NYC Airport Workers Receive $19 Minimum Wage — the Highest in the Country

New York City labor advocates just achieved a huge milestone for workers’ rights. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey recently approved a plan to increase the minimum wage for airport workers to $19 per hour, the highest in the nation. The wage hike would affect some 40,000 baggage handlers, security guards, catering staff and other workers at the three major airports in the region.  
The announcement comes after years of research, protest and advocacy from unionized workers. Proponents of the increase faced severe pushback from airline companies, which argued that higher wages would mean higher prices for customers.
However, labor advocates noted that high turnover rates fueled by insufficient wages were making the travel experience less safe and efficient for passengers. New York City’s airport worker turnover rates are exceptionally high — more than 30 percent annually, and even as high as 160 percent at one company, according to a report issued by the Port Authority.
New York City’s airports are vulnerable on multiple levels. Together they serve more than 100 million travelers annually, and they have faced overwhelming crowds and inclement weather in recent years, not to mention several thwarted attacks.
https://www.facebook.com/senatorsanders/posts/10157350736527908
“The new policy will benefit the traveling public by reducing staff turnover and providing an experienced, well-trained, motivated workforce that can better assist in responding to an emergency, identifying security issues, operating equipment safely, and providing experienced customer service,” reads a statement from the New Jersey governor’s office.
The Port Authority modeled its plan after other airports around the country saw success improving operations and safety by increasing their minimum wages. “Lifting airport workers’ wages is now a tried and tested tool for responding to a recurring set of problems at airports around the United States,” the agency noted in its report.   
Airport workers in New York currently earn at least $13 per hour under state law, and workers in New Jersey earn a minimum of $10.45. Beginning on Nov. 1, New York workers will receive $13.60 an hour and New Jersey workers will earn $12.45. The wages will increase annually until they hit a minimum of $19 an hour in 2023.
Raising the minimum wage is a hot-button issue. While proponents argue that an increase will lift people out of poverty and reduce turnover rates, thus saving millions in training costs, critics say that wage hikes will ultimately lead to massive job loss.
Nonetheless, the airport workers’ wage bump has been hailed as a triumph for the American worker. “Their struggle will send a message around the country that when workers stand together and fight for justice, they can win,” said Senator Bernie Sanders.

Emotional Support Animals Are Not Service Animals. Here’s Why It Matters

It’s Monday in the office, and I’m on a mission to see if the mouse that continues to eat its way through my pantry can be registered as an emotional support animal. After all, it has been more effective in cutting carbs from my diet than weekly therapy.
Within five minutes of searching online, I found that if I paid $164 to one company, it would provide me with a “disability assessment and treatment recommendation letter.” This letter would allow me to position the mouse — yes, my pest — as an emotional support animal. For another $75, I could get a letter that would make it possible for me to take the tiny rodent with me on a plane for a year, no questions asked.
It’s schemes like these, along with a number of viral-worthy posts claiming peacocks and iguanas as emotional support animals, that have made the use of emotional support animals (ESAs), well, eyebrow-raising.
As a result, people who game the system to get free flights for their pets are being scrutinized more frequently — and that’s not good news for those with actual disabilities.
I had to fight for my right to have my ESA everywhere I applied for housing. It was extremely difficult dealing with housing managers who simply had been scammed so many times,” Karen Ann Young, a blind woman with PTSD who has been using a seeing eye dog along with her ESA for 33 years, tells NationSwell. “It took so long to find an apartment [because] landlords have been overrun with tenants claiming their pets are emotional support animals.”
Here are a few things you need to know about service animals, the controversy surrounding ESAs, and what’s being done to stem the rising tide of fraudulent support and service animals.

What is an ESA?

In order for an animal to be considered “of service,” the Americans with Disabilities Act requires the animal to be trained to provide a specific task — seeing eye dogs, for example.
By law, most public places are required to allow service animals. Shop owners are allowed to ask someone using a service animal two questions: “Is the animal required because of a disability?” and “What has the animal been trained to do?”
It’s a completely different set of requirements, though, for ESAs, which are regulated under the Fair Housing Act and Air Carrier Access Act. Typically, you must have a legitimate mental diagnosis and an ESA deemed necessary by a licensed psychotherapist, before your pet can fly for free (and not in the cargo hold).
But those seemingly legitimate rules have created a cottage industry for online certifications, bogus treatment letters and even online shops via Amazon that sell support animal gear.
As a result, pigs can fly. And that’s a growing problem.

