Employers Offering Less Holiday Pay for Thanksgiving

Will you be working this Thanksgiving? Does your boss provide you with holiday pay for Thursday or both Thursday and the following day? According to a recent survey, the number of employers who constitute Thanksgiving as a paid holiday has steadily waned in the past few years.

An annual survey from BNA found that 72 percent of employers have appointed the Thursday and Friday of Thanksgiving week as paid holiday. This continues a decrease in previous years, with 74 percent in 2010 and 79 percent in 2009. Almost every employer surveyed did offer holiday pay for Thanksgiving Day. Similarly, only 29 percent of employers make it a requirement for some employees to work on the holiday, which has dropped considerably from 2002, when close to half of the employers surveyed had their workers at work while most families dined on turkey.

The survey additionally uncovered numerous findings. Twelve percent of employers will be giving holiday gifts to their employees this year. This percentage was nearly double in 2004 but has changed very little over the past six years. For the Thanksgiving holiday gift, employees tend to opt for gift certificates, although a holiday turkey is another popular choice.

Employees working in security and public safety, as well as service and maintenance workers, will in all likelihood be the ones with mandated hours on Thanksgiving Day. An impressive 90 percent of employers in manufacturing will give employees paid holiday leave for Thanksgiving and the following Friday. Seventy-one percent of employers in nonmanufacturing will likewise see their employees enjoy a four-day weekend, as well as those in nonbusiness concerns, including hospitals, educational facilities and government organizations.

Companies employing fewer than 1,000 workers made up 78 percent of those offering Thanksgiving holiday pay, compared to only 54 percent for businesses with more than 1,000 employees. Companies without a union reached 74 percent, slightly more than the 65 percent from unionized businesses with employees being awarded holiday pay.

On the plus side, the majority of employees working on Thanksgiving Day will be paid supplementary compensation for their work. Forty-five percent of such compensation would come in overtime pay, and of that, 29 percent of employees will receive time-and-a-half pay and 16 percent of employees will be paid double-time.

BNA (The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.), a subsidiary of Bloomberg LP, provides legal, regulatory and business information for professionals. Its span covers a diversity of legal practice areas, such as tax and accounting, labor and employment, intellectual property, banking and securities, employee benefits, health care, privacy and security, human resources, and environment, health and safety. BNA has organizes an annual survey of employers’ customs for the holidays at the end of the year. The survey has been conducted every year since 1980. The 2011 report is the collected responses of 390 HR and employee relations executives from a variety of public and private companies.