Working Days – Croatia
Croatia has twelve official public holidays throughout the year, most of them tied to religious and historical events. For payroll calculation purposes, working days are counted as regular 8-hour working days, with a standard of 40 hours per week.
Annual summary
| Other year | Working days | |
|---|---|---|
| 2025 | 250 | |
| 2026 | 252 | |
| 2027 | 253 | |
| 2028 | 250 |
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Holiday rules and practice in Croatia
How public holidays work in Croatia, and what that means when you count working days.
- Standard work week
- Monday–Friday
- 40 hours per week
- Substitute days
- No
- A public holiday that falls on a weekend is not replaced, so it produces no extra day off.
- Regional variation
- No
- Public holidays apply uniformly across the whole country.
Bank holidays
Croatian law uses blagdani (public holidays) and neradni dani (non-working days). There is no bank-holiday category.
Local terminology
| Working day | radni dan |
|---|---|
| Public holiday | blagdan |
| Non-working day | neradni dan |
Worth knowing
- The 2019 Holidays Act, in force from 2020, reshaped the calendar: Statehood Day moved from 25 June to 30 May, the 8 October Independence Day was dropped, and 18 November was added as Remembrance Day for the victims of Vukovar and Škabrnja.
- Corpus Christi (Tijelovo) is movable and always falls on a Thursday, sixty days after Easter — a dependable bridge-day opportunity every year.
- With 14 public holidays Croatia is among the more generous countries in the EU, but there is no substitute-day rule, so a badly placed year gives back several of them.
- 6 January (Epiphany), 15 August (Assumption) and 1 November (All Saints’ Day) reflect the country’s Catholic tradition and sit on fixed dates.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need to pay a supplement if a public holiday falls on a working day?
The law stipulates that an employee has the right to a day off if a public holiday falls on a working day. If the worker actually works on that day, the law provides for the right to a public holiday work supplement, depending on the collective agreement or agreement with the employer.
How are working days counted if a public holiday falls on a weekend?
If a public holiday falls on a Saturday or Sunday, it is not moved to the next working day nor is it automatically compensated. An employee has a day off only if the public holiday falls on their regular working day according to the work schedule.
How many working hours per week are there in Croatia?
The standard is 40 hours per week, which constitutes 8 hours per day during a five-day working week. Contracts or collective agreements may prescribe different schedules, but the total number of hours cannot be increased without additional compensation or extraordinary circumstances.
Is it mandatory to work on a public holiday if the employer requests it?
Work on a public holiday may be required only if it is impossible to postpone the work due to economic or other justified reasons. In such a case, the employee has the right to additional compensation in accordance with the law and collective agreement, typically a supplement of 50% to 100% of the salary.
How is annual leave calculated if a public holiday falls during it?
Annual leave time that coincides with a public holiday is not counted as used leave. The employee retains that leave day and may use it in another period or it will be paid in accordance with the law.