Speaking of paid leave, last week, LizardBreath suggested that "if workers, on average, think that two weeks of leisure increases their utility by more than employers think it costs them, but transaction costs (cultural factors, whatever) keep them from bargaining for that outcome, then mandating that a part of every worker's compensation consist of paid vacation is going to make everyone better off -- it will literally increase compensation to workers in terms of utility, without injuring employers."
On that subject, commenter Kathy G. sent me a paper on "Compensation Inequality" from the Quarterly Journal of Economics which suggests something along those lines may be happening. It appears that compensation benefits rise much faster for professionals than does income. The chart's a bit long, so I'm putting it below the fold. The takeaway, basically, is that in most professions, professionals appear to have bargained for significantly more leave relative to other workers than income. There are a variety of ways to explain this, but it's a provocative finding, and one that suggests leave may be quite a bit more valuable than we realize, given how insistent those workers with actual bargaining power are on obtaining it.
