Speech About Vacation

Preparation outline for Persuasive Speech Specific purpose: To persuade my audience to support the legislation to provide everyone with four weeks paid vacation Central Idea: Adopted paid vacation legislation in the USA will help us to stay healthy, avoid stress and bond with our family. Introduction Attention: I. Do you know that more than 147 countries, including all developed countries, now have a law that guaranties paid vacation to every employee? But the United States is the only industrial country in the world which doesn’t have any legislation about it.

What is more, from 1980 to present day we moved from 11th place in the world to 42nd based on vacation longevity, and we spend almost 2 months more at work each year than Western Europeans. II. I am personally also affected by absence of vacation legislation. I have two part time jobs, but unfortunately both my employers do not give me any paid vacation time. My story is not unique, because today in US around 60% of part-time workers don’t receive paid vacation benefits. III. Today, ladies and gentlemen, I would like to encourage you to support the legislation to provide everyone with four weeks paid vacation.

Transition: We’ll start by looking at necessity to adopt the paid vacation legislation. Body Need I. Today in the United Stated vacation became a luxury for many Americans, and it is unreasonably short and can only voluntarily be provided by employers as a benefit. A. According to a study commissioned by Expedia. com, 13 days is the average vacation time in the U. S. 1. Average vacation time among the other countries – chart. (Expedia. com and Ray) 2. The Bureau of Labor Statistics a. 1 in 4 workers – no paid vacation b. 40% of American women earning less than $40,000 a year – no paid annual leave . Low-wage and part time workers and employees of small businesses a. Rebecca Ray in her publication No-vacation nation only 35% of part-time workers in the U. S. have a paid vacation. B. Paid vacation in the U. S. is only voluntarily provided by organizations.

1. Vacation formula is based on years of service. a. Society for Human Resources Management – employees in middle and large-sized companies – work for 25 years to get a 4 week (Ray). C. American work-life is out of balance and we are losing necessary vacation time to stay healthy, avoid stress and bond with our family. . The U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: an average American works one month per year more today than in 1976. 2. Burnout and stress – lack of vacation time, timeday. com: it costs the U. S. economy over $300 billion a year. 3. Men who don’t take regular vacation are 32% more likely to die of a heart attack, and 21% more likely to die early of all causes. Women have 50% more risk of a heart attack. (www. timeday. org) 4. “Vacations are so important for family bonding”, said William Doherty, professor of Family Social Science at the University of Minnesota.

The strong memories from childhood involve family vacations. And yet fewer families are taking them now (right2vacation. com). Transition: Now that you know the need of paid vacation legislation let’s look what can be done about it. Satisfaction: II. The lack of vacation time is a serious problem in the United States and the only way to solve this is to adopt a law guaranteeing 4 weeks paid vacation to every American. A. The adopted paid vacation law will provide a 4 week vacation to every person regardless of full-time or part-time status, company size, and years worked in the company.

And this law would allow us to catch up to other nations. B. All developed countries and more than 70% of all countries in the world already have paid vacation laws, and every European worker gets a minimum of 4 weeks paid vacation, according to the New York Times C. More than two-thirds of Americans strongly support vacation law favoring 3 weeks of vacation and more, based on the information from the poll results on Rifgt2Vacation. org D. And I know from my audience-analyst questionnaire that most of you also support such plan and would prefer to have 4 weeks of vacation or more.

Transition: You can see that vacation time problem can be simply solved by passing such legislation. Now let’s look at effects of a government guaranteed vacation. Visualization: I. Such vacation legislation have worked in many countries, and in the United States it will improve health, family bonding and the life quality overall. A. You will work less and reduce time pressures, and it will give an opportunity to exercise, healthy eating habits and connection with family and friends. And you will likely to stay healthy with having less risk of stress or burnout. B. You would sleep better and your productivity and creativity will increase. C.

You will have more time for stay connected with your family, and your future kids will enjoy family vacations and more time outside. Conclusion Action: The first paid vacation bill was introduced in the House of Representatives in May of 2009. You can help get it passed by signing the various online petitions. Here are the online sites where you can sign these petitions, and I also will pass you handouts, which provide this information. Here is another way how you can participate in the process: follow this link and print the poster, which you can distribute to your friends or place at work to encourage people to support this legislation. If we will all work together, we can get the paid vacation bill through the Senate and many of us will finally have a paid vacation.

Worked cited: “2009 International Vacation Deprivation™ Survey Results. ” . “Right 2 Vacation. ” Take Back Your Time. Web. 15 May 2011. . Ray, Rebecca, John Schmitt . No-Vacation Nation. Washington: Center for Economic and Policy Research, 2007 Take Back Your Time Day. . Tugend, Alina. “Vacations Are Good for You, Medically Speaking”. New York Times 7 Jun. 2008 U. S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Web. 15 May 2011. .