Thailand Public Holidays 2026: Employer Guide to Holiday Pay & Compliance

Key Takeaways
Thailand’s 2026 holiday calendar can change based on Cabinet announcements, so employers should publish an internal holiday list and update it when needed.
Private-sector employers must provide at least 13 paid traditional holidays each year and set clear rules for substitute holidays.
Thailand’s 2026 public holiday calendar includes long breaks like Songkran. Employees are likely to take extra annual leave. Banks and government agencies will be closed. Employers should arrange staffing ahead of time to avoid business downtime.
Expect operational slowdowns during major holiday clusters (e.g., Songkran and year-end), as employees often extend breaks and banks/government offices may close.

1. Introduction

Thailand is a strategic hub in Southeast Asia, with a strong talent market and a business environment where public holidays can materially affect staffing, payroll cycles, and compliance.Thailand’s public holidays are a major part of the country’s culture and can impact your payroll, staff management, and compliance. However, the public holiday calendar varies from year to year and private companies can have their own observation rules. 

For employers, getting the holiday rules and payroll right can be challenging. This guide will cover Thailand’s public holidays for 2026, employer obligations, payroll, and compliance best practices to help you execute HR plans with confidence. 

 

2. Thailand Public Holidays in 2026 

Below is a reference calendar of Thailand’s public holidays in 2026. Employers should publish their own holiday list in advance and update it if additional holidays are announced. Every employer in Thailand is required to provide at least 13 paid traditional public holidays.

Holiday	Date	Notes
New Year’s Day	Jan 1 (Thur)
New Year Special Holiday	Jan 2 (Fri)
Makha Bucha Day	Mar 3 (Tue)
Chakri Memorial Day	Apr 6 (Mon)
Songkran Festival	Apr 13 - 15 (Mon-Wed)
Labor Day	May 1 (Fri)
Coronation Day	May 4 (Mon)
Day off for Visakha Bucha	Jun 1 (Mon)	Substitution for Visakha Bucha (May 31, Sun)
Queen Suthida's Birthday	Jun 3 (Wed)
King Vajiralongkorn's Birthday	Jul 28 (Tue)
Asalha Bucha	Jul 29 (Wed)
Buddhist Lent Day	Jul 30 (Thur)
The Queen Mother's Birthday	Aug 12 (Wed)
Anniversary of the Death of King Bhumibol	Oct 13 (Tue)
Chulalongkorn Day	Oct 23 (Fri)
Day off for King Bhumibol's Birthday	Dec 7 (Mon)	Substitution for King Bhumibol’s Birthday (Dec 5, Sat)
Constitution Day	Dec 10 (Thur)
New Year's Eve	Dec 31 (Thur)

“Employers are advised to communicate clearly with staff regarding company-specific policies…Employees are encouraged to check with their HR departments or management teams to confirm their leave entitlements.”

Komsan Jandamit, Bangkok Post

Key Notes for Employers

• Thailand may designate additional special holidays to create long weekends. For example, Jan 2, 2026 was announced as an additional holiday, and the Bank of Thailand separately confirmed it as a financial institutions holiday.
• Many religious holidays follow the lunar calendar, which means dates can vary year to year.

3. Workforce Planning Around Thailand’s Holidays

Thailand’s holiday calendar often creates extended breaks, especially when public holidays fall next to weekends and employees extend them with annual leaves. This means the cost impact can go beyond overtime, so employers should plan project timelines, shift coverage, and HR operations early to balance productivity and payroll risk.

Holiday Clusters

In Thailand, here are the holiday clusters that employers need to watch out for: Songkran (Apr 13 - 15), King Bhumibol’s Birthday (Dec 5, with a substitute day typically observed when it falls on a weekend), Constitution Day (Dec 10), and New Year’s Eve (Dec 31). Many employees extend the breaks with annual leave, so employers should plan for the official holiday dates and the likely absence peaks around them. 

Banks and Government Closures

On most public holidays, employers should expect full closures across banks, government offices, and public services. This includes official processing (documents, filings, approvals) and finance operations. A practical way to avoid delays and missed deadlines is to move approval and payroll dates earlier when holidays fall near pay dates. 

Operational tips for HR teams

• For Songkran and major Buddhist holidays, always build in buffer time for approvals, handoffs, and payroll processing, since most operations will be closed.
  
  
• Expect slower response times from local teams around religious festivals, especially for cross-functional projects that require multiple sign-offs or approvals.
  
  
• Have employees communicate annual leave requests early, so you can plan holiday shifts for customer-facing or time-sensitive roles.

4. Employer Obligations Under Thai Labor Law

Thailand’s public holiday rules may look simple at first glance, but in reality most compliance issues come from how holidays are set, substituted, and paid when employees work.

Paid Public Holidays

Thai law requires employers to provide paid public holidays. Employers should publish their holiday calendar in advance and follow official updates if additional special holidays are declared.

Under Section 29 of the Labor Protection Act, employers must provide at least 13 paid traditional holidays each year, and the holiday list must be announced in advance. Employers can’t count these holidays as part of an employee’s annual leave entitlements. 

Working on Public Holidays (Holiday Pay)

If employees work on a public holiday, employers must provide holiday pay for normal working hours, and a higher rate for holiday overtime when hours exceed normal working time. Here are the overtime rules: 

Employers may require overtime when it’s necessary due to the nature of the work or in an emergency. Otherwise, the employee's consent is needed.

