Vacation season is upon us, and nobody knows how to vacation better than our friends in Europe.
Whereas many Americans settle for a weeklong summer vacation—often supplemented with day trips—Europeans commonly spend two to four weeks at the beach.
The United States is the only advanced economy with no federal requirement for paid vacation. European Union governments mandate at least four weeks of paid annual leave for every employee.
Many EU countries require five or six weeks of paid vacation. When public holidays are added, workers in countries such as Austria, France, Spain, and Sweden receive up to 38 paid days off per year.
By contrast, most American workers receive 10 to 15 days of paid vacation, and public holidays are not required to be paid.
It gets better yet in Europe: In 2012, the EU’s highest court ruled that if workers get sick while on their employer-paid annual vacations, their employer must pay for their vacation time all over again.
Employer to employee: “Explain to me again, Pierre, how a jellyfish sting ruined your month-long trip to the Riviera?”
According to CNN, EU workers enjoy a host of additional perks. In Spain, workers are entitled to 15 days of paid leave for marriage or registered partnership.
In France, companies must provide additional paid time off for workers who work beyond the 35-hour statutory week—even when they are paid overtime.
My hat goes off to my vacationing pals overseas. Vacations are way different in America.
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Unlike our EU counterparts, many Americans never really “leave” work. We stay glued to our email, smartphones and laptops.
It’s even worse for America’s small-business owners. Many take a limited time off. With revenues tight and staffing thin, they end up working extra hours to pick up the slack when their employees take time off.
Americans are different from our European friends in one regard: Most of us don’t like our government telling our employers or us how we ought to conduct business or how many vacation days employers must provide.
At least that used to be a distinction between America and Europe.
Democrats in Congress—including self-declared Democratic Socialists — continue to push hard for government-mandated paid time off. Proposed bills such as the FAMILY Act would require up to 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave.
Other proposals would require paid sick leave, expand government support for child care—in Pittsburgh, where I live, Allegheny County is trying to mandate 18 weeks of paid parental leave—and move America closer to European-style workplace mandates.
Proponents for these measures argue that America is behind Europe and the rest of the developed world on paid leave.
Of course, they leave out the part about America's robust economy being ahead of the rest of the developed world—we have the world’s largest economy.
Consider: Two decades ago, the U.S. economy was roughly the same size as the EU’s economy.
Today, our economy is a whopping $10 trillion larger—in large part because our employers face far fewer government mandates that make them less flexible, innovative, and productive.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some lucrative client work to get done so that I can take a day trip later this week.
Find Tom Purcell’s syndicated column, humor books, and funny videos of his dog, Thurber, at TomPurcell.com. Email him at Tom@TomPurcell.com.
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