Thirty-one percent of employers are observing MLK Day as a paid holiday today, says a recent survey.
That figure, reported by a trade publisher, is about the same as in recent years but shows a significant increase over the two-decade holidays history.
Only 14 percent of employers observed the federal holiday in 1986, its first year, according to BNA, a publisher of government and business news.
Several factors make a firm more likely to observe the day: size (larger employers are more likely), the employment sector (manufacturers are less so) and union-status (unionized shops are more likely). CL does not include MLK Day among its paid holidays.