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CNN Live Saturday

Americans Want More Vacation Time

Aired September 01, 2001 - 16:12   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: More than 100 years ago, Labor Day was set aside to honor this nation's work force. But CNN has found that a growing number of Americans want more time off. CNN's Kathleen Koch has our report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KATHLEEN KOCH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Bush's four-week retreat from the Oval Office after just seven months on the job drew some criticism and a lot of envy. According to the federal government, most Americans earn about only two weeks of vacation their first year of work.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: After one year, it was 10 days, and it just wasn't enough with kids.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't like it at all. I think it's -- I work hard, and I should get a little bit more time off than that.

KOCH: Low-income workers get even less.

EILEEN APPELBAUM, ECONOMIC POLICY INSTITUTE: Workers in low-pay jobs who don't have unions, who don't have very much in the way of bargaining power, don't get vacations, or at least they don't get paid vacation.

KOCH: U.S. workers get paid vacations at their employers' discretion, averaging 16 days a year. In most other industrialized countries, there are laws mandating paid vacation. In Europe, Japan and Australia, even beginning workers are guaranteed minimum vacations, ranging from 18 to 32 days a year.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's like a break. You can't work all the time, all work, no play. You've got to have a holiday.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think everyone should have a fair share of time to relax.

KOCH: Nina Ersman works at the Swedish embassy in Washington. The ambassador, on vacation for seven weeks, was not available.

NINA ERSMAN, EMBASSY OF SWEDEN: I think it's maybe a common European philosophy to -- if you don't live to work only, but work isn't everything in life. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Still, I get only two weeks a year, my husband gets only one.

KOCH: E-mails from vacation-starved Americans log Joe Robinson's inbox. The travel writer is running a petition drive to make it law that every American get three weeks paid vacation after their first year on the job, increasing to four weeks after three years.

JOE ROBINSON, WORK TO LIVE CAMPAIGN: It's an absolute disgrace that, you know with, our ingenuity and can-do spirit, why are we at the bottom of the pack on vacation time? Why are the Europeans killing us? I mean, we need to get a life, basically.

KOCH: While Europeans get more vacation, the trade-off is they get paid less, earning two-thirds of what Americans do. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce points out, some European economies are struggling, facing unemployment as high as 10 percent.

RANDY JOHNSON, U.S. CHAMBER OF COMMERCE: The mandated vacation package for worker who doesn't have a job doesn't really amount to much. So, I disagree with those who think Europe is equally as productive as America is.

KOCH (on camera): The Chamber of Commerce opposes mandating paid vacations, saying it should be up to each employer to determine. Still, it can't say what, if anything, such a law would cost the economy.

(voice-over): But supporters claim if the policy of more work and less play continues, U.S. workers will suffer increasingly high levels of stress and burn out.

Kathleen Koch, for CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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