Is it the same as National Hotel Employee Day?

No, they are two different days. The hotel industry trade association created its own observance for September 1, and the United Kingdom keeps a third, National Hospitality Day, on the third or fourth Friday in September.

Who created National Hospitality Workers Appreciation Day?

Listings usually credit the online food supplier Food Service Direct, but the company's own page about the day claims no authorship and simply offers ways to celebrate it. No founder or establishment record has been located.

Why is it on February 23?

February 23 was in use before anyone wrote the day down, and its oldest surviving capture in the Internet Archive is a listing from that date in 2022. No source explains why the date was chosen.

National Hospitality Workers Appreciation Day

Next celebratedTuesday, February 23, 2027

Hospitality shed 8.17 million US jobs in the two months after February 2020 and needed more than five years to regain them. February 23 asks the industry to thank the people staffing its kitchens, dining rooms and front desks.

See how to celebrate

Countdown to the day

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Last updated September 7, 2026 · by the Holiday Calendar TeamHave an update or spot an error?

YEARLY DATEFebruary 23

OBSERVED INUnited States

CATEGORYCareers

SUBCATEGORYHospitality

ORIGIN

Community Origin

FOUNDING ENTITY

Not documented

FIRST OBSERVED

Not documented

HOW THE HOLIDAY CAME TO BE

The credited company never claimed the day.

No founder or establishment record has been located for National Hospitality Workers Appreciation Day. The online food supplier usually credited with it published one page about the day in March 2022, which offers ways to celebrate an observance it treats as already existing and claims no authorship.

Read the archived 2022 postvia web.archive.org

INTRO

Everything about these workers is counted except their day

The federal government knows a great deal about the people National Hospitality Workers Appreciation Day exists to thank. It counts them by occupation and prices their hour to the cent. Search the Federal Register for the day itself and it returns nothing at all.

No source gives this day a founding year either.

Its oldest trace in the Internet Archive is a listing captured on February 23, 2022, the observance date itself. That fixes a floor on when the day was already circulating, not a moment when anyone started it.

It is also easy to confuse with a similarly named day. National Hotel Employee Day falls on September 1 and covers hotel staff only. This one arrives each year with a workforce, a purpose and no paperwork.

ORIGINS

Hospitality Workers Appreciation Day history

INTRODUCTION

In 1966 Congress wrote a discount into the minimum wage. The amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act created the tip credit, which lets an employer count part of a worker's tips toward the wage it owes.

For the next three decades that share tracked the minimum wage, set as a percentage of it. The 1996 amendments changed the mechanism. Congress fixed the employer's cash obligation as a flat dollar figure instead, and the Labor Department's table carried the same figure in 2003 as it does today.

CHAPTER 01

The two months that emptied the dining rooms

Then came February 2020. Leisure and hospitality payrolls stood at 16,889,000 that month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. By April they stood at 8,719,000.

That is 8.17 million jobs gone in two months. It was 48 percent of the sector.

The monthly series begins in January 1939. Outside the 2020 window, its deepest two-month fall in all that time is 3.95 percent.

Coming back took far longer than going down. Payrolls did not reach the February 2020 level again until September 2025, 67 months later.

CHAPTER 02

How a documented day gets made

Rewind to the middle of that recovery. On September 1, 2022 the American Hotel and Lodging Association announced that it had established that date as National Hotel Employee Day and entered it in a day registry.

The release is dated, the registry is named, and the association's president is quoted in it. That is one corner of the industry documenting its own observance properly. February 23 was already circulating in the same stretch of years, with none of that behind it.

CHAPTER 03

Who keeps February 23

No organization or campaign that runs the day has been found. Employers keep it anyway, one at a time.

In Oregon, the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians marked it for the staff of Chinook Winds Casino Resort, the largest employer in Lincoln County with over 1,000 people on its books. That is what an undocumented observance looks like when it works.

WHY THIS DAY MATTERS

Why National Hospitality Workers Appreciation Day Matters

PAY

Twenty-two occupation groups ranked by pay. This one is last.

Of the major occupational groups the Bureau of Labor Statistics tracks, food preparation and serving pays the least, at a median of $16.85 an hour. Management, at the top of the same table, has a median of $60.83.

TIPS

The employer's share can stop at $2.13

Federal law lets an employer pay a tipped worker a cash wage of $2.13 an hour. The worker's own tips may then be counted toward as much as 71 percent of the federal minimum.

