My manager keeps asking me if I know anybody who would like to work at our grocery store. She loves the holidays because, as the says, everybody buys more and what they buy is more expensive. More customers mean that she needs more employees.
She especially needs workers for days that precede big eating holidays like Thanksgiving and Christmas and the morning of the big days themselves. Thankfully for me, I’m not scheduled on those days, but I decided to look through my employee handbook to see what it would be like to work then.
There are a few occasions when you would get paid time and a half, or 1.5 times as much as usual. First is overtime, so when you work over 8 hours a day or 40 hours a week. The other is on holidays.
During the entire holiday season, most employers won’t pay any more than usual. This means that, despite their being a larger demand for labor, the price doesn’t change much. When the demand curve shifts to the right, so does the supply curve. The people who aren’t working at the store also want a job, even if it doesn’t pay that well. The fact is, during the holidays, the price of living for most increases, because of gifts, food, warm clothes, and heating bills. This means people want a job more than ever, so the price of labor stays constant.
That’s true for the holiday season but, on the holidays themselves, the story changes. Most workers are less willing to work, so the supply curve moves left. Usually the demand curve the day before would shift right, as people are buying last minute gifts and food. The day of, it is usually too late to go shopping, so the demand curve for products in stores and, therefore, store employees, also moves left. Usually, the supply decreases more, so the price still increases, which is why many stores would offer time and a half on holidays.
If your employer is making you work on black friday, you might hate them for it. This isn’t good for your employer either: it is in their best interest to maintain a good relationship with their labor force. In order to do so, some companies offer time and a half or even double pay all through the holidays. Some companies have decided to give their employees Thanksgiving off. REI did so as well. It has has been one of Fortune’s “100 Best Companies to work for” for 20 years now. This year it is also paying its employees to take Black Friday off. This means they will lose revenue in sales but, to the company, it could be worth it. They will still be selling their products online, balancing out some of their losses, and will maintain a good relationship with their supplier of labor: the employees.
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/are-you-being-paid-fairly-for-the-holidays/
I like how your post discussed something that doesn't often get talked about, how its in an employers best interest to keep their employees happy. It makes sense that they wouldn't want to make the people supplying the labor not want to work for them. Are any other companies beside REI giving their employees time off, and does the good press they get from doing that balance out the losses of closing on holidays?
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