What are you talking about "straight pay"? You work 8 hours on a holiday and you get paid for 16.
If you're only getting paid 8 hours on the holiday itself that means the holiday itself is your RDO, so you're on overtime and you're earning time and a half... and you earned or will earn double time on your day in lieu. Or else you banged on your day in lieu and it got converted to free leave just like all the other non-essential workers get.
Oh man. I'm sorry you've worked your whole career believing you get paid 16 hrs for that holiday.
TimShady and
Golf delta have explained it, but I'll pile on.
Every Federal Employee gets 11 federal holidays per year (meaning, you have a work day that you don't have to work, don't get charge any type of leave, and you still get 8hrs of pay!).
Controllers go and work that holiday (sometimes by choice, sometimes not by choice but they couldn't get it off) and in exchange for working that day, they get an extra 8hrs of pay for working...in other words, as others have mentioned on here, they get 8hrs of straight pay for working on their day off.
Let that sink in...you work on Christmas Day, or Thanksgiving day, days that all of the Federal Government has off, for less money than working on any of your other days off (RDOs) during the year, where they pay you 150%. Holidays should
AT LEAST pay the same as working any other day off, but because they're more important (IMHO) than a regular RDO, I'd argue against
Fat Porrey suggestion of 150% and Holidays should be 200% or more.