Service Animal 1
Many veterans find relief from PTSD through emotional support dogs, but there’s no conclusive evidence that animals effectively treat the disorder.

How ESAs turned airline travel into a nuisance

In January this year, Dexter the peacock made its owner famous after she was denied entry to her flight from Newark to Los Angeles when she claimed the bird was an ESA. And earlier this month, Southwest Airlines announced they would start allowing miniature horses on planes. (Miniature horses are recognized as service animals under the ADA.)
But many are saying “neigh” to the idea of expanding the definition of support in this context, partially because it’s feared that the ESA trend is getting out of control.
It’s difficult to know how many ESAs there are in the nation — there is no central database or oversight in terms of how such animals are registered — but airlines track the number of support animals they fly every year, which gives us some idea. Delta Airlines found that since 2015, it has flown over 250,000 service and support animals — an increase of 150 percent.
Another study found that registration for assistance dogs in California increased by 1,000 percent between 2002 and 2012. And that number is likely to rise, as Americans age and start requiring more canine support.  
“It is likely we will see more dramatic increases in the number of adults with a disability as the baby boomer population [ages] over the next 20 years,” Chad Helmick with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention told Anything Pawsible, a trade publication covering service animals.

Are ESAs effective?

One in five Americans deal with mental illness in a given year, and given the massive media pick up on animals helping us deal with trauma or stress, you’d think that a small furry creature — such as a hungry mouse — could represent cheap and easy therapy.
Not so much, it seems.
The science is still out on ESAs being truly effective for treating those with trauma, depression or anxiety.
Dogs, for example, have been found to help veterans with PTSD. Adopting furry animals has shown to help reduce stockbrokers’ blood pressure, and a review published this past February found that pets did, indeed, help those with mental health conditions.
But almost all of the studies that demonstrate the efficacy of pet therapy also come with a big caveat: there needs to be more research on the subject. Moreover, there is nothing conclusive to show that animals actually help more than just being cute, cuddly and generally happiness inducing.
“Despite media headlines extolling the curative powers of dolphins, dogs, horses and Guinea pigs, there is little evidence of the long-term effectiveness of emotional support animals for the treatment of mental problems,” writes Hal Herzog, a psychologist who analyzes relationships between humans and animals, for Psychology Today. “Indeed, it is possible that they can sometimes have an enabling function which actually prolongs an individual’s psychological issues.”

Airlines and states are fighting back

Because airlines are on the front lines of the ESA debate, private companies like Delta Airlines and JetBlue have created higher standards for flying with animals, such as providing proof of need through a therapist’s note and giving 48 hours notice to review animals being taken on board.
The change in policy — outside the dramatic increase in ESAs being used in travel — was implemented because of “incidents involving emotional support animals that haven’t been adequately trained to behave in a busy airport or the confined space of an aircraft,” reads JetBlue’s policy.
But states have also taken action in order to curb the trend.
Last year, the state of Washington passed a law that makes misrepresenting a pet as a service animal a civil infraction with a $500 fine. A similar law was passed in Arizona this year that also fines fraudulent service animals’ owners.
But such laws can create problems for people who rely on legitimate service animals. Some argue that the new legislation doesn’t adequately address poorly behaved non-disabled people and their pets, but rather opens up harassment for people who actually depend on their animals to help them lead normal lives.  
Perhaps a better solution is one that is less punitive than regulatory, like a nationally recognized identification system, where both dogs and trainers must pass testing and be recertified every few years — something not currently mandated under the ADA.
And though I might want to justify my use of an ESA mouse to cut back on my intake of Wonder Bread, I think it’s likely best to just stick with traditional diet and exercise.

