President Biden’s signing of a bill making Juneteenth National Independence Day the latest federal holiday Thursday has left federal agencies and private companies scrambling to offer the day off for employees.
The bill establishes June 19 as the holiday. Since that falls on a Saturday this year, federal employees are getting Friday off.
As for companies, Nike will close its retail stores and distribution centers Saturday.
Other corporations, like Target, Starbucks and T-Mobile, will stay open. But they will offer holiday pay to their employees.
Since private companies are not required to honor federal holidays, the decision to take holidays off or offer holiday pay is up to each individual company.
For more on the history of Juneteenth, check out Jimmie Johnson’s story here.
