Sanders pushes paid vacation legislation

WASHINGTON – Sen. Bernie Sanders will introduce legislation Thursday that would require paid vacations for millions of workers as part of a "true family values" agenda he's pushing as he runs for the Democratic presidential nomination.

The bill would provide 10 days of paid vacation for employees who have worked at least one year at a job, ensuring them access to the minimum vacation benefits most companies already offer white-collar, high-salary workers, according to his office. The bill would apply to employers with at least 15 employees.

Sanders, I-Vt., said the U.S. is a "stressed out nation," with nearly one in four workers getting no paid vacation time. It's also the only advanced economy that doesn't guarantee workers some form of paid family leave, paid sick time or paid vacation time, he said.

"The idea that people do not have the time to take a few weeks off to be with their kids, to enjoy themselves, to relax, is really not what America should be about and is certainly not a family value," Sanders said in a Wednesday interview. "The bottom line of all of this is to bring reality to the concept of family values."

Sanders also is co-sponsoring a bill by Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand of New York to guarantee workers at least 12 weeks of universal paid family and medical leave, and a bill by Democratic Sen. Patty Murray of Washington to guarantee at least seven paid sick days per year.

Murray's bill passed the Senate 61-39 in March as an amendment to a budget resolution, but that measure doesn't carry the weight of law.

In January, President Barack Obama granted federal employees six weeks of paid parental leave, and he endorsed seven days of paid sick leave during his State of the Union address.

Opponents of mandates to provide paid sick and family leave say they would hurt businesses, cost jobs and could damage job opportunities for women. But Sanders said the idea a woman could lose her job because she had a baby is "completely unacceptable."

It's "horrendous" that mothers have to rush back to work during the most important bonding time with their babies because they don't have enough money to stay home, he said.

"I know that the right wing will oppose all of this," he said. "But the question they have got to answer is, 'How come these ideas can exist in every other major wealthy country on earth except in the United States of America?"