Full title: BREAKING: Bernie Sanders just introduced the Guaranteed Paid Vacation Act — a bill to guarantee at least two weeks of paid vacation to every full-time worker in America. Over 90 other members of Congress have already signed on to the legislation.
Part time and contractors should be included, not just FTE.
And it should be 4 weeks. To make up for all that “productivity” we already put in without time off.
…and to bring you in line with the rest of the world.
Start with something.
Contractors are difficult because they tend to be hourly, and hourly employees lose out when there is time off. My first studio would do typical 2 week shutdownns around Christmas time, but they stopped doing it because workers complained about lost pay.
They should definitely be added. But I think getting a foot in the door is more important while we still have this current administration.
How should this go about if I may ask? Genuinely curious to learn the terminologies behind this.
Is it a bonus? Paid leave?
A bit hard to say. Since there’s two major types of contractors
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the “basically employees” contractors are ones who do everything expected of an employee but aren’t granted the status of an employee. This is a “simple” matter in enforcing that they be actual employees under the law, either through courts or with a definition of duties that keep them from skirting that line (though employers will always try). Basically make the definition relatively lax so they can’t do stuff like “work 38 hours a week” to avoid it.
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The “truly contractors” who essentially set their own hours and get paid for work provided. Basically stuff in the gig economy . These are pay as you go so I’m not sure you can enforce vacation time into this model.
For the second, I can see it being offered by the employer -a merciful one that is- that you get paid leave. It can be also a sort of compensation if the work tasked is expected to have a crunch time toward the late stage.
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Wait - so currently it is legal for employers in the US to give ZERO vacation days to employees? Jeez, what kinda shithole country is the US?
They elected a ‘thing’ that’s obviously been a con man for decades.
A blatant racist, casino bankrupting corrupt piece of disgusting scum. Who has had nearly 30 court cases for sexual assault.
A so called human that has numerous websites tracking their obvious lies, thousands and thousands of confirmable and easily debunked lies.
Then there’s the 30 plus felonies. The numerous court cases and fines etc, some of which involve being fined for stealing from children’s charity’s.
The list goes on and on…But, then, get this, then they fucking elected it again. And this was after the Covid debacle, an attempted insurrection, stealing of top secret documents to sell or use in nefarious manner, AND the Epstein-tRUMP files being in everyone’s faces.
That is what the us is to me now. And for the rest of my life.
A country so complacent/evil/stupid that they can elect one of the very worst ‘humans’ in living history… TWICE!They elected a ‘thing’ that’s obviously been a con man for decades.
its unrelated to current president. this been a problem for decades. clinton, bush, obama, biden, trump etc
deleted by creator
So how many vacation days did the law mandate before 2016?
I think they’re saying that an electorate that stupid wouldn’t have been voting for reasonable policy even before that.
So was there a vote on vacation days at some point? And if not, how does one vote for these sensible policies?
So was there a vote on vacation days at some point?
I mean kind of… It was the Democratic primary and Bernie unfortunately lost it
How did all these other countries do that, and not the US? I think it starts with “America doesn’t have poor people, they have temporarily embarrassed millionaires”. So everyone is voting in the interest of the capitalist class, because they want to believe they are part of it. Where that comes from is a matter of historical processes.
Well said.
It’s a place where you’re expected to work until you die, mostly.
Oh honey…
I think this is stupid. We need the bill to be way more aggressive, ambitious, and inclusive.
Here’s what needs to be happen for this bill to bring meaningful change:
- Increase the guaranteed paid leave time to at least 20 workdays. Having just 10 workdays off is a joke, we need to raise our standards to match the rest of the developed world.
- Expand the coverage to include part time workers and contractors. I think it’s fine if part employees get slightly less guaranteed time (like 2/3 of what full timers get) and contractors get more nuanced rules, but they need to be included. If they’re not then that just opens a loophole for corporations to continue not giving people the vacation time they deserve
- Include paid sick time in the bill, and explicitly separate it from vacation time. These are not the same thing and should draw from the same pool. Guarantee all employees get a least 5 workdays of sick leave that can be expanded up to 10 workdays if the employee provides a doctor’s note.
- Add paid sick leave that is NOT paid sick time. The Federal government needs to follow the Massachusetts model where workers are eligible to take up to 20 weeks of paid medical leave for their own serious health condition, up to 12 weeks of paid family leave to care for a relative, or a combined maximum of 26 weeks per benefit year.
