Neither California nor Federal laws require employers to pay employees any type of special holiday pay. The law treats all holidays the same as any other regular business days for purposes of wage.
This means that employers do not have to pay employees any type of premium, overtime, or bonus pay for working on holidays, regardless of the times of the day worked and whether it is Fourth of July, Thanksgiving, New Year’s, etc. Employers also have no legal obligation to pay holiday pay to employees who miss days of pay because employers closed their businesses on holidays which would otherwise be workdays. Unfortunately, employees may lawfully be forced to suffer the burden of lost income from business closures on holidays.
However, if employers provide for holiday pay in the terms of an employment contract or collective bargaining agreement with employees, then employers may generally be contractually obligated to comply with those holiday pay terms.