Vacation Negotiation?

American workers are vacation-deprived, advocates say
Group proposes law giving at least 3 weeks to everyone
By Doreen Hemlock

As a lobbyist commuting from South Florida to Tallahassee, Yolanda Cash Jackson took almost no vacation last election year.

She often leaves her vacation days unused."I've never taken two weeks' vacation together — never," the 48-year-old Fort Lauderdale lawyer said.

Cash Jackson is among tens of millions of Americans dubbed "vacation deprived."

The growing malady is twofold, according to recent studies by the Center for Economic and Policy Research and travel company Expedia.com. The United States is the only industrial nation in the world that does not mandate paid vacation, leaving about one in four employees without a single day of paid time off; and of U.S. workers offered paid vacation, about one-third don't take it all, often claiming it's too hard to get away from their hefty workloads.

This summer, a grass-roots group called Take Back Your Time is asking presidential candidates to back legislation for a minimum three weeks of paid vacation a year — an amount still less than the 20 days off Europeans get their first year on the job.

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