Mickey Mouse Vacation Plan
May 21, 2009 Political
Democrat Representative Alan Grayson was standing in line at Disney World in Florida (which is in his District) when he had an epiphany. He decided that he was having such a wonderful time on vacation that it was unfair that people in the country did not have vacation time. He decided to introduce a Bill that will require all employers with more than 100 employees to give them one week of paid vacation and that will drop to employers with more than 50 employees three years after the Bill becomes a law.
As a member of Congress he is on vacation nearly as much as he is at work so it is understandable that he would be thinking about time off. However, his idea is stupid and it will come with consequences that are not good.
The vacation would be for full AND part-time employees. So, if you have a business with 101 employees and four of them are part-time, you could fire them and hire two full-time employees and you would have 99 employees and could avoid the law. A business with 101 employees will have to provide two years of employee time off (I know, 101 weeks is just shy of 2 years). This is a huge burden on employers.
This will cause businesses to stop hiring people if the addition will force them to pay for vacations. If you have 50 employees and want to hire another the employee would cost you 102 weeks of unproductive pay. As in the above example, part-time employees would be on the short list of those to get fired.
One can argue if vacations are good for morale and all that stuff but they can argue it someplace else. This has nothing to do with that issue. This has to do with government telling employers what they have to spend. This is about government costing businesses money. Government has no business telling employers that they have to provide vacation time.
This is a benefit that is offered by some employers and not by others. It is an issue that should be decided between the employers and those he employs. If a person works for an employer who does not provide vacation time and that is important to the employee then he should find another job. If enough people are available to work who do not care then it will not matter. If the employer cannot get workers because of the vacation issue then he will have to change his policies.
No matter what, the government does not belong in the mix.
This is the kind of Mickey Mouse stuff that leaves us wondering where the adults in Congress are.
Though after reading of Grayson’s epiphany I would have to say the Disney character that most appropriately describes him would be Goofy.
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Tags: alan grayson, disney, goofy. vacation, mickey mouse