Paid vacations: Who gets them and why some people don’t take them

Guests: Brigid Schulte, John Schmitt

Do you get paid vacation from work? Over a quarter of workers in the United States don’t get paid vacations or paid holidays. Compare that to European countries which have mandated four weeks of paid vacation on top of all the paid holidays. But even if people do get paid time off, a lot of Americans don’t use it. Today, we look at who gets paid vacation, who doesn’t and why. We’ll also look at why some people don’t take time off, how vacations can affect our productivity, and why it’s so hard to escape work even while we’re away. Guest host Mary Cummings-Jordan talks with BRIGID SCHULTE, author of Overwhelmed: Work, Love & Play when No One has the Time and JOHN SCHMITT, Senior economist with the Center for Economic and Policy Research.