According to the seminal survey of U.S. employers, which has been conducted annually since 1980, a full four in five employers will give workers Thanksgiving and the following day off with pay.
“A robust economy may be the reason behind so many employers being so generous with time off during the holiday,” says Molly Huie, manager, Surveys and Reports, Bloomberg BNA. “However, as is typically the case on national holidays, some workers are required to punch the clock, and this year three in 10 employers will require some employees to spend a day at the office.”
Over eight in 10 organizations (84%) that have employees working on Thanksgiving provide some form of extra pay, including time-and-one-half pay (36%), double pay (22%), and both extra pay and compensation time (12%).
Large employers are four times as likely to require some to work. Sixty-four percent of large organizations (those with over 1,000 employees) will require some to pull a holiday shift, as compared to only 16% of small organizations.
Employees responsible for public safety, security, maintenance or technology support are most likely to be required to work on Thanksgiving. Security and public safety workers (16%), service and maintenance staff (13%), and technicians (10%) are most likely to draw holiday shifts.
Workers in manufacturing are most likely to get four paid days off. Over nine in 10 (91%) of manufacturers indicated they will provide a paid holiday to all or most of their employees on Thanksgiving Day and the Friday after, compared with 81% of non-business organizations — such as schools, police departments, municipalities, and hospitals — and 74% of non-manufacturing companies.
Bloomberg BNA has been tracking Thanksgiving employer practices since 1980 and this year’s survey is based on a survey of senior human resource and employee relations executives representing nearly 450 employers. The survey was administered in September 2016 and respondents represent a wide range of U.S. employers across a range of industries.
