Why U.S. Vacation Policies Are So Much Worse Than Europe’s

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The United States is the only advanced economy that doesn’t guarantee workers paid time off. And nearly half of those who are offered paid vacations don’t take the days, even though roughly 80% of U.S. workers receive some sort of paid time off. In France, in contrast, the cultural norm is to take off the entire month of August. But not taking vacation could be harmful to both workers’ health and the economy. Watch the video above to learn more about the vacation story of these two cultures.

Clarification on April 24, 2023: At timecodes 01:50, 4:03 and 06:12, the title of the third chapter should be “Vacation and the economy.”

Chapters:
00:00 — Introduction
01:50 — European vacation
04:03 — U.S. vacation
06:12 — Vacation and the economy

Produced and Edited by: Charlotte Morabito
Animation: Christina Locopo
Supervising Producer: Lindsey Jacobson
Additional Footage: Getty Images, Fatima Cadet-Diaby

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Why U.S. Vacation Policies Are So Much Worse Than Europe’s

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28 COMMENTS

  1. When I ised to work for banks during 1990-96, banks require employees to take a week off, or 5 consecutive days off. This was to ensure others eho take over the particular responsibility to cross-check that responsibility. Its a way to make sure no illegal stuff is going on.
    Basically, if a person never takes a vacation, it's likely that something fishy is going on, like a ponxy scheme. I noticed a company in my office building with a financial services name, the office always has someone working, even on Sunday morning/ afternoon, 365 Days ! The clients should move their investments out ASAP!!!

  2. I have two employees that live in China. They get two weeks for Lunar newyear and that is it. The government allows a few days off during the year but if for example they get a Monday off they have to work Saturday. So if we think it is bad in the US guess again.

  3. Unlimited time off is subject to control by manager and they're not under obligation to give it to you. PTO is better cuz it's earned, you have a clear # of days & it's mandatory to take. I hated it when I was transferred from pto to unlimited!!
    Another scam by companies is paying salary instead of hourly. You get abused when salaried, you're the one to get extra & overtime, or weekend work without getting extra pay!

  4. Everybody in France takes August off 😮, may be that's why France's gdp is 3 trillion while United States is 23 trillion.
    Heck France's gdp is even less than India now😂😂😂

  5. Basically, most people in the US are seen as $$, tax dollars, the money we spend, etc. It's how much our country can get out of us. We used to have sick leave and vacation, this all got rolled into PTO, and much of that time we got every year got taken away from us. It's been a long time but I think we had 2 weeks holiday and 8 weeks sick leave. That turned into about 2-3 weeks PTO.
    Our country has brainwashed us into thinking this is normal. That we are here to work. They used to give us the goal of retirement to look forward to but they want to take that away from us too. How is this so different from communism or working for the state?

  6. Everything in the US sucks but Americans still think the US is the best country in the world. Most of these people never step out of their country and only watch national news.

  7. You completely ignored the eastern part of Europe, which also has better labor laws than the US. In Poland we have 26 paid vacation days, paid sick leave, paid maternity/paternity leave… Europe is not just the western countries

  8. With the numbers and statements given at 6:19, the average cost per trip in 2022 was about $418,000. I'm aware that inflation hit pretty hard, but this …. !? … you sure?

  9. I'm Irish and we do enjoy a lot of 'vacation' time or holidays as we call it, I'm wondering how the US economy benefits from high EU vacation time, personally, ATM my brother and his family are in Florida for 2 weeks, my friend and his wife recently went to vegas to see U2 and I am planning a weeks trip to New York at Christmas time.
    I know there are European economies that rely on tourism, even Ireland, here our population can double in some of the summer months, vacation time really does boost an economy. I once lived in the US for a year, a working holiday (legal) and I travelled to so many places, it's such a vast and interesting place with everything to offer Americans would not even have to go abroad.
    Another thing, Europeans travel a lot and it's why flights over here are so much cheaper than the US.

  10. God dang. 3 months off? I mean I get it. We got 3 months off during summer when we were in school. I think I'd probably get bored with that much time off and do something on the side. I do miss that summer vacation when I was a kid/teen though.

  11. Y’all living in hell💀 i live in europe and have 5 weeks paid vacation so we mostly go 2 or 3 times on vacation to see the world and explore different cultures. Just remember you have just 1 time on this earth and eventually you work to have money but what do you have with money if you don’t have free time to spend it.

Comments are closed.