We tend to forget the last time we had serious discussion and change of laws in regards to the Employee-Employer relationship was when the New Deal wa New. We have NOT addressed the issue since, even through almost all retails stores are now open not only Sundays, but the Major Holidays of Thanksgiving and Christmas (I would include Easter, but that comes under the end of Sunday Closings).
Some things HAD to be opened on Sunday and starting in the 1960s the Courts started to use that fact to say it was a violation of Equal Protection of the laws to require most businesses to be closed while other businesses could be open. The States went through the motions of defending their laws on Sunday Closings, but then refused to pass any law on how to enforce such laws except when the State wanted to enforce them (and the State then decided not to enforce them).
Side note: Most states still have their "Blue Laws" on the books, they are just not enforced, either by court order as violation of Equal Protection by the Decision of the GOvernor and State Attorney General NOT to enforce them.
Thus there has been NO discussion on how such Sunday and Holiday openings has affected low income families (the Families most likely to be force by their employer to work on those days). The affect has been hard for it is hard to maintain a relationship when members of a family are like ships passing in the night, i.e. they all live in the same house, they all know each other, but each gets up at a different time and go to bed a different time and have very little time together to interact as a family on a weekly basis. The famous observation was the healthiest and most intact families are those that eat the most meals together. If such getting together start to fall to less then once a week, you see the family slowly fall apart. It is no one.s fault, the various members end up going their own way (I should NOT say it is no one's fault, it is our fault as a society by NOT giving them the time or opportunity to remain a family and that is one of the results of Sunday and Holiday openings).
This needs to be discussed, but when it is discussed people scream "what about emergency workers" or other people who have to work on Sunday. The answer has always been, most emergency workers, including doctors and nurses, tend NOT to be low paid minimum wage employees. Such high paid employees have the power, to to their pay and position, to make sure they get to meet the other members of their families other then in brief periods. As to lower wage workers who have to work with them, exceptions can be made, but I offer a better solution, but one that businesses will hate.
The best solution is to say that anyone who works on a Federal Holiday (for starters, Sundays can be added later if this is found to work, but I would try to add Sundays from day one) must be paid at least three times the minimum wage. A rule can be added that is someone is earning on an annual basis 2080 times the minimum wage it is assumed they are NOT covered under that act, but if under that amount the rule must be used.
Sidenote: 2080 hours is what a person works in a year working 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. Minimum wage today is $14,872. Three times that number is $44,616. Doctors and most Nurses earn more then that so it would NOT affect them. Other emergency workers earning less then that in my opinion should be earning at least $44,616 and if they are NOT what would be the objection to increasing their pay?
Sorry, when the rest of the industrialized world adopted pay holidays for their workers, many did NOT close down on Sundays (We have letters from Germans living in the US during the late 1800s telling their relatives who were moving to the US of the fact stores were closed on Sunday as something that was different in the US from Germany). Many had Universal Military Service (again starting with Germany). In such countries they told employers they had to pay their employees while they were on military duty, thus adding day offs to that requirement was NOT a big step.
Side Note: In Germany from the Napoleonic War till the 1990s, the joke was was every adult male was in the Army, but on leave for 11 months of the year. Thus employers were use to paying employees for days they were NOT working and the addition of paid days off for holidays was a minor additional cost.
While these countries did NOT close down on Sunday as much as the US did, they did have other protections for low income families. Back to Germany, where strong Unions AND a strong Union based party existed to fight for the rights of low income people (Surprisingly supported by the Army, for a Soldier worried about his family back home was a lousy soldier in the field, so the Army had to make sure the Soldiers knew they families were being taken care of, including making sure they could keep the housing they were in). This same concern hit the US Army during WWII and forced the US to have most cities adopt Rent Control laws so soldiers wives and children would NOT be kicked out of their home do to the loss of income of the Soldier AND the increase demand for rental homes do to the massive expansion of industrial production in the US.
I am sorry, looking at how the States are NOT willing to enforce their own Blue Laws and the inability of anyone else to have standing to do so, the best solution would be an increase in the Minimum wage for workers on those days. If employers really want those employees to work, Employers would pay and that would compensate many low income families for the lost of time in being able to interact. For those businesses where opening an extra day would cost to much, then leave them close down, most people can wait 24 hours for most items (and most people can PLAN 24 hours ahead for the items they can not get in the day the store is closed).
The US did not address paid holidays in the 1930s for the stores were CLOSED on those days thus NOT a problem. It is only since the 1970s have stores fought to be open on Sundays and Holidays. I am old enough to remember those days, yes it cause some problems, but it was a problem people did live with (I remember my father driving on US 40 from Maryland into Pennsylvania trying to find an open Gas Station on a Sunday, think about it, Gas stations NOT open 24/7 as almost all of them are now, back then some were open, most were not and all of this was the days BEFORE Self Service Gas Stations).
Yes, closing on Sunday can bring Hardship, but with self service gas stations that can be unmanned, is there a non-emergency business that we can do without for a 24 hour period? If there are a business we need, would they close down rather then pay their employees $21 an hour for work only on that day?
I am sorry, the costs of NOT having time set aside for people to interact with their fellow family members is harmful. In theory we could pick any day of the week, but Sunday would end up being the best choice for a lot of people are closed that day anyway. In Theory we could request that employers permit their employees days off with their spouses, but that requires two employers to interact for many refuse to hire spouses of present employees, and may the do permit such hiring, rarely do it for the spouse has another job with another employer. Giving an Employee the RIGHT to pick a day of the week he or she can be off, with the employer having NO power to reject that offer could provide that ability to be with your spouse and children, but is that a better solution then triple pay?
Remember, Children go to school Monday through Friday and for that reason that has remain the "Work Week" for most people. I do a lot of Custody and Visitation Work, and we end up doing every other weekend with each parent do to the need to work around the School Week. Certain high paying jobs tend NOT to be problem when the parent works on a weekend, but when it comes to low paying jobs it is often an headache for one and sometimes both parents work the weekends and thus how do you set up a visitation Schedule where both parents can interact with the children? Sunday triple pay would keep most low income people from working on Sunday and thus a good day for Visitation with the non-custodial parent. As to higher paid parents, the main reason they are higher paid is the skills or need for their services and employers are more willing to work around the needs of the higher paid employee's family then they are for lower income people (Work the weekend or be fired, and if fired for refusing to work the weekend be denied unemployment for refusing to follow an employer's rule for times of employment).
Sorry, every time I review holiday and Sunday Closings, I end up endorsing triple Minimum wage for such days. Other than that you end up with laws, like the ones on the books today, dead letters for only the State can enforce them and the State is unwilling to do so. With triple pay you have the employee wanting the extra money, and if he or she is ever terminated, they could sue for the triple pay if never paid (And the employee has the right to sue for that pay under existing law, even if still an employee AND if terminated at that point can maintain it was a retaliatory termination relating to paying the lawful minimum wage and grounds to be award damages for the unlawful termination of employment).
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