California State Holidays 2028

Two California holiday lists, applied to 2028

This page draws on two holiday lists in California's Government Code, and they do not agree. Section 19853 entitles state employees to eleven dated holidays: January 1, the third Mondays of January and February, March 31, the last Monday in May, July 4, the first Monday in September, November 11, Thanksgiving Day, the day after Thanksgiving, and December 25. It adds the personal holiday an employee chooses under section 19854 and every day the Governor appoints. Section 6700, the list of "holidays in this state", is far longer. It also names Juneteenth, Columbus Day, Lincoln Day (February 12), Genocide Remembrance Day (April 24), Admission Day (September 9), Native American Day (the fourth Friday in September), Lunar New Year, Diwali, Good Friday from noon to 3 p.m., and every Sunday. The calendar on this page follows the dated holidays of section 19853, the days state employees are entitled to as holidays.

In 2028 the section 6700 days that section 19853 leaves out fall like this: Juneteenth on Monday, June 19, Admission Day on Saturday, September 9, Native American Day on Friday, September 22 and Columbus Day on Monday, October 9. None of the four is a state-employee holiday under section 19853; subdivision (e) instead lets an employee choose eight hours of holiday credit for Juneteenth or Native American Day in place of the personal holiday credit. Juneteenth and Columbus Day are federal holidays, so both stay in this page's business-day count.

March 31 is a Friday in 2028. Section 6700 calls it Farmworkers Day in the text in force since March 26, 2026 (the text archived in June 2024 said Cesar Chavez Day); section 19853 names only the date.

Section 19853(b) moves a Sunday holiday to the Monday after and a Saturday November 11 to the Friday before. It moves no other Saturday holiday; CalHR states that employees then receive holiday credit.

Why California gains working days in 2028

A year's working days are its weekdays minus the holidays that land on them, and both halves move. The weekday supply depends only on the year's length and the weekday it starts on; the holiday half depends on where each fixed date falls that year. 2028 is a leap year that opens on a Saturday, so its two days beyond 52 whole weeks are a Saturday and a Sunday. It ends up with 260 weekdays, fewer than an ordinary year that starts midweek.

Ten federal holidays in this page's count fall on weekdays, so California has 250 working days in 2028. That is one more than 2027 (249). That happens against the calendar, which supplies one fewer weekday; the holidays decide it, with two fewer of them on weekdays.

Saturday holidays in 2028

A fixed-date holiday on a weekend is where the federal, Reserve Bank and state calendars part company. For most federal employees a Saturday holiday moves to the Friday and a Sunday one to the Monday (5 U.S.C. 6103(b) and Executive Order 11582, as OPM applies them); the Federal Reserve Banks follow the Monday rule but not the Friday one; and California has its own rule. In 2028:

• Veterans Day falls on Saturday, November 11; most federal employees have Friday, November 10 as the holiday instead. The Federal Reserve Banks are open that Friday; the Board of Governors is closed. That Friday is the California state-employee holiday as well: November 11 is the one Saturday holiday Government Code section 19853(b) moves back to the Friday.

This page's count leaves out the Friday or Monday that federal employees have as the holiday, because the count follows the federal employees' holidays. A count on the Federal Reserve Banks' schedule has one more business day across each of those Fridays.

Where California's own calendar departs from the count in 2028

The count on this page and California's state-employee calendar (Government Code section 19853) differ only where one of them has a holiday on a weekday and the other does not. The California calendar has Farmworkers Day on Friday, March 31 and Day after Thanksgiving on Friday, November 24 as holidays, which the federal count treats as working days. The federal count takes out Juneteenth on Monday, June 19 and Columbus Day on Monday, October 9, which the California calendar does not.

The two cancel out: both calendars give 250 working days in 2028, on different dates.

Where the fixed-date holidays land in 2028

A holiday tied to a calendar date moves one weekday later each year, and two once 29 February has passed, so the week it breaks changes every year while its date stays put. 2028 is a leap year, so every date from March onward jumps two weekdays against 2027:

• New Year's Day is a Saturday in 2028, after a Friday in 2027, a weekend day, so the date itself takes no working day on this page's count; the weekend rules above decide whether a weekday is given for it.
• March 31 is a Friday in 2028, after a Wednesday in 2027, so on the California calendar the weekend after it becomes three days off.
• Juneteenth is a Monday in 2028, after a Saturday in 2027, so on this page's count it turns the weekend before it into three days off.
• Independence Day is a Tuesday in 2028, after a Sunday in 2027, which strands Monday, July 3 between the weekend and the holiday on this page's count.
• Veterans Day is a Saturday in 2028, after a Thursday in 2027, a weekend day, so the date itself takes no working day on this page's count; the weekend rules above decide whether a weekday is given for it.
• Christmas Day is a Monday in 2028, after a Saturday in 2027, so on this page's count it turns the weekend before it into three days off.

Eight long weekends in 2028

A weekday holiday next to a weekend turns two days off into three; two closures side by side, or one on each side of a weekend, make four or more. That is arithmetic on the dates, so the list moves every year even when the holidays do not. On this page's count, California has eight such breaks in 2028:

• Saturday, January 15 to Monday, January 17: three days, for Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
• Saturday, February 19 to Monday, February 21: three days, for Presidents' Day.
• Saturday, May 27 to Monday, May 29: three days, for Memorial Day.
• Saturday, June 17 to Monday, June 19: three days, for Juneteenth.
• Saturday, September 2 to Monday, September 4: three days, for Labor Day.
• Saturday, October 7 to Monday, October 9: three days, for Columbus Day.
• Friday, November 10 to Sunday, November 12: three days, for Veterans Day (observed).
• Saturday, December 23 to Monday, December 25: three days, for Christmas Day.

On the California calendar the breaks differ: Friday, March 31 to Sunday, April 2 (three days) and Thursday, November 23 to Sunday, November 26 (four days). Those follow the state's own holidays and do not change this page's count.

Stranded working days in 2028

A holiday on a Tuesday or a Thursday leaves one working day stranded between it and the weekend. In 2028 California has two: Monday, July 3, next to Independence Day and Friday, November 24, next to Thanksgiving Day. Each is a full working day on this page's count even though a day off sits on either side, so a deadline that lands on one is not pushed anywhere.

California month by month, 2028

A month's working days are its weekdays less the holidays on them, so a month with no weekday holiday is set entirely by how its weekdays fall, and every holiday that lands midweek takes one day off the month it sits in.

The second column follows the federal set this page counts. The third follows California's state-employee calendar (Government Code section 19853), for readers dealing with that calendar directly.

California's longest stretch without a holiday, 2028

The longest run of working days with no weekday holiday inside it depends on how far apart consecutive closures sit, so it moves whenever one fixed-date holiday changes weekday. In 2028 it runs from Tuesday, February 22 to Friday, May 26 inside the first half of the year: 69 working days, 13 full working weeks and four days.

The first working day of 2028 on this count is Monday, January 3, because 2028 opens on a weekend. The last is Friday, December 29, which is the latest date a count of working days can end on inside 2028.

Which calendar the 2028 count uses

The working-day total counts the legal public holidays of 5 U.S.C. 6103 on the dates most federal employees have them, as OPM publishes them. It is not identical to the Federal Reserve Banks' calendar. The Board of Governors' K.8 schedule states that the Federal Reserve Banks are open on the Friday before a Saturday holiday, and in 2028 that means Friday, November 10. A count on the Reserve Banks' schedule has one more business day across that Friday than this page's count shows.

California's state-employee calendar (Government Code section 19853) is shown in the table and never subtracted from the count.