For Most Firms, Business as Usual on Martin Luther King Holiday

More than 16 years after being declared a national holiday, Martin Luther King Day remains business as usual for millions of Americans.

Unlike the long-established Christmas, Thanksgiving or even Labor Day, King’s holiday is a work day for most of the country. Unless you’re a student, banker or government employee, chances are you’re expected to be on the job Monday. No sleeping in. No marching in a parade. No picnics in the park.

The federal government, as well as all states and many municipalities, has designated Monday a holiday honoring the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., the civil rights leader who advocated change through nonviolent action and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

Most of corporate America, however, has not followed suit.

Only 23% of the nation’s businesses are giving their workers the day off with pay this year, down from 25% in 1999, according to a national study of 413 private and public organizations by BNA Inc., a Washington-based business news publisher. Union workers are twice as likely to have the holiday off as nonunion personnel, the survey found.

California companies appear even less generous, with fewer than 14% designating Martin Luther King Day a paid holiday, according to a survey of mostly small and mid-sized firms by Employers Group, a Los Angeles-based nonprofit human resources association. By contrast, about 90% of the firms plan to give employees paid holidays on Memorial and Labor days. Even Presidents Day, which is celebrated Feb. 21, will be observed by more than half the businesses.

“One would think that Martin Luther King’s contributions to the world would have earned him much more reverence, respect and appreciation,” said Geraldine R. Washington, president of the Los Angeles branch of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People. “It’s troubling.”

Robert Vickers, spokesman for the Martin Luther King Jr. Center for Nonviolent Social Change, based in Atlanta, questioned the surveys’ accuracy. “As companies are becoming more diverse, we think that is being reflected with an increase in the number of them observing the holiday.”

The King center has no data on the issue, Vickers said.

To be sure, some firms are bucking the trend and embracing Martin Luther King Day for the first time, including Metropolitan Life Insurance Co.

New York-based Met Life decided to declare Monday a holiday for its 40,000 employees, in part because many other financial services companies already were doing so, spokesman John Calagna said.

The New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and Nasdaq began observing the holiday in 1998 and will all be closed Monday, as will the University of California, California State University and public schools. Still, the King Day observance remains a low priority for most companies.

Wet Seal Inc., a Foothill Ranch-based women’s apparel retailer, is keeping both its corporate offices and stores open Monday. Giving workers the day off to commemorate King Day “has never been brought up,” Chief Financial Officer Ann Cadier Kim said.

Citing competitive pressures, Kingston Technology Co. in Fountain Valley said it chooses not to celebrate the holiday.

“We’re staying open because we’re an international company that sells to places like Ireland and Taiwan,” said Heather Jardim of Kingston, a $1.4-billion computer memory maker. “The whole world doesn’t stop business on Martin Luther King Day.”

Kingston has eight paid holidays, including Presidents Day, Thanksgiving and the day after Thanksgiving.

Several of the Southland’s biggest nongovernmental employers will keep their doors open Monday, including engineering and construction giant Fluor Corp. of Aliso Viejo, Walt Disney Co. in Burbank, health-maintenance company Kaiser Permanente and grocery chain Ralphs Grocery Co.

“People purchase groceries all the time,” Ralphs spokesman Terry O’Neil said.

Many African Americans will take the day off whether or not their companies observe the holiday, said Aubry Stone, president of the California Black Chamber of Commerce in Sacramento.

“People of color, especially African Americans, will take a vacation or sick day to attend the various parades, conferences and celebrations that are going on around the state,” he said.

Rather than giving employees a day off, some companies have chosen other ways to honor King. Hughes Electronics Corp. in El Segundo has planned several events for employees, including documentaries on the slain civil rights leader’s life and seminars on the civil rights movement, said T. Warren Jackson, a vice president of diversity at Hughes.

“My sense is that businesses are sponsoring more events to acknowledge him,” said Rev. Norman Johnson of the local chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, the civil rights organization King co-founded in 1957. More businesses than ever are requesting SCLC speakers to talk about King and his legacy, he said.

Despite the business community’s tepid response, Martin Luther King Day maintains a dignity that some national holidays may have lost, said U.S. Rep. John Conyers (D-Mich.), who in 1968 introduced legislation to declare a holiday commemorating King.

“At least it hasn’t deteriorated into a day of department store sales,” Conyers said.

Times staff writers Indraneel Sur, Leslie Earnest and E. Scott Reckard contributed to this story.