Vaneza Mari Calderón is a mariachi musician. She plays the guitarron, the large booming bass instrument at the bottom of the sound. Now 35 years old, she’s been a paid musician since she was 13. In addition to gigs, Calderón teaches music: children, college students and incarcerated men and women. And she hasn’t had a paid vacation since 2009.
Calderón is hardly unique. An estimated 28 million Americans don’t have paid vacation and as many as 31% of U.S. employees don’t have paid time off. Among leisure and hospitality workers, like Calderón, only 43% nationwide had access to paid vacation time in 2021, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In California those workers comprise the state’s fifth largest employment sector; officially, more than 2 million employees.
A federal study by the Obama Administration found that low-wage workers, Hispanics and those with less formal education suffer the greatest disparities in access to paid leave — what Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers called the “benefits gap.”
There are health implications, too: Studies find vacation time benefits the mind and body short term and long term. The stress that comes with a lack of a break from work is associated with heart disease, early aging and Alzheimer’s. Vacation benefits the workplace as well: Employees return more creative and productive.
But at the moment...
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