AP US Government and Politics

How many annual vacation days are required by law in the US?

1. How accurate was your prediction?

2. How many vacation days are required by law in Austria?

3. How would life change if all workers in this country were guaranteed 42 days off a year?

4. Would you rather have 42 vacation days a year or none?

5. Why do you think the US has so few vacation days?

6. What is one consequence of living in a country with zero required vacation days?

7. What questions do you have about this information?

8. Why do you think a wealthy country like the US has zero require vacation days?

9. As a citizen, let's imagine that you wanted the U.S. government to mandate 5 vacation days a year. List 3 specific steps you could take to pressure the government to make that happen:

10. Imagine that the government decided to mandate a 5 vacation days a year for all workers. List the first 3 specific steps the government could take to make that happen:

11. Imagine the government mandated 5 vacation days a year what would the typical Democratic and Republican party responses be to that?

12. In the comments section below, write what you would do with 42 extra vacation days a year.

Action Extension

Contact your US Representative to let them know what you'd like them to do about this information.

Learning Extension

Read this Forbes Magazine article about mandated vacation days.