The USA had a chance to start again and get so many things right. So why are they so backwards with some things?
We’ve had legally-protected paid leave in the UK for almost a century now. Granted, we were the first in the world, but most of Europe and many other countries now have similar protections. Many of which are more generous than the UK’s.
That’s not to mention the myriad of other laws and protections covering unfair dismissal (the “at will” system is fucking dystopian, sorry), a years paid maternity leave, statutory sick pay, mandatory employer pension contributions, working time regulations and mandatory redundancy pay. All of which have no federally-enforced equivalent.
I’m honestly a bit shocked that only 66% support PTO. Surely it’s a no-brainer?
Is it a size thing? Is the idea of looking out for each other just untenable in such a large, diverse place?
I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in a place where 34% of people have such an individualistic “I’ve got mine” mentality, that they don’t even support mechanisms that virtually every other developed country collectively agrees is the fucking minimum needed in order to live reasonable existence.
US has PTO, it is just much less than Europe.
The reason there are people who don’t support it is because of conservative shame culture. If you aren’t rich, it is because you are lazy. They don’t want to take anything away from the rich because they earned it and deserve it. If that means the worker suffers, then the worker should just work harder so they can be rich too.