With sales totaling over $248 Billion in the last two months of 2012, retail store hours will rise in 2013. However, the workers may not be getting more pay for these extended hours, due to most of the workers not having worked enough to make overtime pay. Although some people have petitioned against major companies implementing working hours during holidays, most of their plight has received little to no attention.
Some retail stores, however, believe that holidays should be spent with family, not at work. Alan Au, VP of specialty clothing store Jimmy Au’s, stated:
“I’m against opening on Thanksgiving,” he said. “I think doing that against the wants of the employees also affects morale, even if you pay overtime. They are going to be disappointed they can’t be with family and possibly have customer service suffer because they don’t want to be there.”
Read more about Jimmy Au’s and other companies’ thoughts on the trend at ThePlainDealer