GONZALEZ: Adewale is a labor economics researcher at the Economic Policy Institute. But actually seeing the European attitude toward work in person felt different. And it made Adewale think of this report he worked on a few years back.
MAYE: The name of the report is No-Vacation Nation.
GONZALEZ: No-Vacation Nation.
MAYE: Very on the nose.
GONZALEZ: In this report, Adewale looked at the 21 richest countries in the world, and he listed how many paid vacation days they all get not because of the kindness of their employers, but how many paid vacation days every single person in these countries have to – have to, have to, have to – get by law. And he found that Japan, for example, gets 10 paid vacation days for everyone on top of 15 paid holidays; Australia, 20 paid vacation days, plus eight paid holidays; Spain 25 vacation days, paid, plus 14 paid holidays. We are talking 39 days off, paid, for everyone – hairdressers, mechanics, doctors, bakers, daycare workers, train operators. Every worker in these countries is guaranteed paid vacation. Actually, every worker in all of the richest countries in the world has to get paid vacation except for workers in one rich country, the U.S.