The Reinvention of Small-Town America

In 2012, James and Deborah Fallows embarked on a journey in their single-engine Cirrus SR22 to explore American life on roads less traveled. Over five years and 100,000 miles later, the husband-and-wife team had flown to dozens of towns and cities across the country, listening to residents beaming with civic pride and witnessing firsthand evidence of economic reinvention. Their journey evolved into Our Towns: A 100,000 Mile Journey Into the Heart of America, a book that examines everything that’s going right in the country.
Exploring places that, on their surface, seem to have more differences than commonalities — Sioux Falls, South Dakota; Eastport, Maine; Allentown, Pennsylvania; and San Bernardino, California, are just a few — the Fallows unearth stories of resilience and creative pursuit.
These towns and cities are not places that pop up on many travel itineraries — which is why they are so often overlooked, James Fallows, a longtime national correspondent for The Atlantic, told NationSwell during a recent conversation. It doesn’t help that the opioid crisis looms large in many economically depressed areas, overwhelming any positive news that might otherwise register on a national scale. But many of these places are not just surviving; they’re thriving, say the Fallowses. While the national narrative has tilted toward chaos over the past few years, Our Towns can be read as a kind of corrective to the pessimism that currently pervades much of American society.
“I think it’s an actual struggle for the future of the country, between everything that is poisonous at the national level and everything that is potentially renewed and healthy at the local level,” James Fallows says. “And we think it matters to have these people who are doing ambitious things locally be known about, and be connected with one another too.”
NationSwell: Why did you choose the places you visited? And why not a city like Detroit, which has become something of a poster child for urban renewal?
James Fallows: So Detroit obviously has been on our mind because it’s such a classic case. There has been a fair amount of attention on the Detroit story, and we were looking generally for smaller places. And I say “smaller” rather than “small” partly because we went to a few biggish places like Columbus, Ohio, which is huge, and Pittsburgh, which is significant. But mainly the criteria was, places that weren’t getting much normal media attention, where they’d only be covered if there were some kind of disaster or a political race.

Small towns 2
For their cross-country tour, James and Deborah Fallows visited small towns that have been left out of the media narrative.

We were also looking for [places where] there was some kind of challenge and response; where there was something that was illustrative one way or the other about how the city was doing. We went to different parts of the country and different sizes of cities and saw different racial mixes and different degrees of economic recovery. This wasn’t meant to be scientific in any way, but I feel as if in the end it became representative.
NationSwell: Was it pretty easy to get people to talk to you? Did you encounter any suspicion about what you were doing?
Fallows: Even though I’ve worked for The Atlantic forever, both Deb and I think of ourselves as being small-town people. Many places were sort of similar to where we thought of ourselves as being from, so I think it wasn’t, “We are here from the big city to examine you as specimens.” Rather it was, “Hmm, this looks familiar. Tell us how it works.”
Also, we were not going there saying, “Why did you vote for Trump? What do you think about Obama? Are you a racist?” It was essentially, “What’s happening here? Are the kids moving in, or are they moving out? How does this school work? Is this business going to fly?” We never ask people about national politics, mainly because our experience was once you do, the results are never interesting. It’s going to be just like turning on the TV.
NationSwell: True. You don’t pass judgment on anything you learn, either, even when it’s kind of jarring, like when you talk about the giant pig slaughterhouse in Sioux Falls, or shipping pregnant cows to Turkey from Eastport. Is it ever hard to be neutral?
Fallows: For anybody who eats meat, it’s part of what things are. I am not a vegetarian and so therefore implicitly I endorse the existence of slaughterhouses. It’s been this really central, but also changing, part of the fabric of Sioux Falls. That’s where the Eastern European immigrants worked a hundred years ago, and then it had a sort of good job, union wage, and now it’s where all these Muslim immigrants are killing pigs. It really is surreal.
Small towns 3
The Fallowses point to innovation in K-12 education as a bright spot in small towns across the U.S.

