What's Happening?
Asset management firms Invesco and HarbourVest recently announced their employees would have Juneteenth off, according to a report from Fundfire.com. This will be the first year Invesco observes Juneteenth as a holiday, and the firm's president and CEO, Marty Flanagan, told FundFire that plans are to continue the company holiday into the future.
HarbourVest Partners announced it is to close for Juneteenth, as well, according to FundFire. The private equity firm has made the observance a global holiday for its employees.
Other firms, such as Northern Trust, will close its U.S. offices early in observance of Juneteenth. J.P. Morgan Chase, including its J.P. Morgan Asset Management arm, is closing its U.S. offices at 1 p.m. Similar plans were announced by U.S. Bancorp, Capital One Financial, Comerica, PNC Financial Services Group and Banco Santander, Bloomberg announced.
Financial firms aren't the only ones announcing plans to observe Juneteenth as company holidays. Lyft, Square, Postmates, Vox Media, Target, the NFL, and Nike are giving employees time off, according to Employee Benefit News. A website hosted Hella Creative, a collective group, lists 400 companies that have publicly committed to observing Juneteenth.
AllianceBernstein is not closing on June 19, but it celebrated the observance in partnership with other organizations during an online event held on June 17 and 18. James Thompson, the firm's head of diverse markets strategy, represented the firm in a Juneteenth speaker series, "Moving Beyond Discussion to Action," which was broadcast live on YouTube.
> WATCH THE EVENT: Moving Beyond Discussion to Action - Day 1.
> WATCH THE EVENT: Moving Beyond Discussion to Action - Day 2.
On June 16, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo signed an executive order to give state employees Juneteenth as a paid day off, according to CBS News. Efforts are underway to make the day an official state holiday starting next year.
Juneteenth's Texas Roots
Many Texans are already familiar with Juneteenth. It is an official Texas state holiday commemorating Union army general Gordon Granger's reading of federal orders in Galveston on June 19, 1865, proclaiming all slaves in Texas were free.
It took nearly two and a half years for the federal orders to reach Texas, as the Emancipation Proclamation had formally freed slaves on Jan. 1, 1863. Texas was the most remote of the slave states and had a low presence of Union troops. The first celebrations date to 1866, but the observance spread to other Southern states by the 1920s and '30s. Texas officially recognized the date in 1980. For many, Juneteenth is considered America's second Independence Day.
What This Means For Public Pension Plans
Administrators of public pension systems may receive requests for time off. In the wake of ongoing worldwide marches for equality, organizations such as Hella Creative are campaigning for Juneteenth to become a national holiday. A site run by the collective, HellaJuneteenth.com, offers ways employees can request time off and maintains a list of companies that have agreed to observe the holiday.
Some employers see participating in the observance as a chance to be more responsive to their diverse groups of employees. Some companies have turned to Twitter using the hashtag #hellajuneteenth to announce their plans to provide their employees with time off.
In some announcements, employers have encouraged their employees to use the time to support black-owned businesses, recommit to diversity, reflect on equality, and get involved in anti-racism education.
Tell Us What Your System is Doing
Is your pension fund offering time off to employees for Juneteenth or celebrating the state observance in another way? Tell us in the comments section below.
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