For example, the firm Scarborough Research, conducting a survey in Washington as part of a study, found that 11% of residents of the American capital rest no more than one week a year. 31% have a vacation lasting two weeks, 22% - three weeks, 18% - four weeks. 18% of people rest five or more weeks a year. This is explained by the fact that a large number of federal authorities are concentrated in Washington, whose employees are guaranteed three weeks of paid vacation.
A traditional, but not universally accepted, method of determining the length of vacation is as follows: an employee receives 8 hours of working time as vacation for each month worked. For example, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, American employees could get 9.6 paid vacation days after one year of work at a firm, 11.5 days after two years, 13.8 after three years, and finally 16.9 after five years of work. Before an employee of a medium or large American company can enjoy a three-week vacation, they need to work for five years. A month of vacation is due to those who have been with the company for 15-20 years. “Blue-collar” workers employed in small businesses can afford on average only 6.8 days of paid vacation per year. Clerks and employees of trading firms are slightly luckier - their vacation is 8.6 days. Workers at some fast-food restaurant chains rest from 3 to 5 weeks a year. At the same time, business owners themselves sometimes rest less than their employees. In particular, the owner of an American small business rests, on average, six working days a year.
In any case, the average American rests much less than residents of other industrialized countries. In addition, another feature is noted in the United States: people prefer to split their vacation. Moreover, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, residents of the United States work more and more each year. In 2002, the working hours of the average citizen amounted to 1,801 hours - 5.5 weeks more than in 1976 (1,582 hours). For comparison, according to the International Labour Organization, the average French person’s working year amounted to 1,545 hours, the German – 1,444 hours, the Dutch – 1,342 hours.
However, according to historian Julian Simon, author of the study “The State of Humanism,” such processes are likely transient - long-term statistics show that the length of the American work week has been decreasing every decade. In 1850, the average week length was 65 hours, in 1909 - 50, in 1950 – 38 hours. In 1998, it dropped to 35 hours. In 1999, 25 million Americans worked at least 49 hours per week, and 11 million - more than 59 hours.
In 2007, Americans did not use 438.9 million vacation days, allowing employers to save an astronomical sum - $60.46 billion. These data were obtained from a survey conducted by the portal Expedia.com. 35% of Americans do not plan to fully use their vacation (this is much more than in Western European countries). Interestingly, the average American man gets half a day more vacation than a woman. However, men are more likely to stay late at work.
A survey on the same topic, conducted by the portal Monster.com, showed that 47% of Americans fully use their vacation days, 53% do not. The main reasons for refusing to “rest to the fullest” are an abundance of work (24%), fear of the boss (11%), and fear of dismissal (10%).
Periodically, a public campaign begins in the United States to amend legislation regulating the relationship between employees and employers, aiming to include the right to paid vacation modeled after Europe. The last such attempt was made in 2000. At that time, the travel magazine Escape collected more than 20 thousand signatures of Americans under a petition to the U.S. Congress demanding such changes to legislation. However, in the same year, the United States entered a period of economic recession, which pushed the vacation issue to the background.
Public opinion polls show that most Americans would like to rest more, but in the list of main priorities, long vacation is far inferior to such indicators as salary level, availability of health insurance, quality of work, etc. From a study conducted by ComPsych, it is clear that people in most cases are willing to completely sacrifice vacation so as not to lose their job. And according to the Society for Human Resource Management, 13% of American companies do not pay vacation to their staff.
As a result, a special term has appeared in the United States – “vacation deprivation syndrome,” which is considered the cause of many diseases. Dr. Stephen Lamm writes: “Constantly getting stress at work and not having the opportunity to fully rest, you literally poison your body. It is under the influence of carcinogens that can cause heart attacks, strokes, cancer and other serious health problems.” Writer Diane Fassel, author of the book “Working Ourselves to Death,” concluded that the life expectancy of an American workaholic is lower than that of a person who abuses alcohol. The American Psychosomatic Society, having studied the “vacation deprivation syndrome,” concluded that annual rest reduces the risk of death by 20%.
The problem is that even after finally getting away on vacation, American employees cannot relax. The management of many companies asks them to stay in constant contact with their office. The availability of mobile phones, laptops, and the Internet greatly facilitates this task and allows them to work anywhere and anytime. A survey conducted by Expedia.com, the largest online travel operator in the United States, showed that 16% of American vacationers, while on holiday, constantly kept in touch with their company via phone or email.
Some economists believe that Americans' short vacations are the reason the United States has one of the most competitive economies in the world. The obligation to provide long paid vacations inevitably increases a company's production costs, raises the price of goods and services, and reduces the number of jobs created. For example, Edward Hudgins, an expert at the research Cato Institute, drew a series of analogies: in the workaholic country of the United States, the unemployment rate has been much lower for decades than in Western Europe, where long vacations exist (4.1% vs. 10.1% as of 2005). The average European who loses a job cannot find a new one for almost a year, while an American can in 3-4 months.
Based on materials from Washington ProFile.