Employers May Be Generous with Thanksgiving Holiday Paid Time Off in 2009
KANSAS CITY (PRNewswire-USNewswire), November 1, 2009 - Employers are showing unprecedented generosity in providing Thanksgiving holiday leave, while levels of gift giving are at 16-year lows, according to BNA's annual survey of employers about their year-end holiday plans.
Nearly eight in 10 surveyed employers (79 percent) have designated both Thanksgiving Day (Nov. 26) and the day after as paid holidays in 2009, up from the 73 percent that did so in 2008. This represents the highest percentage of employers granting two-day paid Thanksgiving leave since BNA began keeping records in 1980.
Almost all surveyed employers (98 percent) have scheduled Thanksgiving Day itself as a paid day off for employees, and employer requirements for work that day are at unprecedented lows. While three in 10 employers (28 percent) will require some employees to work on Thanksgiving Day, this year marks a 16-year low in employer-required Thanksgiving work. Security/public safety and service/maintenance staff are the most likely employee groups to be required to work on the holiday.
Among other survey findings are:
- Workers in the manufacturing sector and unionized workers are the most
likely to enjoy a four-day holiday weekend. More than nine out of 10
manufacturers (95 percent) will treat both Thanksgiving Day and the
following Friday as paid holidays. This compares with three out of
four employers (75 percent) in nonbusiness concerns (e.g., hospitals,
educational facilities, and government organizations), and 71 percent
of employers in nonmanufacturing organizations
- Smaller organizations - those with fewer than 1,000 employees - are
more likely to enjoy a four-day holiday weekend (83 percent) than are
larger concerns (64 percent of companies with more than 1,000
employees). The proportion that will offer a four-day weekend does not
differ significantly between unionized and nonunionized establishments
(82 percent and 78 percent, respectively).
- Thanksgiving holiday gift giving is at historically low levels. Eleven
percent of employers plan to give their workers some kind of holiday
gift, nearly the same percentage as in 2006 through 2008. However, the
percentage of employers giving gifts is down sharply from the 23
percent observed in 2004, and the 15 to 18 percent range seen from
1995 to 2003. This year marks the lowest level of Thanksgiving holiday
gift giving since the "jobless recovery" in 1993 that followed the
1990-1991 recession.
- Manufacturing organizations (25 percent) are most generous in their
gift giving, with nonmanufacturing (8 percent) and nonbusiness
concerns (4 percent) trailing far behind. None of the surveyed
employers in unionized workplaces reported that they would give
employees gifts this year, compared with 14 percent in nonunion
establishments. Gift giving this year does not differ significantly
between large and small organizations.
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- Gift certificates are the holiday gift of choice for employers. For
seven of the past nine years, gift certificates have been the most
frequently proffered employer offering for Thanksgiving and 2009
continues this pattern. Five percent of surveyed employers will give
gift certificates this Thanksgiving, with the venerable turkey,
offered by 4 percent of employers, coming in a close second.
BNA's survey of year-end holiday practices has been conducted since 1980. This year's report is based on responses from 315 human resource and employee relations executives representing a cross-section of U.S. employers, both public and private.
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