- Just like MA, this money doesn’t come from the employers but from the government. That means the federal government needs to create a department in every state that processes these claims and pays people properly when they need to take time off to ensure that the benefits are guaranteed.
- Require companies to give at least 10 workdays of paid bereavement leave. Employees should be eligible to get this benefit any time a spouse or close relative passes away (parents, children, and siblings).
- Make all 11 federal holidays (technically 12 with Inauguration Day, but that happens once every 4 years) paid by default, and add election day as the 12th annual paid federal holiday.
- Include a stipulation that mandates companies to provide a paid day off for any holiday that falls on a weekend either the Friday before or Monday after. Employers also need to provide essential workers that need to work on holidays, their paid day off within one week before or after the holiday.
- Provide guaranteed paid maternity leave for up to 24 weeks all mothers for every child, where they are eligible to start their leave at 4 weeks prenatal. Just like with the sick leave, the federal government will guarantee 100% of their pay for all 24 weeks.
- Provide guaranteed paid paternity leave for up to 16 weeks. Fathers also need to bond and take care of their newborns as well as the mother of their children. The federal government will guarantee the first 12 weeks with 100% pay, and the last 4 with 67% pay.
- Have the federal government guarantee paid time at full rates for any mandatory time off taken for civic duties like jury duty.
- Mandate employers provide employees with at least 5 paid workdays that count as personal days that can be taken for any personal reason such emergencies, ceremonies, errands, or extra sick time or vacation time.
- The federal government needs to explicitly ban employers from firing or retaliating against employees for taking any of the time off provided and guaranteed by the bill, maintain their health insurance while they’re gone, and be legally required to give employees their jobs back or provide them with an equivalent position that has the pay and benefits once they’re back.
Now THIS is a serious bill. It guarantees a generous 42 workdays (20 vacation + 5 sick time + 5 personal days + 12 holidays) worth of paid time off annually which finally puts this country not just on on par with the rest of the developed world, but ahead. If the US is to serve as the leader of the free world, this is how it has to be done. This on top of the mandatory employment protections and extra paid time off for specific scenarios, makes this a truly worker friendly country. This kind of bill would increase happiness, improve health, and reduce stress for hundreds of millions of people.
Now, I’m not naive, I know Republicans and corporate Democrats will try to water this down. However, even if we only end up getting 2/3 or even 1/2 of the benefits and guarantees on this bill then that’s still a huge win. You have to start negotiations from a high a place so you’ll end up with something that’s at least acceptable. What Bernie proposed is starting from a low place to appease people who are genuinely greedy and apathetic to the point of being evil. You can’t do that. You have to hit them hard and rally the people on your side. People will whine about me letting perfect be the enemy of good, but I’m not. I’m against letting mediocrity stop us from achieving anything meaningful. If the Democrats did less performative shit and focus on real change like my hypothetical expanded bill, they would sweep the GOP into oblivion.
Don’t let perfect be the enemy of good.
And this radical plan would just bring the USA to the established standards of the developed world.
Actually, if the US offered 42 paid days off a year as in my hypothetical bill, it would rank first in the developed world alongside Monaco who also offers 42 paid days off. Also most countries in the developed world don’t mandate things like personal days, bereavement, or paid time off for mandatory civic duties. For the few countries that do, it’s very limited.
For example, a couple of countries in the Balkans offer 7 days of paid bereavement time per year, and that’s the highest in the world. Most countries offer only a couple of days or nothing at all. So offering 10 days for every loved that passes away in a single year would make this the most the most generous paid bereavement leave in the world.
Still though, we currently have nothing so anything would be nice at this point.
You’re COUNTING sick days. Sick days are generally not counted elsewhere. There are limitations on the number of consecutive days you can take without getting signed off by a doctor, but that’s it. Had one team member that got frequent migraines, and averaged about 1 sick day every two weeks. Good employee, just took a lot of sick leave. Questions were asked but because it was a valid reason nothing was done.
What you’re describing is 25 days off plus public holidays. Very normal.
What Bernie proposed is starting from a low place to appease people who are genuinely greedy and apathetic to the point of being evil. You can’t do that.
Without leverage, we have to do it this way. They just shut it down if it’s the slightest bit “radical”. Make it in a way that even the most rabid MAGA diehard can’t disagree with the idea.
I like your plan. We should create a website that lists those things we want instead of letting politicians make shit up for us.
We really should. It’s up to us organize and push change. Our complacency is what brought us to this point. We have to be active and demand our rights.
