Constable: Ready for 99 days without a paid holiday?
December was a month that spoiled us with holiday celebrations, joyous parties, fantastic feasts, scrumptious desserts and much-appreciated breaks from work. Our federal government recognizes Christmas as a holiday, and since it fell on a Sunday, many working stiffs were able to push the holiday into the week before or after. The Daily Herald even gives employees Christmas Eve as a paid holiday.
A few employers closed early on some days for holiday parties, and, depending on your religion, you might have taken off time for Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, the Winter Solstice, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, Eid-e-Milad, St. Nicholas' Day or New Year's Eve.
And 2017 started with a paid federal holiday on Day One.
Now, well, it will be a long holiday-less stretch for some folks.
It's 148 days between Jan. 1 and the next paid holiday for Daily Herald employees on Memorial Day. For people with jobs or kids in school, January and February can be confusing when it comes to holidays.
The state of Illinois gives employees paid holidays on Mondays for Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday Jan. 16, Abraham Lincoln's Birthday on Feb. 13 and George Washington's Birthday, which is also known as Presidents Day, on Feb. 20.
The city of Chicago celebrates Casimir Pulaski Day on March 6, but the state no longer spends one of its 12 holidays (13 in election years) to honor the Revolutionary War hero. In addition to the holidays already mentioned, Illinois celebrates Independence Day, Labor Day, Columbus Day, Veterans Day, and a Thursday and Friday for Thanksgiving.
There are no state or federal holidays in March, April, June or August, unless you count the Opening Day of the baseball season. From Washington's Birthday to Memorial Day, we suffer through 99 days without any official holidays, which is probably why some people make a big deal out of St. Patrick's Day on March 17.
Other countries have it so much better when it comes to time off work.
"The United States is the only advanced economy in the world that does not guarantee its workers paid vacation," begins a 2013 report published by The Center for Economic and Policy Research. Nearly 1 in 4 working Americans has no paid holidays or paid vacations, while the average worker receives six paid holidays a year and about 10 vacation days.
As newlyweds without kids, my wife and I once overlapped vacation time from two years to take a three-week vacation to Hong Kong and Thailand. Every American gasped, "Wow! Three weeks! How wonderful!" But every European, Canadian and Australian we encountered gave us a sad face and said, "Only three weeks?"
The European Union's Working Time Directive requires a minium of four weeks (20 working days) of paid time off a year. France offers only one national holiday a year - Fête du Travail, or Labor Day in May - but mandates a whopping 30 days of paid vacation. A new law also gives French workers a "right to disconnect" from work by requiring companies with more than 50 employees to negotiate a time (such as 7 p.m. until 7 a.m.) when workers are not required to respond to email.
The United Kingdom has no national holidays (unless the Queen declares one, as she did in 2011 when Prince William wed Kate Middleton), but most employers offer paid holidays in addition to a minimum of 28 vacation days each year.
Austria mandates 25 paid vacation days but tacks on another 13 paid holidays. Every European Union country, as well as Australia and New Zealand, offers workers at least 20 days of paid vacation a year and somewhere between six (Greece) and 13 (Portugal) paid holidays, except for the Netherlands and Switzerland, which offer vacation but no paid holidays.
Canadian law requires employers to give employees nine paid holidays and 10 vacation days. Japan sets the low bar (outside the U.S.) with no paid holidays and only 10 vacation days.
If you must get your holiday fix, Thursday is National Screenwriter's Day, National Bird Day and National Whipped Cream Day. Celebrate all three at once, and you'd better hope your employer offers a sick day.