I agree with you on all this, but in this case, the OP wasn’t protesting on religious grounds, it was ‘pity the poor minimum wage workers who have to leave home and not be able to spend the day with their families.’ I think that some workers have to work under duress, but many like the extra money, though of course not all jobs pay time-and-a-half or double-time. There are many ways someone can celebrate Christmas and anything can be worked around.
I’m not completely unfeeling toward minimum wage workers having to work on a day they’d rather be home, but to me Christmas is just another day. It has no significance other than having lots of pretty lights to look at. I can’t get all that worked up about it, especially since I know that they’re getting paid. Besides, lots of people have to work on days they’d rather not. Someone might be working on their birthday June 17 and bitching under their breath about me and others standing in line to buy movie tickets. I’m all for worker’s rights and labor laws, but Christmas is a religion-based holiday (a bogus one at that, considering that the human named Jesus, if he existed, was not actually born on that date) and I just don’t care if someone has to work that day. I’ve done it, and gone to the movies before or after work.
My concession to those working on a day they might or might not rather be home is that I’m extra-special nice and undemanding, and in restaurants I always tip big.
I don’t think it should be a law or anything, but I think it’s basic human decency to make an effort to give your employees the choice to spend major holidays with their family if they like and it is possible.
I have a kid here who helps me around the house, and I’d never dream of asking him to come in on the major holidays here. I don’t see why I would want to act any differently if I was the owner of a restaurant or video store or whatever.
The biggest difference I can see is that if you’re running a service-sector business that can take advantage of vacationing and spend-happy people, it would be foolish for you not to jump on this opportunity.
I’m all about spreading around the largess you accumulate with your employees, so that they benefit too.
There are reasons besides religious one to close on a holiday. In my industry, nothing goes on on Christmas day. Hardly anything goes on at all between Christmas and New Years. I usually get a chance to file old papers those days. It would make no business sense for my employer to be open on Christmas day. Should they be required to pay employees 8 hours of standard pay, because that employee choices to come into the office? Shoud they pay any employee who decides to come in on a weekend, even if the office is closed? It’s their office, they will close when they want to, and not if they don’t.