Employee Appreciation Day 2025 in the United States

Bosses across the United States have the chance to support, thank and reward workers on Employee Appreciation Day on the first Friday in March.

Is Employee Appreciation Day a Public Holiday?

Employee Appreciation Day is not a public holiday. Businesses have normal opening hours.

Appreciate your staff

Employee Appreciation Day is a non-official day and there's no real authority on what needs to be done, but if you're a boss and want to show your team just how much you appreciate them, you could try out some of these ideas:

• Treat your staff to breakfast, lunch or snacks.
• Host an office party or an after-work get-together for your staff.
• Give workers some of the day off.
• Organize an outdoor team building exercise, like a tug-of-war or an fun office quiz.
• Take fun pictures and post them on the company social media pages to show the world just how much you care!

What’s Open or Closed?

Good people are hard to find

Known in the US as the "Guru of Thank You", Dr. Bob Nelson, a founding member of the Recognition Professionals International (RPI) (previously NAER- National Association for Employee Recognition), had the honor of kick starting the first Employee Appreciation Day in 1995.

Training new staff is costly, and employers use all manners of techniques to boost worker morale and help retain employees and their valuable expertise. Employee Recognition is a large industry in its own right, and there are university studies dedicated to organizational behavior all over the world.

While we diligently research and update our holiday dates, some of the information in the table above may be preliminary. If you find an error, please let us know.