Hotels.com, an online accommodations booking service, has launched a website where visitors can learn about the importance of paid vacation and the discrepancy between the amounts offered in the United States compared with other developed countries. Self serving? Sure. It’s cool anyway.
I know it’s an incredibly self-serving publicity stunt. But I like it anyway.
Dallas-based Hotels.com, an online accommodations booking service, has launched VacationEqualityProject.com, a website where visitors can learn about the importance of paid vacation and the discrepancy between the amounts offered in the United States compared with other developed countries. The site also encourages visitors to sign a petition asking the White House to take a position on guaranteed paid vacation time.
In a news release about the project, Hotels.com says it conducted a recent survey and “found that an overwhelming majority of Americans were not aware that the U.S. is the only advanced economy that does not require paid vacation for working people.” It adds that:
The … majority of Americans polled favor guaranteed paid vacation time (57 percent) and would support a law requiring employers to provide paid vacation time (51 percent). Americans also believe that vacation time has enormous benefits—improved quality of life, a positive effect on health and wellness and makes them more productive at work.
In addition to the worker benefits of paid vacation time, research also shows that it has wide-ranging benefits for businesses and for the economy. According to the U.S. Travel Association, paid vacation time is a boon to the U.S. economy, with about one in eight Americans having jobs associated with travel and tourism. Research from USTA also finds that encouraging workers to use just one more day of earned leave each year could bring $73 billion annually to our economy.
Of course, providing mandatory, paid vacation time to American workers would be a boon to companies like Hotels.com. But it also would enormously improve the lives of workers and their families and help boost the overall economy.
That’s something a lot of European countries figured out years ago.
The U.S. should join the rest of the developed world and give its workforce a break.
I am with you, Hotels.com.
James Melton is publisher of Wonky News Nerd (http://WonkyNewsNerdcom). Before you ask: He has no connection at all with Hotels.com.
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