I 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 2564 

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to require that employers provide 

a minimum of 1 week of paid annual leave to employees. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

MAY 21, 2009 

Mr. GRAYSON (for himself, Mr. LEWIS of Georgia, and Mr. HINCHEY) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and Labor 

A BILL 

To amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to require that 

employers provide a minimum of 1 week of paid annual 

leave to employees. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Paid Vacation Act of 

5 2009’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 


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1 (1) according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 

2 each year the average American works one month 

3 (160 hours) more today than in 1976; 

4 (2) job-related stress costs business $344 billion 

5 a year in absenteeism, lost productivity, and health 

6 costs; 

7 (3) some 75 percent of visits to primary care 

8 physicians come from stress-induced problems; 

9 (4) 147 countries require paid vacation leave, 

10 and the United States is the only industrialized Na11 tion without a minimum annual leave law; 

12 (5) one of the fastest growing economies in the 

13 world, China, requires 3 weeks off for employees, 

14 which they call ‘‘Golden Weeks’’; 

15 (6) Canada requires 2 weeks off for all employ16 ees, and 3 weeks off for employees with 5 years or 

17 more with one employer; 

18 (7) the Pew Research Center says more free 

19 time is the number one priority for middle-class 

20 Americans—with 68 percent of those surveyed listed 

21 this as a high priority for them; 

22 (8) in 2008, about half (52 percent) of Amer23 ican workers took a vacation of a week or longer, 

24 and only 14 percent of American workers took 2 

25 weeks or more for vacation; 


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1 (9) men who don’t take regular vacations are 

2 32 percent more likely to die of heart attacks, and 

3 21 percent more likely to die early of all causes; 

4 (10) women who don’t take regular vacations 

5 have a 50 percent greater risk of heart attack, and 

6 are twice as likely to be depressed as those who do; 

7 (11) the travel industry adds $740 billion a 

8 year to the Nation’s economy, while stress and burn9 out at work cost the economy over $300 billion a 

10 year; and 

11 (12) vacations allow workers and businesses to 

12 increase productivity, decrease stress-related health 

13 costs, and provide time for family strengthening and 

14 bonding. 

15 SEC. 3. ENTITLEMENT TO VACATION. 

16 Section 7 of the Fair Labor Standards Act (29 

17 U.S.C. 207) is amended by inserting after subsection (b) 

18 the following: 

19 ‘‘(c)(1) Beginning on the date of enactment of the 

20 Paid Vacation Act of 2009, an eligible employee of an em21 ployer that employs 100 or more employees at any time 

22 during a calendar year shall be entitled to a total of 1 

23 workweek of paid vacation during each 12-month period. 

24 ‘‘(2) Beginning on the date that is 3 years after the 

25 date of enactment of the Paid Vacation Act of 2009, an 


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1 eligible employee of an employer that employs 50 or more 

2 employees at any time during a calendar year shall be enti3 tled to a total of 1 workweek of paid vacation during each 

4 12-month period, and an eligible employee of an employer 

5 that employs 100 or more employees shall be entitled to 

6 a total of 2 workweeks of paid vacation during each 12- 

7 month period, beginning on that eligible employee’s first 

8 anniversary of employment. 

9 ‘‘(3) An eligible employee shall provide the employer 

10 with not less than 30 days’ notice, before the date the paid 

11 vacation under paragraph (1) or (2) is to begin, of the 

12 employee’s intention to take paid vacation under such 

13 paragraph, and identify the date such paid vacation shall 

14 begin. 

15 ‘‘(4) For purposes of this subsection— 

16 ‘‘(A) the term ‘eligible employee’ means an em17 ployee who has been employed for at least 12 

18 months by the employer with respect to whom leave 

19 is requested under paragraph (1) or (2) and for at 

20 least 1,250 hours of service with such employer dur21 ing such 12-month period; and 

22 ‘‘(B) the term 1 workweek of ‘paid vacation’ 

23 means vacation time, in addition to and apart from 

24 sick leave and any leave otherwise required by law, 

25 to be taken in a continuous series or block of work 


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1 days comprising 7 calendar days that cannot be 

2 rolled over, but must be used within the 12-month 

3 period. 

4 ‘‘(5) The exemptions to this section provided in sec5 tion 13 shall not apply to this subsection.’’. 

6 SEC. 4. PUBLIC AWARENESS CAMPAIGN BY DEPARTMENT 

7 OF LABOR. 

8 The Secretary of Labor is authorized to conduct a 

9 public awareness campaign, through the Internet and 

10 other media, to inform the public of the entitlement to 

11 leave afforded by this Act. There is authorized to be ap12 propriated such sums as may be necessary for the public 

13 awareness campaign. 

14 SEC. 5. STUDY ON PRODUCTIVITY. 

15 The Secretary of Labor shall conduct a study on 

16 workplace productivity and the effect on productivity of 

17 the leave requirement in this Act. The study shall also ad18 dress any benefits to public health and psychological well19 being as a result of such leave. Not later than 3 years 

20 after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall 

21 transmit to Congress a report containing the findings of 

22 the study, and shall publish such findings on the website 

23 of the Department of Labor. 

Æ 


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