The chart above from Statista shows the results of a recent YouGov survey that asked Americans what public holiday, if any, they thought should be removed. Around half, sensibly, said none of them should be eliminated, which makes sense: They know that if, say, Columbus Day was eliminated, Congress wouldn’t designate a new one to take its place.
This is because Americans are uniquely shortchanged on paid time off. Public holidays aren’t necessarily observed by businesses, and around a quarter of Americans get no paid annual leave (vacation). The chart at the bottom of this post, Statista’s Chart of the Day from August, 2018, shows the comparison of annual leave/public holiday entitlements in various OECD countries. The USA bar shows there are no annual leave days required by law, and, because the public holidays aren’t necessarily days of for workers, they’re doubly screwed.
I’ve written several times about how good New Zealanders have it for time off compared to the USA. For example, in 2013 I talked about a chart similar to the one below, and corrected errors the chart had for New Zealand, where workers get 30½ paid days off a year.
Then, at the start of this month I talked about how despite having so much time off, New Zealanders worked nearly as many hours as workers in the USA, and slightly more than the OECD average. This goes to show that legislated time off doesn’t hurt productivity. So, why is the USA lagging so far behind other OECD countries? Not that this is the only way the USA is behind other countries, of course. Like other issues, it all comes down to politics, and the lack of advocacy for ordinary workers.
Giving workers mandated time off is really a small thing, but it can make so much difference to people—their health, their commitment to their work, work/life balance, and so much more. The USA really needs to begin to catch up with the rest of the OECD, but we all know that won’t happen any time soon—ever?
Meanwhile, this coming Monday, June 3, is the Queen’s Birthday public holiday. We’re both off work that day. Of course.
2 comments:
That's good. I've seem some pretty grumpy memes on Facebook touting the same idea, but I do think some of them go to far: People generally mean well, even if they should know better. On the other hand, too often Americans will pretty much fetishise military or "first responder" service, and that's not good, either. A balanced approach—on the correct holiday—would be nice, in my opinion.
Some veterans specifically have asked people NOT to thank them for their service on Memorial Day.
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