What Do You Think About the Proposed Paid Vacation Act?

Reader Contribution by Staff
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On May 21, Rep. Alan Grayson (D-Fla.) introduced the Paid Vacation Act of 2009, HR 2564, in an effort to guarantee paid vacation time for employees that work 25 hours a week or more. (Note: Tourism is Florida’s largest business, according to Grayson’s website.) Without the Paid Vacation Act, the United States is currently the only industrialized nation without a minimum annual leave law. From the U.S. Department of Labor website:

“The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations, sick leave or federal or other holidays. These benefits are matters of agreement between an employer and an employee (or the employee’s representative).”

The Paid Vacation Act would require companies with 100 employees or more to offer a week of paid vacation for employees that work 25 hours a week or more (or 1,250 hours a year, including both full-time and part-time employees) after they’ve worked at the company for a year. Beginning three years after the law goes into effect, those same companies would be required to provide two weeks of paid vacation. At that same time, employees at companies with 50 or more employees would be entitled to one week paid vacation.

Supporters of the bill argue that regular vacations improve health and productivity. One of the opponents’ arguments is that such a law would encourage employers to hire fewer workers.

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