China Extends Public Holidays by Two Days

Starting from January 2025, public holidays of China will be extended by two days in accordance with a revised regulation on holiday released by the State Council recently. The additional public holidays are Chinese Lunar New Year's Eve to celebrate Spring Festival, as well as May 2 to celebrate Labor Day.

China’s total 13-day public holidays are as follows:

1. Compensatory working day system       

 In order to encourage holiday spending, Chinese government introduces the “compensatory working day” system. This practice of compensatory working days, known as 调休 “tiaoxiu” in Chinese, allows for longer blocks of time off, such as 8 days for Spring Festival (Chinese new year) holiday, 5 days for Labor Day holiday and 7 days for Chinese National Day holiday. Particularly in the case of those longer public holiday periods, preceding and/or following weekend days may be working days. These working days serve to compensate for some of the consecutive public holidays.  

In response to public concerns about the additional working days to compensate for long holiday breaks, the revised regulation adds that the working days surrounding public holidays after adopting compensatory working days shall generally not exceed 6 consecutive days, except for rare occasions.

Below is the official public holiday calendar and compensatory working days of 2025:

2. Compensation for working on public holidays

If an employee is required to work on public holidays, including the newly added two days, he/she will be entitled to compensation calculated at a rate of 300% of his/her daily wages.

3.Labor policy update

Employers are advised to check if their employee handbooks or labor policies have public holiday clauses. If yes, they need to make updates to reflect the new entitlements and any necessary policy change as a result of such public holiday extensions.