Vacation For Me, Not For Thee: European Workers’ Hard-Won Summer Vacation Tradition Is Slowly Being Taken Away
Authored by Conor Gallagher via NakedCapitalism.com
August is the time of year that the majority of Europeans head off on vacation, and Americans reading the news are reminded of how crappy the paid time off policy is in the US.
That is no doubt true. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), American workers put in more hours than every other “developed” country in the ILO’s report – France, Belgium, Germany, Australia, the UK, and Sweden. That averages out to roughly 400 more hours on the job every year compared to Germany.
The legal right to paid vacation and a total number of mandated paid holidays. Source: Center for Economic and Policy Research In theory the Europeans’ vacation policies are a comparatively sane balance between capital and workers.
But if you start to peel back some class layers in Europe, what you’ll find isn’t pretty. The vacation “privilege” has for some time been quietly eroding for the working poor.
While 75 per cent of Europeans planned to travel this summer, the number one reason for those staying home was economic challenges. Forty-seven per cent said they were too short on cash to go on vacation, which was up six points over last year. More from The European Trade Union Confederation:
The share of the total population who could not afford a holiday has increased in over half of EU member states since 2019 and even the share of working people who can’t afford one has increased in 11 countries.
Romania, Greece and Lithuania have the highest share of workers unable to get away for a week. Italy (8m), Spain (4.6m) and France (4.1m) have the highest number of workers missing out on a break for financial reasons.
This coincides with a rise in the profit share of European companies, meaning executives and shareholders hoarded more money among themselves to the detriment of workers.
The cost of living crisis in Europe, largely due to the collective West’s ill-fated war against Russia, is only making matters worse. Inflation is sapping enthusiasm for vacation. Nearly one in three Europeans say that price increases have increased their anxiety about summer vacation travel, and 48 per cent were concerned about running out of money while traveling this summer. And that’s if they can get away from both of their jobs at the same time. From Euronews:
As inflation soars across Europe and beyond, an increasing number of workers are taking on additional jobs to combat the cost of living crisis.
New research from software company Qualtrics shows that nearly half of UK employees have either already looked for or are planning to look for a second stream of income, and 77 per cent are considering picking up overtime or extra shifts to pay their bills.
Other European countries are seeing similar trends: 30 per cent of workers surveyed in Germany and 22 per cent of those in France are considering taking on a second job.
