Paid Vacation isn't the only component in the Social Contract that Corporate America has been increasingly reneging on over the last 25 years, but it is an important one. Vacations aren't frivolous, they make workers healthier and they improve their quality of life.
It's vacation season. But a third of American working women are given no paid leave, and a quarter of men get no pay from their employer if they take a week or more off for rest and recreation.
Unlike other industrialized nations, the United States has no law requiring companies to give their workers a paid vacation of any duration...
Why the US should mandate paid vacations
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...But US employers tend to see paid vacations as a cost. The benefits of granting vacation time are much harder for a business to quantify in dollars and cents.
"Vacations are becoming an endangered species," says Mr. Robinson. "Employers are increasingly finding they can get away with providing less vacation time."
It's different abroad. Britain added a week to its mandatory vacation time in the past year. New Zealand did the same a year before. China mandates three "Golden Weeks" for its workers...
Why the US should mandate paid vacations
Even Chinese workers are guaranteed 3 weeks more vacation than American workers are.
American workers rated paid vacation as the second most valuable benifit after paid health care.
Another component in the Social Contract that Corporate America has been increasingly reneging on is paid sick leave. U.$. workers fare even worse when it comes to paid sick leave. 139 Countries mandate paid sick leave, and 117 Countries mandate at least 1 week of paid sick leave a year, but the U.$. isn't one of them.
• Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that almost half (47 percent) of private sector workers have no paid sick leave.
• A recent study by Lovell of IWPR found that 59 million workers lack paid sick leave.
• Often, those who are lucky enough to have paid sick leave are not allowed to use it to care for a sick family member. In one Kaiser Family Foundation study, 49 percent of working mothers reported that they did not get paid when they stayed home to care for their sick children.
SICK LEAVE FACT SHEET
It's high time that Corporate America stop reneging on it's end of America's fraying Social Contract.
The Democratic Party needs to show American Workers that we stand with them for more humane workplaces.