Thomas Schaller, Political Science, in the Baltimore Sun

Published: Aug 22, 2013

Tom SchallerIn advance of Labor Day, UMBC political science professor Thomas F. Schaller writes in his latest Baltimore Sun column that despite increased productivity, U.S. workers have less access to vacation time and lower pay than their international peers.

Schaller references a study released earlier this year by the International Labor Organization, which found American workers are the most productive in the world, producing $63,885 of wealth annually on average. However, he notes, citing a recent study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, “the United States is the only nation that doesn’t guarantee every worker a certain number of days of paid vacation. Although we have 10 official federal holidays, none are guaranteed paid vacation days — a commonplace legal right in most other industrialized nations…[and] almost a quarter of all Americans…get no paid vacation time whatsoever.”

Read the full column at The Baltimore Sun.

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