Americans Eager to Take Back Their Time

Over Half Would Trade a Day’s Pay for Less Work, Less Stress

For many Americans, Labor Day will be a holiday well earned. A study commissioned by the non-profit Center for a New American Dream finds that an alarming percentage of Americans feel pressure to work too much. Americans are willing to put their money where their mouths are, however - according to the survey, more than half of the adults in this country would trade a day’s pay in exchange for a day off from work.

“Labor Day should be renamed ‘Overworked Laborer Day,’” said Diane Wood, the Center for a New American Dream’s executive director, “because Americans win the prize for being overworked and overstressed. As a result, we’re finding it incredibly difficult to strike a balance between work and family – three out of five Americans surveyed feel pressure to work too much and more than four out of five wish they had more free time to spend with their family. The unfortunate fact is that ours is a work and spend culture that has serious implications for our quality of life, our environment and the health of our communities.”

As the only industrial country without any minimum paid time off laws, Americans average only two weeks off a year of paid leave, and more free time is not an option for many. In fact, more than 4 in 10 Americans (46%) say they don’t know or could not afford even a small pay cut. Food, housing, healthcare, and saving for retirement are some of the costs that keep Americans from considering a pay cut in exchange for more free time and less stress, according to the study.

Poll Spells Out the Need for October’s “Take Back Your Time Day”

The Center for the New American Dream conducted the survey in partnership with the organizers of Take Back Your Time Day (www.timeday.org), a nationwide initiative that will be held on October 24 to challenge the epidemic of overwork in America. Americans work nine weeks more each year than their colleagues in Western Europe. Put another way, on October 24, if the average U.S. worker and the average Western European worker had worked the same number of days to that point, the European would have the rest of the year off.

“Medieval peasants worked less than we do,” said John De Graaf, national coordinator of Take Back Your Time Day, and editor of the new book, Take Back Your Time (Berrett-Koehler, 2003). “On October 24th, Americans across the country will join in hundreds of activities to start a national conversation about how we can all live more fulfilling, happier lives.” Visitors to timeday.org can learn about events being organized in their area.

Even the U.S. Senate is getting into the act. A resolution authored by Senators Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy calls upon the President to issue a proclamation designating October as "National Work and Family Month."

Poll Highlights*

Americans Will Take a Pay Cut for More Time, Less Stress

  • More than half of Americans (52%) say they would be willing to trade a day off a week for a day’s pay a week.
  • Americans say they’d accept a pay cut to: have more free time to do whatever I wanted (27%); have more free time to spend with my family (21%); and to genuinely feel less pressure and stress in my life (20%).

More Time for Family

  • More than 4 in 5 Americans (83%) wish they had more time to spend with family.
  • This sentiment is shared among adults with and without children. More than 8 in 10 parents (88%) and non-parents (83%) want more time for family.

Americans Under Pressure to Work and Spend

  • Three in five respondents report feeling pressure to work too much
  • Nearly three in four (73%) say they feel pressure to spend too much.

Housing and Healthcare Top the List of Financial Demands

  • Half of Americans mention either housing (29%) or healthcare (22%) as reasons why they could not take a pay cut.
  • Other demands include maintaining standards of living (19%) and saving for retirement (19%), and paying for food and other basic items (7%).

* Poll commissioned by the Center for a New American Dream and conducted in August 2003 by Widmeyer Research & Polling of Washington, DC. This information is based on a nationally representative telephone study of 500 American adults. The margin of error for the poll is +/- 4.4%.