NationSwell: Something that crops up in several places in the book is the idea of public-private partnerships being central to a city’s economic development. Why do you think such partnerships are important?  
Fallows: I think for anybody in D.C., if you hear that phrase, “public-private partnership,” you instantly think BS, because you think it’s just sort of a log-rolling or pork-barreling provision of some appropriations bill. I always thought of it as epitomizing the bad parts of combined corporate and public power.
But in many places [we visited], people could point to something specific and say, “This bridge, this library, this auditorium, this garden, this river walk was the result of a public-private partnership.” And I think that the simplest illustration is this thing in Greenville, South Carolina, the A.J. Whittenberg Elementary School of Engineering, a public school where engineers from BMW and GE are teaching these little kids from the poorest parts of town how to become engineers, and it wouldn’t work if both the public and the private weren’t engaged there. So I think my reflexive cynicism about it was incorrect.
NationSwell: You end the book on a chapter you call “10½ Signs of Civic Success.” Can you touch on your most important findings?
Fallows: The secret of U.S. vitality over the centuries has been [that] it’s always stronger when it makes itself more open and always weaker when it fails to do that. [Thriving towns] make themselves open, and by open I mean to immigration, to people at different stations in life, of allowing people to reinvent themselves, etc. To me, that is the idea of America, and it’s at its best when it does that and worst when it doesn’t. So that’s another way in which something is bad at the national level [but] now seems to be the opposite at the civic level.
Another component here is, I think, practical educational innovation. Not every place can have a big research university. That’s something you have or you don’t. But places that are innovating with community colleges and creative schools, K-12 schools, those are important to connect people with new opportunities, and that was surprising because [we found them] in the South, largely. Engagement and also innovation [like with libraries] — you think libraries would be doomed like the corner newsstand. The corner newsstand is in fact doomed, but libraries, even though they were created around physical books, in many places seem to be reinventing themselves. And then, of course, we have the brew pubs, sort of a show of hands for entrepreneurial arts community.
There’s a line in the book from a guy who said, “If you want to consume a great community, you move to Paris or Brooklyn. You want to create a great community, you move to some little podunk place and you’re part of creating it.” People decide that a certain place matters to them. They’re not just passing through there and just looking for a great restaurant and thinking of where they’re going to go next, but how this place will be in the future, both 10 years from now and when their children are deciding where to live.

Not Your Grandma’s Golden Years

Florida condos, group bus trips and endless games of Solitaire may be a thing of retirement past. The typical American Millennial is unlikely to mirror the retirement of their grandparents — or even their parents. According to analysis in the publication Science, developed countries have seen an increase in longevity, more than two years every decade. A person born in 1998 is likely to live to 95, assuming she has reasonable access to education and healthcare. This means that your golden years might be almost as long as your professional life. Spending 35 years lounging by the pool or playing mahjong is unlikely to appeal to Millennials, who seem to prefer transience to routine.
When Social Security was first established in 1935, life expectancy was around 61. For those trying to fit in education, a family and a job to support that family, there wasn’t ample time for leisure and other activities. It’s no wonder then that Americans defaulted to a three-stage plan that focused on those three things. Adding an upward of 40 years to a lifespan frees things up bit to make life more fulfilling, and in turn, provides the opportunity for a “multi-stage life.” Coined by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott, authors of “The 100-Year Life,” the concept outlines the shifting of our life trajectory from being progressive and defined by three stages to one that’s non-linear and filled with diverse careers, breaks and adaptations.
“The current trends of this three-stage life cannot work for someone with potential to reach 100 [years of age],” says Scott, professor of economics at London Business School. “Instead, a multi-stage life will be made up of many different stages each with different aims — perhaps one aimed at making money, another with a better work/life balance or a third focused on self-expression. Each stage will require a reboot to prepare a new identity and skills for the stage ahead.”

Millennials are leading the way by redesigning their 20s as a distinct age stage. The focus: Spend your second decade determining your values, your strengths and priorities — a time to hold off on early commitments and explore ample possibilities.
A recent Merrill Edge Report shows that 42 percent of 18-to-34-year-olds designate working their dream job as a personal milestone. Thirty-seven percent make traveling the world one of their top priorities. And almost two-thirds of Millennials are saving to live out their desired lifestyle now, as opposed to 55 percent of Gen Xers and baby boomers who put money aside for retirement. Call it FOMO retirement planning: Younger generations are no longer looking at their adult life as a predetermined, linear path. Instead, they’re taking a hop-on-hop-off trolley approach by nurturing personal goals. Read on to see how you can catch a ride for this multi-stage life.

