While government workers typically have more paid holidays off than private industry workers, many county and city employees in the Mahoning Valley are granted more than the average.

The state of Ohio guarantees state, township and county employees 10 paid holidays off but allows other types of communities like cities to set their own holiday schedules.

Collective-bargaining unit contracts often decide how many and which holidays employees don’t have to work and still get paid, or earn extra holiday pay if they do work.

Private industry employers do not have to offer paid holidays to their employees, but about 77 percent of employers do. Private industry workers have an average of eight paid holidays, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

The state requires holiday pay or paid time off for state, county, township and school employees on federal holidays: New Year’s Day, Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Presidents’ Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day / Indigenous Peoples Day, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Paid holidays worked cost employers an average of 77 cents per employee per hour of work, but cost state and local government workers about $1.14 per hour, according to 2020 figures provided by the bureau. That amounts to about 2.1 percent of employee compensation.

Four Valley governments’ employees receive more than the private industry and more than the 10 federal holidays.

LOCAL COMMUNITIES

Trumbull County employees receive 12.5 paid holidays, Warren employees receive 12, Youngstown, 11, and most Mahoning County employees have 12.

In Trumbull County, in addition to the 10 federal holidays, employees also have off Christmas Eve, the day after Thanksgiving and a half day off on New Year’s Eve.

In Warren, although the bargaining units all have 12 paid days off per year, the days differ somewhat between union contracts. In addition to the 10 federal holidays, the police officers’ paid holidays include the day after Thanksgiving and May 15, Police Memorial Day. Warren firefighters have the day after Thanksgiving and Sept. 11. The city’s other union members and nonunion employees have the 10 federal days off, along with Christmas Eve and the day after Thanksgiving.

Youngstown employees have the 10 federal holidays and an extra holiday. The firefighters take the day off on Christmas Eve, water department employees take it on the day after Thanksgiving and each 911 center employee takes the holiday on his / her birthday.

The majority of Mahoning County employees have 12 paid holidays days off, adding the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve to the list of federal holidays. But employees in the dog warden and clerk of court departments receive the 10 federal holidays. The sheriff’s office employees have the 10 paid holidays, along with a half day on Christmas Eve and the day after Thanksgiving.

EXTRA DAYS

“Among civilian workers who received paid holidays, 28 percent received Christmas Eve as a paid holiday, along with 26 percent of private industry workers and 45 percent of state and local government workers,” the BLS data from 2018 states.

In the Northeast, 33 percent of government workers have Christmas Eve off as a paid holiday, compared to 52 percent of those in the South, 49 percent in the Midwest and 39 percent in the West.

Nineteen percent of private industry employees in the Northeast have Christmas Eve as a paid holiday, 26 percent in the South, 34 percent in the Midwest and 22 percent in the West.

Just 18 percent of people in the service industry receive the day off with pay, according to the BLS.

It isn’t unusual for government employees in the U.S. to receive the day after Thanksgiving as a paid holiday.

“Among civilian workers who received paid holidays, 43 percent received the day after Thanksgiving as a paid holiday, with 39 percent of private industry workers and 69 percent of state and local government workers receiving the holiday,” according to the BLS.

Regionally, 77 percent of government workers in the South have the paid day off, compared to 47 percent in the Northeast, 65 percent in the Midwest and 74 percent in the West.

In the West, 41 percent of private industry employees have the day off, while 37 percent in the Midwest, 38 percent in the South and 39 percent in the Northeast do.

Twenty-one percent of service workers have the day after Thanksgiving as a paid holiday.

The New Year’s Eve holiday is a paid day off for 20 percent of government workers in the country and for 14 percent of private industry employees. Regionally, government employees in the Midwest most frequently have the paid holiday, compared to 14 percent in the South, 23 percent in the Northeast and 22 percent in the West. In private industry, 21 percent of workers in the Midwest, 14 percent in the West, 12 percent in the Northeast and 10 percent in the South have the paid day off.