Are American workers getting enough vacation?
Definitely not. It’s pretty amazing when we compare the vacation time Americans get with folks in other countries — and even poorer countries. In most industrial countries, people get a minimum of four weeks paid off.
How much time do most American workers get?
The average is roughly 12 or 13 days, and they take about nine. The median is more like eight or nine days and they take five or six. And when you look at low-income workers, roughly a third get no paid vacation time at all. The US is one of only five countries in the United Nations that does not have a law mandating paid vacation. The other four are Suriname, Guyana, Nepal and Burma.
Why is that?
Vacation time is just kind of written off in the United States. When (Rep.) Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) last year proposed a very modest, one-week paid vacation law, the blogosphere lit up with people saying, “He’s trying to make America 21st-century France. This is the end of Western civilization as we know it.”
What should be done?
The first thing we need is something of a national conversation about the value of this. I think people still somehow think vacation is a lark, is a luxury. In fact, all the studies show that people who don’t regularly get vacation time are more likely to suffer from heart disease, from high blood pressure, from depression. They are less active overall in the workplace.
Secondly, I do think we need some legislative mandate. I’m not asking for European standards, just something that says nobody in this rich country ought to be completely deprived of some paid time off.