Consider yourself fortunate if you're reading this in the midst of a three-day weekend.
About 37 percent of American workers will be off Monday in recognition of Martin Luther King Jr.'s Birthday. That is a record, according to research compiled as part of Bloomberg BNA's Holiday Practices Survey. More than 350 human resources types were quizzed about their policies on this day and other holidays.
This study reminded me of something I learned when joining the workforce after growing up the son of a banker (now university employee): Not every workplace offers the same number of days off. There's no George Washington's Birthday in retail or media, for example.
Bloomberg BNA has been conducting the survey since 1986, the first year that a day was set aside to honor King's legacy. Minus a few post-recession years, the number of businesses recognizing the holiday has increased annually, but nearly twice as many employees will be given time off for the Friday after Thanksgiving. Not a federal holiday, by the way.
What should we make of the fewer than 40 percent of workplaces that offer employees the chance to take the day off in honor of King? What does it say about us?
Let's look at it in the context of other holidays.
Bloomberg BNA's study ranks the holidays by percentage of employers who offer them as days off: New Year's and Thanksgiving (98 percent), Christmas Day, Independence Day and Labor Day (97 percent), Memorial Day (96 percent), King Jr.'s Birthday (37 percent), George Washington's Birthday (35 percent), Veterans Day (22 percent) and Columbus Day (16 percent). Among nonfederal holidays, the most common days off are the day after Thanksgiving (73 percent), Dec. 26 (37 percent) and Christmas Eve (34 percent).
Matt Sottong, Bloomberg BNA's director of surveys and research reports, doesn't have any hard data on why King's Birthday ranks as it does, but the data point to a few practical reasons.
First, it's the most recently recognized federal holiday. George Washington's Birthday, also down the list, was enacted in 1968 and lags behind the big holidays along with Veterans Day (1938), Columbus Day (1937) , Memorial Day (1868) and Labor Day (1894) because, as Sottong puts it, they have had "a long time to germinate and take hold in the national conscious."
It also stands to reason that by the third Monday of January, businesses are ready to get back to work.
About 62 percent of nonbusiness entities (government/education/nonprofit) offer the King Birthday off, but other workplaces are far lower. Manufacturing businesses are about 10 percent, while nonmanufacturing businesses are around 34 percent.
Basically, employers are fresh out of holiday spirit by the time the new year rolls around. They've already offered downtime for the big three: Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's. Employers figure it's hard to justify another day off just a few weeks later.
Whether you have Monday off or not, or are in one of the 9 percent of workplaces that offers employees the opportunity to recognize King's Birthday in some way, it would do us all well to take some time to reflect on why the day exists.
SundayMonday Business on 01/18/2015