Crazy that we’re fighting to achieve some of the lowest time-off standards in the developed world.
Tbf, it’s a minimum value. Then the average will be forced to be higher, because employers still need to compete to have some postions filled.
My issue is the question on the definition of “full time position”. I’m assuming 30hr/week like health insurance. We already have a problem of employers refusing to let employees work more than 25hr/week to avoid the additional costs associated.
I think the bill needs a provision that part-time has equivalent requirements based on yearly hours to close that loophole
That’s what they said about minimum wage. The shit is still $7 or $2 if you’re unlucky.
So is the value for other countries. I get 25 when legal minimum is 20. You are fighting for the lowest standards.
And we will fight tooth and nail and still lose
The US maternity leave is the shortest in the world and medically dangerous.
There is no maternity leave???
It’s again and again baffling how backwards the US are. We’ve had four weeks minimum since before I was born, and I’m an ageing millennial
“Rise in the number of part time employees surges as employers exploit this one loophole.”
Didn’t this already happen under Obamacare?
A bunch of service sector employers tried to schedule their staff at under 32 hours while still squeezing them for 40+ hours of work. Everyone hated the system, because it continued to leave the onus of health care on individual employers, while private premiums climbed. And then the courts + Trump Admin defanged any effective enforcement.
What a great system. So glad we weren’t simply covering everyone with Medicaid by default.
Yep! So instead of one full time job you had to juggle multiple part time jobs because a lot of business watch your hours like a hawk.
The jobs that are easy to part time to avoid benefits are already doing so. This doesn’t really move the needle on that.
Though, it would be a good thing to address that at some point.
What should happen is part-time employees should receive the same leave, proportional to the actual amount of time/days worked.
We have more than 20 in Poland. 26 at least. I think You can use up to 28. Plus , obviously sick days, which don’t have a limit and more than 10 holidays every year. And You can score an additional 2 every 2 months if You’re a blood donor. I’ve had a week of every 2 months this year and I’m not even through a third of my paid leave.
20 days + 4 weekends =28! This is the European average.
I think you get 20 days until you’re 30 (have 10 years of experience total, university counts)?
I don’t understand why the US hasn’t got powerful unions to defend workers rights. Don’t people organise themselves!?
Believe it or not, we have people who hate unions. Unfortunately it’s not without reason. Some unions are compromised and favor the company theyre made to oppose. It’s so crooked.
We have people in unions who hate unions. Apparently the propaganda Kool aid is a great flavor
I am a person who dislikes unions. There was a time when they didn’t suck and actually did lots of good. But these days, they are just looking to justify the over inflated union dues. They protect many shit employees. encouraging incompetence and lazy individuals while driving the cost up and up and up. Over regulating saftey to the point of just fucking stupid. Was on a job site recently, the use of a ladder over 5ft is forbidden, and you will be written up. You must have a fucking man lift. $200 ladder vs. $15,000min piece of equipment to change lightbulbs… nice.
Had to load a large piece of used equipment I bought from a union weld fab shop. I was over size so the trucking had to leave around 13:00-14:00 to make it back to destination before sunset. I had to have a truck they were loading pull out and have my truck back in. Great. My truck is in the shop, I get the piece rigged up and ready needed 5-10 min, guy walks over to me starts to lift the piece up. Lunch bell goes, walks away, and piece dangling in the air. Can’t get him to finish loading because it’s lunch… for fucks sake. Because of the lunch delay, I have to pull my truck out because they need the bay to load and wait. My truck doesn’t get loaded until 16:00 and have to guess what, pay for another full day of trucking.
First off, the safety rules are because people die without them. They’re there for your protection. The price of them is your boss’ problem, not yours, stop worrying on his behalf, you aren’t getting paid to do his job.
Second: You need to be angry at the boss instead of the workers. Why do you think they go on break at the exact time? Because if they spend 10 minutes helping you, that’s 10 minutes they can’t eat their lunch, and if they postpone their break 10 minutes, they’ll be written up or fired for not working. The problem is their boss, you’re angry at the abused instead of the abuser.
A union employee fired? That would be amazing to see.
You’re working the wrong job then
Cry about it
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taft–Hartley_Act
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Right-to-work_law
And of course businesses regularly lobbying against unions as well as any form of regulation they can along with media outlets controlled by the ultra wealthy serving as their propaganda outlets against unions, among other things.
Thank you for this reply, i had no idea.
