Federal holiday
One of eleven days codified at 5 U.S.C. §6103 on which the Federal Reserve and most U.S. banks close.
A federal holiday is one of eleven days codified at 5 U.S.C. §6103 on which the U.S. federal government, the Federal Reserve, and most U.S. banks are closed. The eleven are: New Year's Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents' Day (officially "Washington's Birthday"), Memorial Day, Juneteenth National Independence Day (added June 17, 2021), Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day.
The four "Monday holidays" (MLK, Presidents', Memorial, Labor) plus Columbus Day and Thanksgiving (the second-Monday and fourth-Thursday holidays) never shift because they're already anchored to a weekday. The six fixed-date holidays (New Year's, Juneteenth, Independence Day, Veterans Day, Christmas, plus New Year's Day spillover) shift to the prior Friday when they fall on a Saturday and to the following Monday when they fall on a Sunday.
For payroll purposes, the practical effect is that no pay date can be funded on an observed federal holiday because the banks are closed. Standard small-business practice — and the rule used in every schedule on this site — is to shift any pay date that falls on an observed holiday backward to the prior business day. See the 2025 federal holidays page for the current year's observed dates.