company, with little educational value in return, you may actually be an employee entitled to wages. When a court or the Department of Labor determines an intern was misclassified, the employer owes all unpaid minimum wages and overtime going back as far as two years, or three years if the violation was willful.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties
The FLSA also provides liquidated damages equal to the unpaid wages, effectively doubling what the employer owes, plus attorney’s fees and legal costs.8Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 29 U.S. Code 216 – Penalties You can file a complaint with the Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division or bring a private lawsuit. Recovered overtime can include holiday hours that pushed your weekly total past 40, so a misclassification claim sometimes reaches back into the very days you thought were unpaid.