Broadcast July 20, 2001
Summertime, and the living is easy. At least, it is in the song. But for most Americans, there s nothing particularly easy about summer. We re busy working.
Forget about a lot of vacation time. The average American worker gets two weeks paid vacation each year. That s it. Two weeks, on average. And that s for the whole year. Take a few extra days over Christmas and New Years, a long weekend here and there in the spring, and that leaves only a little more than a week s vacation for the summer. And if it rains that week, you re out of luck.
Oh, and by the way: In many companies, those two weeks off include sick days.
Now, if you ve been with your company more than five years or so, you get additional vacation time. Work for a big company at a managerial level, you also get more. But for the average worker, it s still just two weeks.
Other nations seem to understand that work is a means to an end, not an end in itself. They have laws guaranteeing three, four, even five weeks paid vacation a year. Doesn t matter what your rank or position is. Flip hamburgers for McDonald s in Sweden, you get five weeks off. Almost the entire nation of France closes down in August. The British have so many national holidays, bank holidays, and holiday holidays it s a wonder they get to work at all.
But here in America, the work ethic is alive and well, just about all summer long. The average American works 350 more hours a year than the typical European, more hours even than the notoriously industrious Japanese -- many of whom, by the way, are now touring America on their summer vacations.
Why can t we take more time off? It s said the American economy cannot afford it. The strongest, biggest, most advanced economy in the world cannot tolerate more vacation time for its citizens. It s assumed that if we had a law requiring companies to give all employees five weeks paid vacation, for example, the great engine of American commerce would slow down.
Personally, I doubt it. American workers would probably be more productive on the job if they had more time off it. And even if a few more weeks vacation did shave a few points off of the Gross Domestic Product, it may be worth it. Summer only comes around once a year. And we only live once.
