@Nacim: because the term “paid holidays” doesn’t apply anymore then?

Dustin, good point. As such, it is quite likely that mandatory paid leave would result in salaries being slashed far more than could ever be justified.

That, and it would be largely irrelevant. While paid leave is not required by law, most workers negotiate for it anyway. And even that is a silly concept; just because time off is unpaid does not mean you cannot take time off. American wages are significantly higher than our European peers in France/etc, so we are perfectly capable of buying free time if we wanted too.