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The United States is the only developed country that does not guarantee by law paid vacation for full time workers.
That does not mean American workers do not get paid vacation. Statistics show that 77% of employees get paid vacation. How much paid vacation? An avg of 13 day a year. Not much when compared to Europe and Asia. When I worked in England I was guaranteed by law 28 days of holiday time. I work a similar job in the U.S and I get two weeks vacation but am forced to take it during the Christmas and New Years holiday, when we are slowest at work.
But I'm still one of the lucky ones in America. See that 77%? It only includes employees. The trend in American business has been for some time to hire workers as "independent contractors." This is happening in industries like health care,logistics, and IT. It's happening everywhere. Why is it happening? Because if you are hired as an independent contractor the company doesn't have to pay you overtime by law. And they won't be giving you paid vacation either. So that 77%? If you factor in all American full time workers it's probably closer to 65%. And that's a whole lot of American workers that are getting no paid vacation.
I think this is immoral. And I thought the reason I thought it was immoral was because I'm a liberal. But then I talked to my conservative friends in Britain and Australia, and guess what? They thought it was immoral too. Actually, they were much more angry about it than I was. As an American we're pretty much used to being overworked. They not only thought it was immoral. They thought it was really bad for business. Overworked employees that don't have a chance to re-charge their batteries in the long run are not efficient employees. This was their argument.
I have a friend who has been looking for a job for quite some time now. I recently phoned him up to ask how the search was going and he informed me that he had gotten a job at FedEx Home Delivery as a driver. My friend, who previously worked as an account manager and made a pretty good salary was perhaps over-qualified,or at least out of his element, but he has a family and needed any work he could get. I told him I was happy for him, that with FedEx he'll at least get benefits.
Well, I had really jumped the gun. He shot back instantly, "No benefits.No overtime pay. No paid vacation." I was pretty shocked. "Why not?" I asked. He replied that he was hired as an independent contractor. That even though some weeks he worked 55 hours, he was not given overtime pay, and that because he was an independent contractor he was not considered an employee and thus not given any benefits. So, my friend, who will work his tail off this year (if he stays for the year) will never get paid time off.
Many will consider this wrong. I do. But, there are some American conservatives that will say that no one is forcing people to work for companies that deny them time paid off. This is true, no one forced my friend to take this job. No one forced the woman who works in a hot factory making t shirts 50 hours a week. "Get a better job" will be the response from some. As if getting a better job would eliminate the problem of workers being denied vacation. Someone has to do the job. If my friend gets a better job his old job will be replaced by someone who will then be denied vacation, overtime pay etc. Is the "get a better job" argument even an argument? Or is it just schadenfreude?
So, here is my question. And as usual, I've gone on a bit of a chin-wag to get to it. Should the government guarantee that all workers be allowed a certain amount of paid vacation by law? And what should that amount be?
And if you don't believe that there should be laws requiring vacation time then please explain why. If you're argument is that government should leave business and people alone you should know that there are already laws on the books regarding overtime.
Considering that most Americans don't even use up all the vacation days they do have, i don't see this as a big deal.
I use all my vacation days (10 a year... lol) but I don't dare touch my sick time because that is frowned upon. I have now maxed out sick time and it no longer accumulates. Plus I am bored staying home. If I'm gonna be at home, I would rather just be at work. But if I could get more vacation time, I'd definitely take more trips than just one a year.
That is another thing. It would be good for our economy. As the Northeast freezes, I'd kill for a week in Florida. But I know I cannot take that time because I need to save it for next summer. So money that I have that could go into the economy will instead sit in my bank account not doing anything.
many workers in America that get no vacation time work very labor intensive jobs. Take for instance, a woman that works in a garment factory 50 hours a week and makes $8 dollars an hour. She doesn't have a lot of power when it comes to insisting she get time off. The company can just find someone.
What is the argument that this women should not get time off? It's bad for her health not to. Can you make an argument other than "tough luck" ?
many workers in America that get no vacation time work very labor intensive jobs. Take for instance, a woman that works in a garment factory 50 hours a week and makes $8 dollars an hour. She doesn't have a lot of power when it comes to insisting she get time off. The company can just find someone.
What is the argument that this women should not get time off? It's bad for her health not to. Can you make an argument other than "tough luck" ?
Exactly. She can better herself, go back to school, get a better job, get time off, but then somebody else will be hired in her job. It is inevitable under capitalism.
Not mandating time off benefits the companies (though that is debatable as well.) Mandating time off benefits the individual. Was our government set up to "promote the general welfare" of its citizens, or of its companies?
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