Policy Lab: We Want Bread, and Paid Vacation Too!

Ahhh, summer. Long days and warm nights, a glass of rosé, vacances sur la Riviera. 

Oh, wait… We live in the United States of America, “the only advanced economy that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation,” according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

Most OECD nations mandate at least 20 working days of paid vacation per year. Add in another 10 days or so in paid holidays, which also aren’t guaranteed in the US, and we’re talking well over a month of compensated leisure time that we’re missing out on every year.

Of course, many US employers do offer some paid vacation, at least on paper. But it’s generally a lot less than workers in our peer nations are entitled to. After a year of work, only 9% of all private sector workers qualify for 20 or more days of paid vacation time, and even after 10 years of work, only 40% do. The lowest-wage workers are unlikely to get a break at all. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 43% of workers in the bottom decile of wages qualify for any paid vacation. 

Many of us only get a really substantial break from the daily grind when we’re between jobs. #Funemployment memes aside, that usually means financial stress, feeling like a loser, and the thankless unpaid work of looking for work. In other words, you’re probably not about to hop on a plane to Italy.

Even the high-paid workers whose job descriptions promise “unlimited” paid time off may not be getting a fair shake. Fast-paced corporate workplace culture notoriously encourages long hours and few breaks, as employees compete to prove their dedication and worth. A 2018 study found that workers with unlimited PTO actually took two fewer days off a year than those with traditional vacation benefits. Defined PTO often accrues year after year and can be cashed out when you leave a job, but unlimited? Sorry, you get nothing. In other words, it’s a scam.

All of this shows up when you look at the hours we actually work. A 2022 International Labor Organization report found that the average full-time US worker puts in about 250 and 400 more hours each year than her French and German counterparts, respectively.

Ok, ok, so we’re overworked, obviously. But what can we do about it? Our federal government hasn’t raised the minimum wage in fifteen years and has a frighteningly high chance of being headed by a wacko authoritarian pseudo-Christian nationalist come January, so I’m not holding my breath for national action. (Fun fact: Working full time at $7.25 an hour, 40 hours a week without missing a day, puts your annual income at almost exactly this year’s federal poverty level for a single person: $15,060. America!) 

So, it’s up to states and cities to step up.

Here in Washington state, we’re already leading the way on some other forms of paid leave. We have comparatively generous sick leave and family and medical leave policies, allowing workers to take paid time off when they need to care for themselves or a family member. Thanks to a bill passed by the state legislature last year, even Uber and Lyft drivers now qualify for paid family and medical leave.

But how about true vacation, no obligations or excuses needed? As the old slogan goes: We want bread, and roses too! How about paid time off to just, you know, smell the roses?

Three states have now passed unrestricted paid leave laws. Starting in 2020, 2021, and 2024, respectively, workers in Nevada, Maine, and Illinois are entitled to approximately 40 hours of paid time off in a year of full-time work. In Maine, employers with up to 10 employees are exempt, and in Nevada the law excludes employers in their first two years of operation. In Illinois, both Chicago and Cook County also enacted their own local paid leave laws that are similar to the state law, and Chicago’s is coupled with additional sick leave provisions.

One lonely local government has mandated paid time off in a state that has no similar law. In 2019, Bernalillo County, New Mexico passed an “Employee Wellness Act” allowing workers to accrue up to 56 hours of paid leave per year. Originally proposed as a paid sick leave law, during the legislative process it was amended so that workers can use their leave for any reason. That makes it the most generous paid vacation law in the US, as far as I can tell. The catch? It only applies to unincorporated areas of the county, excluding the City of Albuquerque and several smaller jurisdictions. Still, it’s a brave precedent.

Here in Seattle and Washington state, we’ve been at the forefront of so many laws to protect and improve the lot of low wage workers: Not only the paid leave programs mentioned above, but also raising the minimum wage, requiring fairer scheduling practices, protecting domestic workers and gig workers, and guaranteeing overtime pay for many salaried workers. (Washington’s overtime protections are the strongest in the nation, and – to give the federal government some credit – the Biden administration recently strengthened federal overtime protections, too.) 

Paid vacation seems like an obvious next step. Of course, not everyone will agree. Businesses don’t generally like being forced to do things, especially things that involve increasing their costs and complicating their operations. Efforts to win paid vacation time will face outcries that are familiar to anyone involved in previous labor standards campaigns: small businesses will be forced to close, prices will rise for consumers, the sky will fall! 

Unless you count the delivery app corporations now holding Seattle hostage with exorbitant fees, the sky remains intact. At some point we have to decide what we believe in: working nonstop till we retire or expire, or having some time along the way to savor the fruits of our labor.

And, as much as everyone deserves true leisure time, unrestricted paid leave isn’t just about vacation. Whether it’s the arduous process of packing up and moving to a new apartment, or dealing with the aftermath of a loved one’s death, or reporting to jury duty, there are plenty of reasons why people need time off.

It’s a shame that some of our Seattle councilmembers have decided to spend their time attempting to roll back minimum wage standards for gig workers, instead of continuing our run of labor standards leadership. But while they’re trying to snatch away our bread, we can at least keep dreaming of roses.

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