Embrace Transitions

The multi-stage life counts on being adaptable in all areas: career, relationships, family and beyond. “Flexibility requires that we set aside what has already happened so that we can be open to what arises next,” says Henry Emmons, holistic psychiatrist and co-author of “Staying Sharp.”
Curiosity is an important driver in creating this flexibility. It challenges us beyond what we already know, which results in a bit of (good) stress that resolves when the related task is complete. Think about trying an exotic food. Inquisitiveness makes you wonder what it tastes like, followed by tension before you experience the unknown flavor, until your brain registers the entire experience as new taste. “As far as the brain is concerned, curiosity pushes us to keep going and thus, creates new neuropathways,” Emmons says. “It’s the best things we can do for ourselves, especially as we age and become set in our ways.”
Identity is often shaped by a particular job. When you’re not limited to a single career, however, you’re open to experiencing various roles. “You need to think about your identity in a different way,” says Scott. Reinforcing the idea that a gap year is no longer limited to college graduates, and instead, an acceptable (planned) exploratory period every few decades, is bound to reboot any inertia along the way.

Invest in New Skills

If you don’t disrupt the three-stage life, you’re likely to feel bored or frustrated during your centenarian life. “The human psyche needs to keep growing and learning,” says Emmons. “The antidote is to keep yourself engaged and try new things to create a sense of momentum that gets you out of a repetitive pattern.”
In order to stay current, one should be ready to adapt — and often. Unknown opportunities will arise a decade from now, so it’s vital to reskill every three to five years. Virtually every job today requires at least some computer skills, and those at the helm have a clear advantage. New technologies, like robotics and Artificial Intelligence (AI), will further disrupt the playing field. The International Federation of Robotics forecasts that the number of industrial robots will increase by 13 percent each year between now and 2019. According to the McKinsey Global Institute’s June 2017 report, “Artificial intelligence tools have the promise to change our lives as fundamentally as personal computers did a generation ago.” Because almost a quarter of firms that have adopted AI expect to grow their workforce, not reduce it, individuals need to acquire skills that work with, not compete, against machines.
This approach challenges the collegiate “learn then earn” model that can’t keep up with fast-paced job market. A “nanodegree” may be the answer to get ahead in this new digital frontier. Udacity, an online education hub, has pioneered the concept of offering tech-savvy courses — including Robotics and Self-Driving Car Engineer — that further one’s career without costing much time or money. These courses aren’t just useful for a Silicon Valley wannabes; the financial, media, retail, education and healthcare sectors, as well as the travel industry, are all integrating various degrees of AI into their frameworks.
While automation is the asset du jour, robots alone can’t monopolize the workforce. A perk of being human is that mental plasticity drives innovation and creativity. Take this success story: A computer science whiz was able to break into the L.A. fashion industry because her coding background allowed her to develop programs for printing patterns on different textiles. “She had the visions of a fashion designer, but also understood the mechanisms to bring her visions into reality,” says Valerie Streif, senior advisor with Mentat, a San Francisco-based organization for job seekers. “You’re able to jump fields as long as you’re willing to take on new challenges.”
It’s crucial to develop transferable soft skills such as leadership and communication — something the smartest robot cannot match. “Emotional intelligence is the most desirable soft skill of all,” says Streif. “The ability to read people sets you apart as a leader.”

Strive for a productive life

Planning for a multi-stage life is more than lining up your finances (more on that later). Family, friends, health, mental well-being and knowledge are the building blocks of an enjoyable long life. Aside from providing a nurturing day-to-day experience, these intangible assets are crucial during transition periods that often need extra support.
On the home front, actually coordinating and switching roles — a theory coined by Nobel prize-winning economist Gary Becker back in 1981— allows each partner to further develop different life stages while still maintaining the much-needed income stream. Domestic partnership roles based on traditional patriarchy simply can’t benefit both parties, not in the long-run anyway.

Much like financial investments, intangible assets like friendships need diversification and consistent attention to grow. (After all, you can’t bank on college to set you up with friends for the next 80 years). This is where volunteering, civil service or caregiving come in. Non-homogenous relationships make you less prone to stereotypes, prejudice and ageism — boosting your reputation as a people-person, a characteristic that carries enormous value in every day interactions and the workforce.
A productive life also means prioritizing a healthy mind and body. The healthier you are in your youth, the fewer chronic conditions should pop up later on. Conversely, an unhealthy lifestyle doesn’t just wreak havoc physically; it can drain savings due to the already volatile state of healthcare. If practicing meditation seems too advanced, develop good sleep patterns. “It’s the single most protective thing for the body and the brain,” says Emmons. Sleep is like going into a repair shop to tweak all those micro injuries that happen during the day. “Deep sleep allows the brain to cleanse itself and opens up channels that are closed during the day,” he adds.

