Democrats Introduce Legislation To Make Paid Vacation Mandatory
Right. Because nothing says “put the country back to work” like mandated vacation benefits.
Rep. Alan Grayson was standing in the middle of Disney World when it hit him: What Americans really need is a week of paid vacation.
So on Thursday, the Florida Democrat will introduce the Paid Vacation Act — legislation that would be the first to make paid vacation time a requirement under federal law.
The bill would require companies with more than 100 employees to offer a week of paid vacation for both full-time and part-time employees after they’ve put in a year on the job. Three years after the effective date of the law, those same companies would be required to provide two weeks of paid vacation, and companies with 50 or more employees would have to provide one week.
I’d be willing to bet that most companies of those sizes already have paid vacation benefits. And nobody is forcing anyone to work at the ones that don’t.
But the real problem here is that this creates yet more burden for business owners. Not only would they have to pay these benefits, but there are also going to be compliance costs as the federal government will no doubt want verification that employees are, in fact, getting their government mandated vacation benefits. Even the part timers.
Sure this might mean more people get paid vacation time, but it’s also going to mean more overhead for businesses and ultimately either higher prices or less employment.