Substitute Holidays

When a public holiday falls on a weekend or an employee’s weekly rest day, a substitute day off is usually provided. Make sure your policy states how substitute holidays are assigned and how they flow through payroll and time-off tracking.

Contractors vs. Employees

Independent contractors are not automatically entitled to paid public holidays under employment law. According to the Thai Civil and Commercial Code, classification often depends on practical factors such as degree of control, working hours, how the worker is paid, and who provides tools/equipment. Employers should align the working relationship with a written contract, and ensure the day to day control, schedule, tools, and supervision match the intended classification.

Common Compliance Risks

These are common compliance risks that employers should avoid in Thailand: 

• Underpaying holiday work or holiday overtime rates
• Failing to provide the minimum 13 paid public holidays
• Mishandling substitute holidays when dates overlap with weekends/rest days
• Inconsistent payroll treatment due to unclear policy wording
• Misclassification can lead to significant financial penalties, back pay exposure, disputes, and reputational damage.

5. Payroll & Compliance Considerations

Since public holidays in Thailand tend to form holiday clusters, along with bank, government, and business closures, managing payroll and compliance is about having a clean HR operation. Below are some key areas that employers should focus on:

• Payroll & bank closures: Align your payroll timeline with bank holidays and closures by moving approvals, fund transfers, and cutoff dates. This is especially important if you run cross-border payroll, where extra processing time (FX, intermediary banks, internal approvals) can easily lead to a missed pay date, causing disputes and compliance violations.
  
  
• Holiday premium pay: Treat holiday work and holiday overtime as two separate payroll scenarios. Make sure your payroll system can apply the correct overtime multiplier by employee type (monthly vs. daily/hourly) and by hours worked.
  
  
• Attendance tracking: Use time and attendance records to clearly distinguish public holidays, substitute holidays, and normal working days. For teams that operate on shifts or customer support coverage, plan holiday rosters in advance, communicate early, and keep written confirmation of who is scheduled. Note that schedule swapping is a common practice, especially in retail or hospitality sectors, but also a leading cause of calculation mistakes.
  
  
• Record keeping: Employers are required by the Labor Protection Act to keep records of payroll registers, time records, and employment documentation (holiday calendars, policy updates, approvals for holiday work/overtime) for at least 2 years, so you can respond quickly to audits or complaints. Having a clean paper trail is often what prevents a minor payroll error from becoming a prolonged compliance issue.

6. How Slasify Helps Employers in Thailand in 2026

Thailand’s holiday calendar is different each year and reflects deep cultural and religious traditions, but it also creates real planning and payroll complexity for employers. The challenge in Thailand is making sure that paid holidays, overtime pay, and substitute days are tracked and applied correctly. 

• EOR Services: Hire in Thailand without setting up a local entity. Slasify’s Employer of Record in Thailand helps you draft locally compliant employment contracts and automates onboarding, payroll, benefits, and compliance. Employers can focus on developing talent and growing the business without worrying about violating Thai labor laws.
  
  
• Payroll Compliance: Manage end-to-end payroll operations, including salary payments, tax withholdings, and social security (SSO) contributions. Slasify helps you track the Thai holiday calendar, shift schedules, and hours worked, and calculate the correct payroll throughout the year.
  
  
• Local HR Expertise: By working with Slasify, you also get a dedicated account manager and a team of local experts to provide guidance on holiday entitlements, policy setup, and workforce scheduling. Tap into our resources during high-impact periods like Songkran to ensure your local practices match both compliance needs and business productivity.
  
  
• Regional Scalability: With support for over 150 countries and 130 currencies, Slasify helps distributed teams across Asia by managing multi-country hiring and HR operations (e.g., Thailand, Malaysia, Vietnam, China) through a single cloud platform as you expand into different regions.

As a trusted Employer of Record (EOR) for Thailand, Slasify consolidates and automates compliant hiring, payroll execution, and local HR support, so you can manage your team with fewer operational risks and stay ready to scale across the APAC region. Book a demo with our Thailand HR expert today to supercharge your workforce.

7. FAQ: Thailand Employment Guide for 2026 

Q1: Are all public holidays paid in Thailand?

For employees in the private sector, employers must announce at least 13 paid public holidays as required by Section 29 of the Labor Protection Act. The paid entitlement is tied to the holiday list the employer formally announces, based on official/religious/local holidays. Employers should announce the list as early as possible, so employees and internal teams can plan ahead. 

Q2: How do substitute holidays work in Thailand?

If an announced public holiday overlaps with an employee’s regular weekly day off, a substitute day is typically observed on the next working day. Employers should document how substitute days are assigned in their HR policy.

Q3: What is the overtime rate for working on holidays?

In Thailand, holiday work pay and holiday overtime are calculated separately. An employee who works on public holidays should receive pay at 200% of the hourly wage during standard hours (8 hours), but will increase to 300% when exceeding the standard hours.

Q4: Do contractors get public holiday benefits?

Generally no, as independent contractors are not automatically entitled to statutory public holiday benefits. The hourly wage and time off terms should be agreed upon by both parties and recorded in writing. If the contractors receive additional “employee” benefits, the employer might be at risk of misclassification. 

Q5: When does Thailand release the official holiday calendar each year?

There’s no single fixed release date as public holidays are set via government announcements and can be updated (e.g., special holidays). For planning purposes, employers should monitor official updates and bank holiday notices (e.g., BOT confirmed 2 Jan 2026 as a financial institution holiday after the Cabinet’s announcement).