Most employers generous when holiday is cancelled

About 41 percent of employers will require some of their employees to work on Labor Day.

A Bloomberg BNA nationwide survey found that over two in five employers indicated that they will require some employees to labor on Monday, September 7.

A full 97 percent of employers will provide a paid day off for all or most employees on Labor Day, and 86 percent of employers requiring workers to be present on Labor Day will compensate them.

“Our research indicates that once again the preponderance of employers will provide a paid day off on Labor Day,” said Tony Harris, managing editor of Human Resource Publications at Bloomberg BNA. “However, not everyone will enjoy a labor-free holiday as security and public safety personnel will be among those going to work on September 7. Fortunately, eighty-six percent of employers requiring at least some employees to work on Labor Day will provide a little something extra in their workers’ paychecks.”

About 15 percent of organizations  said they will have security or public safety personnel and technical workers report to work on September 7. About 13 percent will have professional employees at work, 11 percent will have managers or supervisors working and 10 percent will have their service or maintenance staffs and sales and customer-service workers on the clock.

About 86 percent of organizations that ask employees to work on Labor Day will give them time-and-a-half pay (27 percent), both extra pay and compensatory time (18 percent), double-time pay (16 percent) or some other form of extra pay, such as double-time-and-a-half pay (16 percent) or comp time plus regular pay (9 percent).

Fewer than one in ten organizations that require workers to be on duty on Labor Day will provide nothing but regular pay.

About 80 percent of large organizations with 1,000 or more employees will require at least some employees to work on Labor Day, compared to only 29 percent of smaller organizations.

About 56 percent of non-business organizations — such as hospitals, government agencies and municipalities — will require at least some employees to be on staff on Labor Day. That compares to  only 35 percent of non-manufacturers and 30 percent of manufacturers.