The future of paid leave

Companies seeking to offer employees paid leave may have to face more than they bargained for in the future. President Barack Obama spoke recently about the possibility of extending the federal mandate for vacation days closer to the number available to those in European countries like France, according to the Washington Times. He also said that he intends to find a way for the U.S. government to enforce some kind of paid maternity leave, which is currently not available automatically unless a company decides to institute it as part of its policy.

"Many women can't even get a paid day off to give birth," Obama said. "There is only one developed country in the world that does not offer paid maternity leave, and that is us. And that is not a list you want to be on, by your lonesome. It's time to change that."

Other changes on his agenda include mandatory workplace flexibility and a "right to request" work policy. So far, however, the president has not directly proposed any new legislation.

The US and the rest of the world
According to USA Today, the U.S. is the only developed nation that does not offer a legally required paid vacation day or holiday. In the European Union, at least four work weeks of vacation time are mandated for each worker.

Whether this is good for the economy is a question that cannot be answered easily. In Germany and New Zealand, the unemployment rate is only 5.5 percent and 6.9 percent, respectively. However, the unemployment rate in countries like Spain, France, Italy and Portugal are much higher. Whether this has to do with recent fiscal and economic policy decisions coinciding with a dramatic global recession – rather than what has long been the norm for vacation times in those countries – was not discussed by the newspaper, although it could be that this is the reason for the greater unemployment rates, rather than the expenses caused by vacation time, as the GDP per hour for various European nations is only slightly lower than the U.S.'s GDP per hour.

Whether the country decides to offer more vacation times or not, it is worth noting that in countries with extra days off, there are generally also many employee benefits.

"Workers who have vacation and paid holidays also tend to have much higher levels of other benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans," said John Schmitt, senior economist at Centre for Economic Policy Research.

Workforce management seeking a European model may be frowned upon by U.S. companies, but it may shape up to become a new reality.