Beech Tree News Network

As we begin summer, I’ve been thinking about vacations. Kelly Clarkson said, “The thing I love most about going on vacation is that I get to leave behind any kind of schedule” (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/vacation). Vacations are meant to be a change of pace. Unfortunately, I read in a bulletin that my oldest daughter picked up that the United States is at or near the bottom of the list when considering paid vacation days. 

According to the NOLO website (https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/paid-vacation-what-are-rights-33...), “No law requires employers to give their workers paid vacation days, but most companies do pay for some vacation days: More than 90% of all full-time employees in private industry receive paid vacation, according to 2015 figures from the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.” Personally, I have little experience with paid vacation – though it sounds really nice. As a teacher in Tennessee and Kentucky, I was paid based on the number of days contracted, and those days did not include paid vacation days. To ensure a year-round paycheck, my salary for the contracted days was divided equally among the school district’s set pay periods throughout the year. However, the contracted days typically included four holidays within each year. 

In 2017, a Forbes article entitled “American Workers Get the Short End on Vacation Days [Infographic]” by Niall McCarthy compared the paid vacation days of several countries (https://www.forbes.com/sites/niallmccarthy/2017/06/26/american-workers-h...). McCarthy explained, “According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. employees are most likely to have 10-14 days of paid vacation after one year. Less than five days and more than 24 days is rare, experienced by only 8 and 2 percent respectively. 30 percent of Americans have 5-9 days off annually each year, while 38 percent have 10-14 days. The final 16 percent enjoy a longer 15-19 days off.” After one year of employment, employees in the following countries can expect the minimum holiday entitlement listed below: 

•Australia - 20 days

•European Union countries - 20 days

•South Korea - 15 days

•Canada - 10

•Japan - 10

•United States – 0

A recent article on the MarketWatch website (https://www.marketwatch.com/story/soon-more-borrowers-will-be-able-to-us...) by Jillian Berman reported an alternative use of vacation time: the option to turn paid vacation into a student-loan payment. This option is relatively new. Berman explained, “A system that allows workers to trade their paid time off for student-loan help allows companies to get the benefit of having the employee at work while still spending the same amount of money as if they were away…. Right now, the average full-time worker with benefits has 14 paid vacation days and eight holidays… (However,) Nearly half of workers whose wages are in the bottom quartile of the income bracket receive no paid time off....” 

John Battelle’s comment about vacation makes sense to me. He said, “As you grow older, you learn a few things. One of them is to actually take the time you’re allotted for vacation” (https://www.brainyquote.com/topics/vacation). I believe this is especially true if one has a family and as one ages. We need the change of pace that a vacation provides.