![\"vacation_time_chart\"](\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2010\/01\/vacation_time_chart2.png\" "\\"vacation_time_chart\\"")
<\/p>\nSociologists have noted that race and gender have been more politicized in the U.S. than class.\u00a0 In contrast, class is highly politicized in Europe, leading to a much stronger labor movement.\u00a0\u00a0 The weak labor movement in the U.S. is partly to blame for the stingy federal policies around vacation and holidays.\u00a0 The U.S.\u00a0federal government dictates that employees are given exactly zero paid holiday and vacation days a year (that means, if you get such things, it is because your employer is being generous\/in a benefits arms race with other employers).\u00a0 This is in stark contrast to most other OECD countries:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yep, that’s right.\u00a0 In every country included except Canada and Japan (and the U.S.), workers get at least 20 paid vacation days.\u00a0 In France and Finland, they get 30… an entire month off, paid, every year.<\/p>\n
When I show figures like these (and there are many of them, parental leave<\/a>, work hours<\/a>,\u00a0military spending<\/a>, class inequality<\/a>, etc) to my students, they are STUNNED.\u00a0 Most Americans are woefully ignorant of how pro-business U.S. policies are compared to the policies of like countries.\u00a0 I think this ignorance contributes to the resistance many Americans display when politicians and activists talk about improving protections for workers.<\/p>\n Gin and Tacos<\/a>:<\/p>\n We’re a nation of people working harder and harder for less and less, and the merest suggestion that we should do anything other than work 9 hour days without pause until we drop dead is met with cries of socialism…<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The quality of life of a typical American certainly suffers from our ignorance of life in other nations.\u00a0 If we were more aware\u00a0of what a strong labor movement could offer, we might be more supportive of those movements.<\/p>\n I’ve always loved this bumper sticker<\/a>:<\/p>\n Sociologists have noted that race and gender have been more politicized in the U.S. than class.\u00a0 In contrast, class is highly politicized in Europe, leading to a much stronger labor movement.\u00a0\u00a0 The weak labor movement in the U.S. is partly to blame for the stingy federal policies around vacation and holidays.\u00a0 The U.S.\u00a0federal government dictates […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[36,254,260,76],"class_list":["post-18508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-economics","tag-holidays","tag-international-comparisons","tag-work"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18508"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18508\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":60506,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18508\/revisions\/60506"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"weekend_bumper_800\"](\"https:\/\/thesocietypages.org\/socimages\/files\/2010\/01\/weekend_bumper_800.jpg\" "\\"weekend_bumper_800\\"")
<\/p>\nLisa Wade, PhD<\/a> is an Associate Professor at Tulane University. She is the author of <\/em>American Hookup<\/a>, a book about college sexual culture; a textbook about gender<\/a>; and a forthcoming introductory text: <\/em>Terrible Magnificent Sociology<\/a>.\u00a0You can follow her on Twitter<\/a> and Instagram<\/a>.<\/em><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"