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Employer dress codes: the 2009 survey

IRS research looks at the benefits and drawbacks of setting dress and appearance standards at work, gets to the bottom of what smart casual actually means, and looks at the extent to which employers allow religious attire. 

Key points

  • The 2009 IRS dress code survey finds that half of the respondents with dress codes take a regulatory approach, linking it to the employment contract.
  • Overall, dress codes are twice as likely to be smart casual compared with formal business attire; private sector services companies, however, are almost twice as likely to enforce formal business attire compared with the manufacturing and production sector or the public sector.