Americans May Get Paid for More Time Off Work

A group of bipartisan lawmakers has launched a study into the state of paid time off (PTO) in the U.S.—the second-worst country for paid vacation days.

Eight senators and six House members sent a letter on Wednesday to advocates, policy experts and organizations requesting suggestions on how to expand access to paid leave across the nation.

"The United States is the only industrialized nation without any form of national paid leave and it hurts our families, our health and our economy," Senator Kristen Gillibrand, who is leading the effort, said in a press release. "The overwhelming majority of Americans support paid leave and believe it's good for families as well as for business."

Newsweek reached out to Gillibrand via email for further comment.

The U.S. is the only developed country without statutory paid leave. While the average American employee gets 14 days of PTO after the first year with a company, paid leave is up to the employer's discretion, the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development found. Comparably, workers in the European Union are guaranteed at least 20 working days of paid vacation a year.

A Morning Consult survey from August shows that the majority of U.S. workers, 66 percent, want companies to adopt extended vacation policies in their workplaces.

Even when workers have PTO, many feel they need to be available to their employers when they're off. More than six in 10 Americans admit to working while on their days off during the holiday season, a November poll conducted by job search company Monster found. And more than a third say they check their work emails every day, even when their office is closed or they're on vacation.

"Paid leave fosters a healthier, more engaged workforce, supports business growth and stability, and contributes to the overall prosperity of the American economy," Representative Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a co-signer of the letter, said.

American stress is already at high levels. More than a quarter of U.S. adults say they're so stressed they can't function, a poll from the American Psychological Association (APA) shows. Over 80 percent cite inflation as a significant source of stress.

Those stressors are exacerbated over the holiday season, when nearly 90 percent said in another APA survey they feel overwhelmed by concerns related to financial constraints and missing loved ones, factors that can be affected by their access to paid time off.

Democrats had initially proposed 12 weeks of paid family and medical leave as part of their spending plan earlier this year, but the length of time was whittled down to four in June.

Comparably, federal workers in the U.S. get 12 weeks of maternity leave, and at least nine states and the District of Columbia offer more than four weeks. Globally, the average paid maternity leave is 29 weeks and the average paid paternity leave is 16 weeks, according to data from the World Policy Analysis Center at UCLA.

The U.S. is one of 11 countries that do not offer paid leave for health reasons. Even if four weeks were offered, recovery from major surgery typically takes at least six weeks.

In the Wednesday letter, the members of Congress asked the contacted stakeholders to help identify what the federal government's role in paid leave should be and what types of leave the government should cover.

They also asked what support small businesses would need from the government to provide paid leave to workers, as well as what studies show about the impacts of paid leave on worker health, job satisfaction, economic mobility and health outcomes, among other factors.

The group is accepting responses until January 31.