Union busting and killing protestors and semding the pinkertons after them is a long held tradition in the US
There is a long and storied history behind this if you actually are interested in learning why
Someone earlier informed me about the Taft–Hartley Act, which i had no idea about.
Check out the film Matawan. Based on real events in West Virginia. And that was just one event, and I believe the beginning of years of bloody clashes.
There were essentially wars fought within this country between unions and union-busting agencies (often backed by the US government) like the Pinkertons and Baldwin Felts.
Check out The Battle of Blair Mountain, it’s wild stuff: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Blair_Mountain
It’s a real shame to see what states like West Virginia have become. Their union forebearers would be rolling in their graves to see what they’ve become. It’s shameful.
More info:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Virginia_coal_wars
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-union_violence_in_the_United_States
10 days a year is ridiculously few
It is, however, more than none. Which is what some people are getting at the moment.
We just need the law passed so we can work on raising it every year. It’s 10 more than we have now
I have 24 days Paid Leaves here in Bulgaria. The thing is: if you do not take them all over the calendar year, they roll over to the next year, but by law the company must keep the cash on hand to pay them out. I was regularly starting the year with over 20 accrued days. And so were several 100s of colleagues. This has gotten so bad and froze so much cash that the company is now giving an extra 2 days if you use all your days before the end of the year. Sweet deal!
Australia has 20 but…
Also 10 national paid public holidays, 10 sick/carers leave, 10 domestic violence leave, 12 weeks parental leave + a government paid 6 months parental leave and lastly long service leave of 3 months after 10 years service + a bonus 10 days per year long service leave per year after that.
Not to mention the taxadvantaged employer paid 12% retirement investment account accessible at 60.
Y’all need to join unions.
…domestic violence leave?
Basically, if you are the victim of domestic violence - you’re provided with 2 weeks of paid leave through your workplace, regardless of full-time, part-time, or casual.
This allows them to find emergency accommodation, attend medical/legal appointments, counselling etc.
Workplaces may request some form of documentation, which usually takes the form of a Domestic Violence Order (specific type of temporary restraining order), which can be issued pretty quickly - e.g. within 24hrs, if deemed to have an immediate risk.
In general, workplaces aren’t too demanding on this matter - due in part to the sensitivity of the offence, and also due to the potential of Ombudsman involvement if they make things too difficult.
Yep, time off to leave an abusive partner etc. Part of the government’s response to our epidemic of family violence.
:(
You think you shoukd be forced to beat your wife on a vacation day?
They let you take time off to beat your spouse lol
Yeah, that one might be a tad embarrassing to call in.
Be embarrassed, or die at the hands of your partner, you choose!
Not sure taking the day off work factors into that. But I meant more using all your other days off and having to call in abused.
If you need to leave an abusive partner, you can’t wait until you have accrued the necessary leave to find alternate accommodation, make all the arrangements, and move out. You need to do it NOW.
Work/leave was highlighted by numerous studies and reviews as a hurdle to people leaving abusive relationships. Having access to it is actually kind of a no brainer.
Yeah the chart is bad, 8 of those days in the UK are national holidays and therefore decided for you.
Plus we’re behind on the rest, it’s like the chart was sponsored by our government…
Could be worse those, could be American…
Australia has a limit on sick days?
10 paid a year. Some works accrue them continually, some reset it each year, some accrue them but max at 10.
I get 15 paid sick days, after that it’s unpaid.
In Sweden we got 2 weeks in 1938…
Good Ol’ Bernie, still trying to do nice things for everybody… The world would have been different if he would have been elected.
The man would have needed a new Popemobile.
The BernieWagon®
A Bernie-Go-Round?
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Notice how these charts always manage to fit in tiny European populations but completely erase non-Western OECD members? Centering white, Western nations as the default standard for global progress while ignoring the rest of the world is structural racism disguised as economic research.
Here is a list of the OECD countries that they left out with paid vacation laws: Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Slovenia, Türkiye.
But all of those are white western nations as well.
You consider Colombia, Chile, and Costa Rica to be Western White Nations?
Between a quick demographic look up and a map of the world I think so
Mulatto
Sounds like a legit source
I south America not in the west?
Lithuania mentioned!!!
Germany has 20 required paid vacation days, though way more common are 30 days. Even most low end jobs I have seen provide that amount of vacation days. Though there are surely some shitty companies, which don’t adhere to that standard. Ah, and public holidays don’t count towards these vacation days.
