Is MLK Day a Federal Holiday? What the US Code Says and Who It Binds

Short answer: yes. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s birthday, the third Monday in January, is one of 11 legal public holidays in a federal law: section 6103(a) of title 5 of the United States Code (5 U.S.C. 6103). That list sets days off and pay for federal employees. The main federal wage law does not make a private employer close on those days or pay for them.

Written and checked on 12 October 2026. This is general information, not legal advice; check the cited statute or opinion before relying on it.

TL;DR

• The list is a statute. Congress wrote the 11 holidays into 5 U.S.C. 6103(a), each with a name and a date rule.
• It is a pay and leave calendar for federal employees. Subsection (b) ties the list to federal pay and leave. The Office of Personnel Management (OPM), the federal HR agency, agrees.
• A private employer's duty comes from elsewhere. A contract, union agreement, written policy or state law can require holiday time or pay. The federal wage law does not.
• If you do pay for holidays, overtime rules apply. A federal regulation, 29 CFR 778.219, says how holiday pay counts.

Official text, as of 12 October 2026

Citation: 5 U.S.C. 6103(a), the Code section titled "Holidays."

What it says, verbatim: "The following are legal public holidays: ... Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the third Monday in January."

Read from: the 2024 Code edition on govinfo.gov. The House's page (uscode.house.gov), current to 2 September 2026, lists the same 11 holidays.

What changed in 2025 and 2026: we found no change to the list. The section's history note ends with Pub. L. 117-17 (2021). Bills have been introduced in the 119th Congress. One is H.R. 8980, the Holiday Pay Act (May 21, 2026). It would require time and a half for private work on a legal public holiday. We found it only at the introduced stage, sent to committee. It is not law.

The 11 federal holidays, in the words Congress used

This is primary law, the law itself rather than commentary on it. Primary law explained for people who do not read statutes maps the types, and the US law data guide shows where each lives. A Public Law (Pub. L.) is a bill that became law. Pub. L. 117-17 is the 17th law of the 117th Congress. The Code then folds each law into the right section. That is what codified means in law.

The statute gives rules, not calendar dates. OPM publishes a yearly schedule on its federal holidays page.

Two names trip people up. The statute says "Washington's Birthday," and OPM says it always uses that statutory name, though private businesses may use others. The statute also still says "Columbus Day." The phrase "Presidents Day" is not in the list.

A short history from the Code's own notes

• 1968. Pub. L. 90-363, dated June 28, 1968, added Columbus Day and moved Washington's Birthday and Memorial Day to Mondays. It took effect January 1, 1971.
• 1975. Pub. L. 94-97 changed Veterans Day to November 11, effective January 1, 1978.
• 1983. Pub. L. 98-144, dated November 2, 1983, inserted King's birthday. It takes effect "on the first January 1 that occurs after the two-year period following the date of the enactment." Two years from November 2, 1983 ends in November 1985. The next January 1 is January 1, 1986.
• 2021. Pub. L. 117-17, approved June 17, 2021, added Juneteenth. Its text is short. It inserts the new item after Memorial Day.

What the statute says about who it covers

Subsection (b) is the one people skip. It opens: "For the purpose of statutes relating to pay and leave of employees, with respect to a legal public holiday and any other day declared to be a holiday by Federal statute or Executive order, the following rules apply."

An Executive order is a written directive from the President. So the list works as a calendar for federal pay and leave rules. The list is not the only source. Another statute or an order can declare a day a holiday. Our post on executive orders covers what an order can do.

Subsection (b) also sets weekend rules. When a holiday falls on a Saturday, the Friday before is the legal public holiday for employees whose basic workweek is Monday through Friday. Subsection (c) adds Inauguration Day, January 20 of every fourth year after 1965, for certain employees near Washington, D.C.

Where else the list shows up

Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 6(a)(6) counts time in federal civil cases. It defines "legal holiday" to include the day set aside by statute for observing each of the 11 holidays. That governs filing deadlines. Banks, schools and the post office follow their own calendars.

Do private employers have to give the day off or pay for it?

