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Key Takeaways
ARTICLE | The Employers’ Guide To Juneteenth
Juneteenth is coming up on June 19th, 2024 - Here’s what you need to know.
Juneteenth - a celebration and commemoration of the end of slavery in the US - is the latest holiday to join the esteemed ranks of the 10 other federal holidays that can be found on the US calendar.
As with all other federal holidays, private employers are not federally mandated to provide paid time off or any other accommodations for employees with regard to Juneteenth under the Fair Labor Standards Act or otherwise, but the scope of the holiday’s impact will extend well beyond government employees getting the day off work.
In terms of practical impacts, most government buildings will of course be closed including, post offices, public schools, and courts. Banks and financial markets will be closed, as well.
Further, 38 states so far have declared Juneteenth as a state holiday, so many state workers will be off-duty too, and more than a few cities and local governments have also passed Juneteenth-related ordinances to varying effect that may be worth looking into in your geographic area.
This year, June 19th will be a Wednesday - but for those who do/will offer PTO for Juneteenth and want to stay in line with the federal holiday schedule protocol in the event that June 19th falls on a weekend - if it’s a Saturday the holiday should be observed on the preceding Friday and if it’s a Sunday the holiday should be observed on the following Monday.
Perhaps most impactful will be the growing number of private businesses that are choosing to make Juneteenth a companywide holiday.
According to a study from Mercer, about 39% of private employers in the US had adopted Juneteenth as a paid holiday as of last year (2023 - the most recent data available), which is up by 6% over the 33% adoption rate reported in 2022.
In 2021 - the year that Juneteenth was declared a federal holiday - only 9% of private employers had adopted Juneteenth as a paid holiday, so while the rate of adoption has slowed over time, the upward trajectory almost certainly continues as more organizations get on board and time off for the Juneteenth holiday approaches the tipping point from normalized to expected.
In some industries, to be clear, that threshold from Juneteenth PTO normalization to expectation has already been crossed, such as in the financial services industry for example. In 2023, nearly 2 out of 3 employers in the financial services industry (63%) were already offering employees paid time off for the Juneteenth holiday.
How does Juneteenth PTO adoption among private employers stack up compared with PTO adoption for the other holidays, federal and otherwise? It is about middle of the pack, which is especially impressive given how recently it attained federal holiday status.
Prior to gaining federal holiday status in 2021, the PTO adoption rate for Juneteenth was less than half of the PTO adoption rate for President’s Day and Good Friday, both of which have been adopted as company holidays by about 19% of private employers. Juneteenth was even below Veteran’s Day and New Year’s day at 11% and 14%, respectively, according to Indeed.
After becoming an official federal holiday, however, and being adopted by an additional 30% of private employers in the 3 years following that status declaration, the number of private employers offering Juneteenth as a company holiday now likely exceeds the number of private employers who do so for the Day After Thanksgiving (~39% PTO adoption), Christmas Eve (26% PTO adoption), or Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (24% PTO adoption).
While Juneteenth still has a long way to go to reach private employer PTO adoption rates comparable to the heavy hitter holidays like Christmas Day, Thanksgiving Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, New Year’s Day, and Memorial Day - all of which have approximately 90% or more adoption across private employers - those kinds of adoption figures are not outside the realm of possibility if the labor market remains tight and leave/benefits become an increasingly competitive battlefield in the fight for top talent.
Despite being a recent addition to the federal holiday list, there is a long history and tradition surrounding the Juneteenth celebration stretching back nearly 160 years, and a closer look at that history will serve to encourage further the adoption of the holiday for reasons beyond talent attraction and retention.
While slaves in secessionist states were technically freed upon Lincoln’s issuance of the Emancipation Proclamation on January 1, 1863, it wasn’t until 2 and a half years later - and more than 2 months after the war had technically concluded - that the Union army finally secured the physical release of the last remaining slaves from a Confederate stronghold in Galveston Texas (on June 19, 1865) that the promise of the Emancipation Proclamation was finally fulfilled.
It is also worth noting that the last remaining slaves in the US were not actually freed until the 13th Amendment was ratified on December 6, 1865 since the Emancipation Proclamation only addressed the slaves in secessionist states and had not covered slaves in Kentucky and Delaware, neither of which had joined the Confederacy despite allowing legalized slavery within their borders.
By the end of 1865, all slaves had been freed in the US, and the following year on June 19th, 1866, the first ever Juneteenth holiday was celebrated to mark the significance of the occasion and memorialize the gravity of what had taken place the year (and the years) before.
With the growth we’ve seen over the last few years in the number of employers recognizing Juneteenth and offering employees paid time off, it is probable that the holiday has already reached critical mass at which point observation of the holiday and company-wide holiday status for Juneteenth is more likely to continue growing than to recede.
We are, however, still in the sweet spot when Juneteenth PTO is becoming commonplace but has not yet become a majority position among private employers (in most industries), so the window of opportunity to gain a competitive advantage as an early adopter is still open for most organizations and enterprises.
Whether or not commemorating an important date in American history coupled with forward-thinking talent attraction and retention tactics is enough motivation to consider expanding PTO-covered holidays to include Juneteenth, it would be wise to recognize these dynamics at play in terms of how they are likely to induce additional adoption in the years ahead.
The downside for late adopters, of course, is that instead of getting ahead of the competition while signifying the importance of the occasion and making a positive connection, they end up coming around anyway just to keep up with the competition even as the benefits for doing so yield increasingly diminished returns.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to call attention to the occasion and celebrate Juneteenth this year!
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