Do you offer any kind of retirement savings program for your employees?
| Yes | 54.4% |
| No | 45.6% |
| If so, detail all that apply: | |
| 401(k) | 46% |
| Profit sharing | 25% |
| IRA | 25% |
| Pension | 9.7% |
| Stock purchase plan | 1.6% |
| Simplified employee pension | 3.2% |
What limits, if any, do you place on participation?
| Must work for designated period of time to be eligible to join | 81.2% |
| Three months | 12.6% |
| Six months | 13.7% |
| One year | 41.1% |
| 1½ years | 1% |
| Two years | 10.5% |
| Three years | 7.4% |
| Five years | 1% |
Offered to full-time employees only: 63.3%
What percentage of your employees participate?: 90% (median response)
Offered only to certain levels of employees (i.e., management, sales, etc.): 4.3%
| Source: September 2003 JCK Monthly Retail Panel with a 36% response rate—236 responses were received out of 683 sent; the universe of fine jewelers in the U.S. is 25,000, according to the Jewelers’ Board of Trade. | |
| Must work for designated period of time to become vested | 47.9% |
| Six months | 3.6% |
| One year | 8.9% |
| Two years | 8.9% |
| Three years | 17.9% |
| Five years | 28.6% |
| Six years | 3.6% |
| Seven years | 5.4% |
| 10 years | 1.8% |
Employee-Free Stores
More jewelers are running stores without hired help. According to U.S. Census Bureau Nonemployer Statistics* (data on businesses that operate without payroll and are subject to federal tax) there has been a small but consistent rise in the number of jewelry-only stores that fall into the “no employee” category. In 1999, 23,175 jewelry-only nonemployer shops existed; that figure rose to 23,301 the following year, and grew to 24,291 in 2001.
* To be counted among the nonemployer ranks, stores must have no paid employment or payroll, have receipts of $1,000 or more, according to the government.
| Type of Jewelry-only Store | Number | Receipts |
| Source: U.S. Census Bureau | ||
| 1999 Nonemployer Statistics | ||
| Individual proprietorships | 20,406 | $1,092,940 |
| Corporations | 1,893 | $218,412 |
| Partnerships | 876 | $94,593 |
| Total | 23,175 | $1,405,945 |
| 2000 Nonemployer Statistics | ||
| Individual proprietorships | 20,577 | $1,099,268 |
| Corporations | 1,895 | $227,120 |
| Partnerships | 829 | $89,703 |
| Total | 23,301 | $1,416,091 |
| 2001 Nonemployer Statistics | ||
| Individual proprietorships | 21,305 | $1,074,278 |
| Corporations | 2,081 | $250,850 |
| Partnerships | 905 | $93,981 |
| Total | 24,291 | $1,419,109 |
These jewelry stores reveal a growing and important segment—the self-employed. With 28,336 jewelry-only businesses in the United States, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent figures (from 1997), nonemployers account for the bulk of jewelry-only businesses in operation.
The nonemployer trend isn’t exclusive to jewelry: In 1992, some 14 million nonemployer retail establishments existed in the United States, and five years later that number had risen to 17 million.
However, nonemployers account for only a fraction of jewelry sales in this country. In 2001, receipts for this group totaled slightly more than $1.4 billion, while sales at jewelry-only establishments with paid employees was $22.8 billion.