No federal law requires it. The Department of Labor (DOL) says so on its Holiday Pay page: "The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations or holidays (federal or otherwise)." The FLSA is the main federal wage and hour law. DOL adds that holiday benefits are "generally a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee." DOL also answers wage questions in opinion letters. See our post on DOL Wage and Hour opinion letters.

So where would a duty come from? From an agreement or another law.

• An employment contract or offer letter.
• A union contract.
• A written company policy or handbook.
• A government contract with its own holiday terms. DOL's page names the Service Contract Act and the Davis-Bacon rules, which set labor standards on certain contracts.
• State or local law. We did not review state rules for this post. Check your state labor department.

For the layers of law involved, see federal vs state law, and which one applies to you.

If you do pay for the holiday: what it does to overtime

Overtime is extra pay for long weeks. The rule is 29 CFR 778.219. It sits in the Code of Federal Regulations, the federal agencies' rulebook. Its examples use a 40-hour week, with half-time added for each hour past 40. Read the current text on eCFR.

Paragraph (a)(2) gives an example at $12 an hour. A contract promises 8 hours of holiday pay. The employee works the holiday anyway, 9 hours, in a 50-hour week. The pay is $600 for 50 hours plus $96 in idle holiday pay. The regulation says "no part of the $96 holiday pay may be credited toward statutory overtime compensation due." The employee is still owed $60 in overtime premium for the 10 hours past 40.

Paragraph (b)(1) covers a different setup: no idle pay, but time and a half for hours worked on the holiday. The statute, it says, "does not require premium pay for a holiday." But a contract premium of one and one-half times the rate for hours worked on the holiday qualifies as an overtime premium, so the employer may credit it toward overtime due. In the regulation's example, the contract pays $654 and the statute requires $660, so only $6 more is owed. The two setups give different totals. Ask your payroll provider which one your handbook creates.

What goes wrong

1. Treating the federal list as a rule for every employer. It is a pay and leave calendar for federal employees.
2. Assuming every institution closes. Banks, schools and the post office follow their own calendars. Read each one's own page.
3. Thinking holiday pay is owed because someone worked a holiday. The regulation says the statute "does not require premium pay for a holiday."
4. Mixing up idle holiday pay and a holiday work premium. Under 778.219, idle holiday pay cannot be credited toward overtime owed, but a time-and-a-half premium for hours worked on the holiday can be. Check which one your handbook promises before you tell an employee either one covers overtime.
5. Searching by popular name. Use "Washington's Birthday" and "Columbus Day" when you search the Code.
6. Ignoring state law. Check your state labor department.

This page was last checked on 12 October 2026. The section was last amended in 2021, so re-read the live Code section before you rely on it.

FAQ

Is MLK Day a federal holiday? Yes. The Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., the third Monday in January, is listed in 5 U.S.C. 6103(a). Pub. L. 98-144 added it in 1983. By its terms it took effect on January 1, 1986.

Do private employers have to close on federal holidays? No federal law requires it. DOL says the FLSA does not require pay for time not worked, such as holidays (federal or otherwise). Holiday benefits are generally a matter of agreement.

Do employers have to pay holiday pay? The FLSA does not require it. A contract, union deal, policy or state law can. Read those documents first, and check your state's rules.

What if a holiday falls on a weekend? For federal employees on a Monday through Friday week, subsection (b) moves a Saturday holiday to the Friday before. OPM says a Sunday holiday is usually observed on Monday, citing Executive Order 11582. A private employer follows its own policy.

Is Juneteenth a federal holiday? Yes. Pub. L. 117-17, approved June 17, 2021, added Juneteenth National Independence Day, June 19. It applies to federal employees like the other 10 days.

Why does the law say Washington's Birthday and Columbus Day? Those are the names the statute still uses in 6103(a). OPM says it always uses the names in the law, though other institutions may use others.

Does working a holiday mean overtime? Not by itself. Overtime depends on hours in the workweek. Regulation 778.219 explains how holiday pay and holiday premiums count in a week with long hours.

For the US statutes, regulations and court rules these laws sit in, see the US primary law API.

Priyansh Khodiyar

Co-Founder & CTO

Priyansh leads engineering and AI at Vaquill AI: the pipelines that pull statutes, regulations and court rules from every US jurisdiction's official publisher, and the REST API, MCP server and open dataset that serve them.