Support the Five Day Weekend!

In the spirit of the upcoming long weekend I thought I would share a local grass roots campaign, the Five Day Weekend to reverse the work week so that Americans clock in for two good days of work, followed by five days off.

Here are some statistics from the campaign:

Americans wasted more than 570 million vacation days in 2006

Unlike 96 other countries, the U.S. has no law governing vacations

U.S. workers receive an average of 14 vacation days but only use 10 a year

By comparison, French workers receive 39 vacation days, and Germans get 27

Americans have increasingly worked more days a year since World War II

A nine-year university study recently found that not taking vacation can increase the chance of heart attack or coronary disease.

In 2006, members of the U.S. Congress clocked 104 days in session – which means they worked exactly two days a week.

We want to stop this trend and begin to reverse it. So we're aiming high and going for a Five Day Weekend.

Sounds like a great idea for those of us interested in becoming financially free soon. Perhaps I could work 2 days, take the rest of the week of and still get company benefits? This means I might be able to become financially free on even less than my $2 million net worth goal. Sounds ideal to me.

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Comments (5)

Sounds realistic to me. I would also like to marry Jessica Alba and have Rachel Ray cook for me every day. By law, people in Germany already have this provided for them 369 days a year.

Posted by alex | May 25, 2007 12:39 PM

>>By comparison, French workers receive 39 vacation days, and Germans get 271

271 vacation days is something I can get behind. It doesn't sound like they work enough days to build but about a half-dozen Volkswagons, though.

I guess I am lucky. I may not make much money working in higher ed, but I get time off. I get 160 hours (20 days) of vacation time, 96 hours of sick time (12 days), one personal day, and about 15 holidays (New Year's Day, MLK, Prez, Memorial, July 4, Labor, Columbus, Veteran's, Thanksgiving Day + Weds and Friday, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, and New Year's Eve - and a variable number of days off between Xmas and NYE).

Frankly, I CAN'T take that much time off. I would never get my work done.

Posted by The Travelin' Man | May 25, 2007 2:13 PM

I mean as much as love American Capitalism, and prosperity, I can't but feel at times we've lost our way. I'm personally very guilt of it. I use maybe 8 vacation days a year out of 15 which includes holiday like Columbus Day, and I work weekends. I think often it shouldn't be like this - what happened to the simpler things in life?

Posted by dong | May 25, 2007 5:00 PM

5 day weekend sounds great to an employee but to the employer it needs work.

they would need to hire more employees to make up the difference in work productivity. working on projects would take longer since i would have to wait a week before meeting again to accomplish the next task.

could one accept pay for two days work? if everyone was paid 5 days for 2 days work then would everyone be richer or poorer?

don't get me wrong, i would love to work say 10 hours a day for 4 days (40 hour workweek). it would save some commute time and daily startup up time (getting in the "zone"). I would accomplish more sooner and get an extra weekend day.

Posted by ken | May 27, 2007 10:24 AM

I strongly suggest you read this book: "The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich" by Timothy Ferriss"

Posted by AB | June 25, 2007 3:25 PM