Static educational checklist — not a calculator. No punch inputs, no holiday-premium engines, no live 1½× / sixth-day / Rhode Island Sunday math. Spot common FLSA § 778.203 Sunday, Saturday, holiday, and sixth/seventh-day premium red flags, plus related § 778.202 daily-premium and § 778.310 lump-sum traps and state overlays (notably Rhode Island Sunday/holiday). Distinct from the one-page premium-credit cheat sheet, OT stub arithmetic, discretionary-bonus regular-rate, report-time / call-in, and spread-of-hours pages.
Baseline — what a special-day premium is (and is not)
Under 29 CFR § 778.203, extra pay for work on Saturdays, Sundays, holidays, regular days of rest, or the sixth or seventh day of the workweek can be treated as an overtime premium (excludable from the regular rate and creditable toward FLSA OT) only if the extra rate is at least time and one-half the employee’s bona fide rate for like work on other days. A flat “Sunday differential” of +$2/hour, or a 1.25× holiday multiplier, generally fails that test and stays in the regular rate. Special-day premiums are not reporting-time / call-in floors, not NY spread-of-hours, not discretionary gifts under § 778.212, and not a substitute for computing overtime after 40 hours. This page does not compute premiums — it only flags compliance red flags.
Checklist — holiday / Sunday / special-day premium red flags
Below-1½× day premiums excluded from the regular rate. Flag payroll that strips a Sunday, Saturday, holiday, or sixth-day differential from the regular-rate divisor when the extra rate is less than time and one-half the bona fide non-premium rate for like work. Longevity of a “we always exclude Sunday pay” macro does not cure § 778.203.
Daily overtime (§ 778.202) labeled as a “holiday premium” (or the reverse). Flag handbooks that treat clock-hour daily OT premiums (hours after 8 in a day, etc.) as interchangeable with calendar-day Sunday/holiday premiums. § 778.202 and § 778.203 are parallel tracks with different triggers; mislabeling either can put money in the wrong regular-rate bucket.
Lump-sum “holiday pay” / flat bonuses treated as § 778.203 OT premiums. Flag fixed holiday stipends, attendance-tied holiday bonuses, or one-line “holiday pay” amounts that are not a true time-and-one-half extra rate for hours actually worked on the special day. Lump sums often land under § 778.310 (or bonus regular-rate rules) rather than special-day exclusion.
Rhode Island Sunday / holiday overlay ignored (or CA/NY macros pasted onto RI). Flag multi-state employers that assume FLSA § 778.203 alone answers Rhode Island Sunday and holiday premium questions, or that export a California/New York holiday policy into RI without checking the state Sunday/holiday text and exceptions.
Sixth / seventh consecutive-day premiums confused with FLSA 40-hour OT. Flag schedules that pay a “seventh-day” or “day-of-rest” differential below 1½× and then exclude it from the regular rate, or that treat a state seventh-day rule as wiping out the need to recompute FLSA OT after 40 hours in the workweek. Consecutive-day premiums and weekly OT can both apply.
“Holiday closed / gift day” pay mixed into worked-holiday premiums. Flag unworked holiday pay, floating holidays, and bona fide gifts under § 778.212 coded the same as premiums for hours actually worked on a holiday. Unworked holiday pay and worked-holiday extras have different regular-rate consequences; collapsing them hides both underpayment and over-exclusion.
CBA / handbook calendar myths (“every Sunday is automatically OT”). Flag policies that declare all Sunday or holiday hours “overtime” without checking whether the extra rate meets § 778.203’s 1½× floor, whether the day is a true regular day of rest for that employee, and whether state overlays impose a separate duty. Collective-bargaining labels do not rewrite the CFR test.
Report-time / call-in or spread-of-hours used as a stand-in for holiday premiums. Flag payroll that pays a state reporting-time floor or a NY >10-hour spread premium on a truncated holiday shift and then skips a separate § 778.203 / state Sunday-holiday analysis for hours actually worked (or for the differential rate). Different statutes; different triggers.
Belo / FWW / salary-basis stacking that “absorbs” special-day extras. Flag fixed-salary or fluctuating-workweek arrangements that never pay (or never regular-rate) Sunday/holiday differentials because “the guarantee already includes everything.” Schedule-design doctrines do not silently repeal § 778.203 inclusion rules when the premium fails the 1½× test.
Stub coding and record gaps on special-day differentials. Flag wage statements that never show a Sunday/holiday/sixth-day line, missing rate × hours breakdowns, destroyed holiday-schedule vs punched-hours comparisons, and regular-rate worksheets that omit below-1½× differentials. Record gaps turn every holiday week into a he-said / she-said regular-rate dispute.