Increasing Awareness

Why is America the No-Vacation Nation?

employers in the United States are not obligated under federal law to offer any paid vacation, so about a quarter of all American workers don’t have access to it … That makes the U.S. the only advanced nation in the world that doesn’t guarantee its workers annual leave”.

Even when Rep. Alan Grayson introduced the Paid Vacation Act of 2009, which called for employers to provide just one week of paid annual leave to employees, it was quickly turned down with opponents noting it would, as CNN reported, “have a negative impact on business and that the government shouldn’t get involved in the workplace in this way.”

It’s an interesting point to ponder. It’s almost akin to the minimum wage laws enacted forever ago. Minimum wage is now considered a basic right. Some argue that minimum wage reduces employment because if wages were lower companies could afford to hire more workers in some cases, and that may well be true.

I’m not 100% convinced that it really makes sense to advocate a guaranteed amount of vacation time, but I do think it pays to raise awareness of this issue because I think life is about living more than it is about working and making a buck, and I actually think that Europe is healthier than the United States in this regard.