Thanksgiving 2012
When asked which days will be paid holidays for their employees at Thanksgiving in 2012, 65.1% of survey respondents indicated that both Thanksgiving Day and the day after will be paid holidays.
A very small minority, 1.3%, will offer no paid time off during Thanksgiving. With 3.8% of responses, the “other” bucket contains a mish-mash of responses, including:
- Salaried the day after, hourly not paid day after
- Plus half day Wednesday, day before
- Day after is a holiday only for union employees per their CBA
- They may choose the day after Thanksgiving as holiday but then lose the day after Christmas
- Monday following Thanksgiving Day – first day of buck season
- Entire Thanksgiving week
Christmas 2012
For the 2012 Christmas season, 93% of survey respondents will provide December 25th as a paid holiday and 43.6% will offer the 24th as well. Three percent will offer the 26th of December as a paid day off, 4.8% will provide the entire week off with pay, and 1.2% will offer no paid time off for the holiday.
The “other” bucket, at 8.6% for this question in our survey, reveals a mixture of paid time off options, including:
- May use PTO for Christmas Day
- Partial day on Christmas Eve (i.e., pay for two hours)
- One day of employee’s choice between Dec. 18 and Jan. 1
- All employees must take December 26, 27, and 28 as either vacation or unpaid leave.
- If can’t take the 25th, can choose another day in pay period.
- They will get either Christmas Day OR Christmas Eve
- Half day on Christmas Eve, close at noon
New Year’s 2012-2013
Employers’ plans for paid time off during the New Year holiday paint a slightly different picture with 95.9% providing New Year’s Day as a paid holiday, but only 21.9% offering New Year’s Eve as paid time off. Less than one-half of 1% will offer January 2nd or New Year’s week as paid time off and 1.6% will offer no paid holiday. The ubiquitous “other“ bucket at 4.3% contains a plethora of responses, including:
- Get to leave early on New Year’s Eve
- Exempt Salary employees only
- Late open on 1/1/2013 & paid holiday for FTE only
- We will work extra hours Wednesday-Friday so we can give a 4-day weekend
- Holiday pay for half day on Monday, December 31
- Close at noon new years eve, but not paid
- New Year’s Day for all administrative employees; day after for all non-administrative employees
 How many 2013 holidays?
When asked how many paid holidays in 2013 their employees will receive, 2.3% of survey participants indicated their employees will receive 1-5 days, 39.6% will receive 6-8 paid holidays, and 43.3% will receive 9-11 days. Twelve percent will receive 12 or more paid holidays and .8% will receive no paid holidays in 2013.
Paid 2013 holidays
Over 90% of survey participants will offer Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year’s Day as paid holidays in 2013.
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day and Presidents’ Day will be paid holidays for 30.1% and 32%, respectively. Columbus Day is a paid day off for 13.8% and Boxing Day will qualify as a paid holiday for 4.3% in 2013.
A peek into the “other” box, selected by 16.9% of survey participants, reveals myriad paid holidays, including:
- Chinese New Year
- Company picnic
- Civic Day
- Day after April 15th
- Employee’s birthday
- In-house ski party day
- Mardi Gras Day
- Rodeo recess (2 days)
- Staff Appreciation Day
Holiday pay
Employees are not required to work on holidays for 35.8% of survey participants, but for employers who do require it, 20.2% pay holiday pay plus time and a half and 5.6% pay holiday pay plus double time. Only regular pay is received for 14.2% and another day off with pay is the norm for 9%.
Who gets first dibs on holidays?
When it comes to deciding which employees get priority in deciding their days off during the holidays, 26% leave it up to the supervisor and 24.2% go with whoever asks first.
It’s not a problem and everyone gets what he or she wants for 14.7%, but for 9.2%, employees take turns from year to year.
A formal system based on seniority is in place for 7.8% and 9.7% use an informal seniority/ranking system.
Unrecognized holidays
Less than 5% of employees use paid time off for religious days not recognized as paid holidays for 37.8% of survey participants and no employees use such time for 25.9%.
Survey participants …
Number of employees
The majority (68.5%) of our survey respondents provide HR services to a workforce of 1-250 employees. Another 10.2% provide guidance to 251-500 employees at their organizations and 7.4% have a workforce of 501-1,000 employees.
Participants’ role
HR managers and directors account for 50.7% of the survey participants who self-identified, other HR professionals make up 26.4%, and 22.9% are in other areas with HR responsibilities.
Industries
Just under half (46.4%) of the participants are in service industries; 22.7% are in agriculture, forestry, construction, manufacturing, or mining; 7.9% are in wholesale, retail, transportation, or warehousing; and 23.2% are in real estate, utilities, or “other.”
Organizations
A total of 1,936 organizations participated in this survey, conducted in October 2012. Of those who identified themselves, 59.7% are privately owned, 9.4% are public entities, and 27.2% are government or nonprofits.
To view detailed results of this survey, go to Holiday Practices Survey Data.
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“All employees must take December 26, 27, and 28 as either vacation or unpaid leave.” Wow! I’d love to hear how employees react to this. Seems a bit Scrooge-y.
In re: Barb
This is not unusual…as a manufacturing company we often conduct year-end inventory on those days, and most employees are forced to take vacation, illness or unpaid leave at this time. As long as it’s communicated to employees far in advance, there’s nothing scroogey about it! Many employees actually appreciate the opportunity to spend the week with their families without worrying about the “first-come, first served” policy on vacation requests.
I’m interested to see how many employers will offer Friday, July 5th as a holiday in 2013.