ConNiPtioNs

"Stand up for your right to sit back down again!"

Happy National Slacker Day!

We need a holiday like that in the US.

The average Amercian worker gets 9.3 vacation days¹ while the average German worker enjoys 30 vacation days. ² In fact, workers in Austria, Denmark, Finland, France and Spain are by law guaranteed 30 paid days of leave. Canadian workers are legally entitled to two weeks of paid leave. But American workers are not legally guaranteed any paid holidays or vacation.³


Holly Sklar, co-author of Raise the Floor: Wages and Policies That Work for All Of Us, points out

Since Congress last raised the minimum wage in 1997 to $5.15, it has raised congressional pay from $133,600 to $154,700, an increase of $21,100 – nearly the pay of two minimum wage workers. ⁴

So while Dubya is enjoying his month-long vacation at his ranch in Texas, the waitress at the coffee shop that he and Colin Powell visited probably gets no paid vacation. And, compassionate conservatives look at the brown-skinned workers in the nearby fields and think that they should be grateful to be working at all, how dare they want a living wage and paid leave.

Anyhow, take the rest of the day off.



¹ _{U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics}

² _{Brouwer, Steve, Sharing the Pie: A Citizen's Guide to Wealth and Power in America . (3rd ed., Henry Holt, 1998)}

³ _{Jorgensen, Helene, Give Me A Break: The Extent of Paid Holidays and Vacation. Table 1
Legally Mandated Paid Leave in Europe and United States, 2000.}

⁴ _{Sklar, Holly, Poverty Wages Are Toxic}