Employers are feeling more generous this year than last when it comes to compensating workers who have to log hours on Thanksgiving.
A Bloomberg/BNA survey shows that 74 percent of employers who require folks to work on the last Thursday of November will offer extra compensation of some type. That compares to the 55 percent in last year's study who said they offered added perks for those who worked on Thanksgiving.
As anyone knows who does get out and about on turkey day, plenty of businesses — mostly retail — are open on the big day. Even at workplaces where Thanksgiving is a designated day off, skeleton crews may be on hand.
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Bloomberg/BNA found that 33 percent of the 350 workplaces sampled in the survey require at least some employees to work at least part of Thanksgiving. That's down from 37 percent a year ago. Among the other nuggets mined from this survey:
Most likely to be working:
- Security and public safety workers — 12 percent;
- Service and maintenance staff — 12 percent; and
- Technicians — 11 percent.
Ways these workers will be compensated:
- Time-and-a-half — 39 percent;
- Double-time — 25 percent;
- A combination of overtime and compensatory time off — 10 percent; and
- Other — 12 percent.
Smaller firms tend to acknowledge the family nature of Thanksgiving, the survey said.
"Three-quarters of organizations with fewer than 1,000 workers have slated paid holidays for both Thanksgiving Day and the following Friday this year, while just over three-fifths of larger employers (61 percent) will be so generous. In addition, Thanksgiving work shifts are planned by barely one-fifth of smaller firms (22 percent), compared with three-fifths of firms with at least 1,000 employees (61 percent)," the researchers reported.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