TURNOVER

Workers leave at nearly twice the national rate

In July 2026 hospitality workers quit at a monthly rate of 3.4 percent. Across all US employment that month the figure was 1.9 percent.

BY THE NUMBERS

National Hospitality Workers Appreciation Day by the Numbers

13.7M: US food prep and serving jobs
$23.63: Hospitality hourly pay, July 2026
$37.62: All-private hourly pay, July 2026
8: US jurisdictions with no tip credit

GET INVOLVED

How to Observe National Hospitality Workers Appreciation Day

Write the note by hand

The list published by the company usually credited with this day opens with a handwritten thank-you rather than a group email. It is addressed to one person instead of a department.

STOCK

Stock the break room for more than one day

Buying staff favorites in bulk is another idea on that list. A break room still stocked in March carries the point further than a single tray.

FUND

Fund a training session inside paid hours

Continuing education and career development appear there too, as a way to mark the day that outlasts it. Booking the session on the clock makes it available to more of the team.

OFFER

Offer an extra paid day off

The same list suggests giving staff an additional paid holiday of their own choosing. A date picked by the worker is worth more than one picked for them.

READ

Read what the federal tip rules actually allow

The Labor Department publishes a state-by-state table of what a tipped employee must be paid in cash before tips. Its current edition shows the federal figure and which jurisdictions refuse to allow a tip credit at all.

Test your knowledge

How well do you know National Hospitality Workers Appreciation?

1 / 8

The Bureau of Labor Statistics sorts every US job into 22 major occupational groups. Where does food preparation and serving rank by pay?

Answer

No. It is an unofficial observance rather than a public holiday, so February 23 is a normal working day, and a search of the Federal Register returns no document carrying its name.

COLOPHON

Sources

How we know what’s on this page. References, not endorsements.

10sources

8primary records

6independently dated

Primary records

Food Service Direct (via Internet Archive)2022-03-17

National Hospitality Workers Appreciation Day

The only page about February 23 in the Internet Archive's record of the company usually credited with founding it. Dated 17 March 2022, it lists ways to celebrate an observance it treats as already established and never claims authorship. Cited through the archive because the live subdomain now serves a mismatched security certificate.

View source

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics2026-05-15

Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, national Table 1, May 2025

Employment and wages for all 22 major occupational groups and for individual hospitality occupations, showing food preparation and serving as the lowest paid group on both median hourly and mean annual pay.

View source

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Current Employment Statistics

Monthly leisure and hospitality payroll employment and average hourly earnings, the source of the February to April 2020 collapse, the September 2025 recovery month, and the comparison with private sector pay.

View source

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics

Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey

Monthly quit rates by industry, the source of the 3.4 percent leisure and hospitality figure against 1.9 percent for total nonfarm employment.

View source

U.S. Department of Labor, Wage and Hour Division2026-07-01

Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees

The current federal floor for tipped work, a $7.25 combined minimum with a maximum tip credit of $5.12 and a minimum cash wage of $2.13, plus every state rule and the jurisdictions that allow no tip credit at all.

View source

Congressional Research Service2015-03-19

The Tip Credit Provisions of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA): In Brief

The legislative history of the tip credit, including the 1966 amendment that created it, the 1996 amendment that converted the employer's obligation from a percentage into a flat dollar amount, and the resulting split between the required cash wage and the maximum credit an employer may take from tips.

View source

Federal Register, National Archives

Documents API search for Hospitality Workers Appreciation Day

The phrase appears in zero Federal Register documents, so no presidential proclamation or federal notice carries the day's name.

View source

American Hotel and Lodging Association2022-09-01

AHLA Establishes Sept. 1 As National Hotel Employee Day

The association's own announcement of a separate US hospitality observance on September 1, naming the registry it used, the inaugural date, and its president, alongside member survey figures on hotel staffing shortages.

View source

Additional coverage

Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians

Hospitality Workers Appreciation Day

A US employer marking February 23 for its own staff, and the source for Chinook Winds Casino Resort standing as the largest employer in Lincoln County, Oregon, with over 1,000 employees.

View source

Difford's Guide2023

National Hospitality Day

The separate United Kingdom observance held on the third or fourth Friday in September, begun in 2021 as a post-lockdown thank-you to pubs, bars, restaurants and hotels.

View source

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