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Employers Generous with Thanksgiving Holiday Paid Time Off in 2009

NEWS RELEASE

Contact: Karen James Cody
kcody@bna.com

Arlington, Va. (Oct. 30, 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.
• 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.

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For press copies of the full survey, or to interview BNA Surveys Director Matthew Sottong, contact Karen James Cody at (703) 341-3476 or presscontact@bna.com.

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.

BNA is the leading independent publisher of print and electronic news and analysis for professionals. Through survey research, expert analysis, and in-depth reporting, BNA continues to advance the understanding and practice of human resources and labor relations within organizations.