Christmas Eve a Paid Holiday?

A higher percentage of U.S. employers plan to treat Christmas Eve as a paid holiday for employees in 2010 than in 2009, according to a Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) poll. Part of the reason for the change by employers might be that the federal government will treat December 24th as a federal holiday because Christmas falls on a Saturday. Meanwhile, slightly less than half of those surveyed said their organizations will treat the Monday after Christmas as a paid holiday in 2010. Details of the study include the following tidbits:

• Christmas Eve, Dec. 24 - 79 percent; 42 percent of 542 respondents in 2009 said this was the case. Only 10 percent plan to close early in 2010 vs. 33 percent for in 2009
• Monday after Christmas, Dec. 27 - 40 percent plan to close early
• New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31 - 48 percent; 21 percent in 2009. In 2010, 16 percent plan to close early vs. 25 percent in 2009
• New Year’s Day, Jan. 1 - 98 percent; 97 percent in 2009

Posted by Sherman Dickman