In the race to unplug and chill on vacation, the United States is nowhere near the front of the pack. It isn’t even anywhere in the middle.
But at least we’re not last.
Just second to last.
A survey late last year showed that on average U.S. employers offered only 10 paid vacation days to workers. In Iran that number is 53 while in parts of Europe the average is around 30 days paid vacation.
The U.S. numbers don’t include paid leave days which are often associated with taking time off for reasons of medical emergency in the family. There is no federal minimum requirement so paid leave policies may vary widely.
In another, seemingly unrelated survey, Finland was once again found to be the country with the happiest people residing there.
Incidentally Finalnd guarantees its employees four weeks of paid vacation during the summer and one paid week during the winter. Rounding out the top three happiest countries in the world are Denmark and Iceland (five weeks and 24 days paid time off respectively).
Out of 20 countries, the U.S.A. was ranked 15th among those with the happiest residents.
Maybe because only about 48 percent of the people who live here take their allotted time off for vacation.
The statistics and factoids are relevant now because as August winds down so too do the most popular times of the year for Americans to vacation—July and August.
The second most popular, as you might imagine, is December.
But given that now more than ever it is easier to carry with you the burdens of work and responsibility via cell phones, laptops and tablets how much unwinding and unplugging are we doing when we book the long awaited vacation to a European city or the decadent feeling staycation at a local resort 20 minutes from home?
The challenges we have created for ourselves—global climate change, pollution, hunger, genocide, poverty, discrimination, and racism—await us upon our return.
If, throughout the course of our working lives we work to eliminate the disparities and injustices among us we can all be refreshed and relaxed regardless of how many vacation days we have.
