Picture this: warm sand between your toes, the sun’s rays kissing your skin, the calming sound of waves crashing against the shore and the sound of families having fun.
Now, compare it to this: the sound of horns in bumper-to-bumper traffic, the frustration of a coworker trying to fix a paper jam and a dull, awkward light flickering from the fluorescent bulbs above your cubicle.
It’s obvious which one sounds better.
But for many Americans, the luxury of the beach remains only a scene on their television screens, unless they live within driving distance from one.
The U.S. is the only advanced country in the world without laws guaranteeing paid vacation days for workers. While a number of employers do offer it, a measly five-day paid vacation, it doesn’t add up to European countries that guarantee 20 days minimum. When you add guaranteed paid holidays to the mix, the gap becomes bigger.
According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, of advanced countries, Austria has the highest number of guaranteed paid off days with 25 paid vacation days and 13 paid holidays. And when you sit down and really think about it, America sucks for failing to get with the program.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 23 percent of Americans who work in the private sector have jobs that do not offer paid vacation days. While that may not seem like a lot, that’s about one in four working Americans, or about 26 million people, according to the Boston Globe.
People with low paying jobs are the least likely to be guaranteed paid leave, and from personal experience, employers like McDonald’s don’t even give employees the option of requesting holidays off.
The lack of laws ensuring the workers’ happiness is what makes graduating and joining the workforce seem a little daunting. Now, of course, not all jobs suck, but what if you work for a company that really doesn’t care? How many Americans can afford to take a week or two off of work unpaid just so they can go on vacation? I would assume not many, especially if they have a household and children to take care of.
My mother’s job gives her five paid vacation days and three paid sick days per year. A single mother of three children, her sick days sometimes turn into “motherly duty days.” So, when she really is sick, she turns to her paid vacation days as a cushion. When she’s finally ready for a vacation, depending on how much time she already took off, she may be left with a short-lived break.
I believe in working hard to get where you need to be, but regardless of the job you have or the amount of money you make, everyone deserves a break.
Corporate America has a robotic mindset stuck in work mode: work, eat, sleep, repeat. If you’re not making money, then you’re not making sense.
But it’s cycles like these that drive people up a wall.
I would be a more productive and happier worker if I had great benefits to look forward to. If I had 30 paid vacation days, I could easily enjoy a break during the summer and winter. I wouldn’t even need to go anywhere. Just the thought of a vacation that I know is guaranteed is enough to make Monday mornings seem less dreary.
America needs to hop on this guaranteed paid vacation because the idea of a “No-Vacation Nation” is more than a little disheartening.
Taylor Simien is a 20-year-old mass communication junior from Lafayette. You can reach her on Twitter @TSimien_TDR.