Revamp your financials

According to a Bankrate.com report, seven out of 10 of non-retired Americans plan to work as long as possible during retirement. Of those, 38 percent plan to remain employed because they like to work, and 35 percent said they plan to have a job because they need the money; 27 percent said both. When you consider that a third of Millennials believe Social Security won’t be available to them, retirement savings must take priority. “Everyone, especially Millennials, should get in the habit of saving 15 percent of their income for retirement,” says Greg McBride, chief financial analyst at Bankrate.com. “Ideally through tax-advantaged retirement accounts such a workplace 401(k) and an IRA. Establish this habit early on and it will stick with you as earnings grow.”
In fact, you might need to stash as much as 25 percent of your income — a challenging task if student loans and travel eat up a saving than previous generations.
While Millennials are better at saving than previous generations, the Great Recession has made many question the security of investment plans. The fear is not warranted, says McBride. “Who cares what the market does next year, or the year after. You’re making contributions. If the market goes down, you get better price on your next contribution. The stock market is the only place, when it goes on sale, people run the other way.”
But what about paying off student loans? A fair question given the fact that 70 percent of college graduates are left with $38,000 in debt, on average. While a looming loan can be psychologically burdensome, making consistent payments towards your loan for 10, or even 25 years if you’re furthering your education, is often the right plan, particularly if you’re also paying a mortgage or other debt. Contributing to a 401(k), particularly if your employer offers dollar-for-dollar matching, is another smart alternative to paying off student loans right away.

Restructure time

“We don’t yet know what exactly works over 100 years, and it will be a long while until we do,” says Scott. That’s why it’s a good idea to ignore the clock a bit. Your 20s are becoming increasingly accepted as a time to be liberated and to transform your interests into more permanent sectors of your life, such as different careers or lifestyles. Think of your 30s as the test-drive decade for all those self-discoveries made during the previous decade. Perhaps your 40s is a time to make tweaks or shift gears. Once you’re in your 50s, ponder whether your older self will approve of how you’re setting up your life for the next stages. “Unlike past generations, it’s important to keep giving yourself options throughout all ages,” says Scott. “You find out what you like by both doing it and by rejecting what you don’t.”
The advantage of looking at life as a non-linear progression frees you up to make choices that may otherwise feel risky when you’re bound by the expectations of the three-stage life. Millennials are on the right track by delaying marriage and children in order to make time for self-discovery, find well-fitting careers and partners and enhance their community.
Going forward, each person has the opportunity to create a unique path. But to do so, we have to become age-agnostic. Repeat the following: Age does not equal stage. In other words, there are no rules when you can be a college student or a spouse, or hold a certain job. Overthinking whether you fit into a mold can be detrimental in the long run. “Worry and fear lock us in and create a sense of stagnation,” says Emmons.
This post is paid for by AARP.

How Vacation Incentives May Be the Best Spark for Creative Thinking

It’s no secret that unconventional company policies are a good way to retain employees and increase workplace productivity. From Google to Facebook, Silicon Valley’s tech industry has illuminated the benefits of good employee benefits.
Which is why thinkPARALLAX, a creative agency with 11 employees in California, recently launched a program to award its staff with a $1,500 travel budget to take a trip anywhere in the world.
The caveats? Each employee must choose a location they’ve never been to, travel between September and December and blog about the experience. So far the firm’s website features tales about trips to New Zealand, Peru, Holland and Germany.
“Rather than send employees to conferences or a local museum, we thought, what if our whole team is ‘forced’ to travel to a place they’ve never been, to immerse themselves in a new culture and gather inspiration?” the founders write on their website.
In fact, around 40 percent of Americans do not take their allotted paid vacation time, while 41 percent do not intend to use their paid time off (PTO) even though it’s included in their compensation, according to a survey from the U.S. Travel Association and GfK. Returning after vacation to piles of work or concern over leaving projects unfinished leads Americans to forego their vacation time, and most continue to work even when they’re on vacation: A recent TripAdvisor survey found that over the past year, 77 percent of Americans worked while they were on away.
“When you don’t put a timeline behind things, people tend not to do them,” says Jonathan Hanwit, a co-founder at thinkPARALLAX. “It also forces everybody to realize that they can pick up the slack and creates a more cohesive work environment.”
The creative agency is one of many companies joining the creative benefits band wagon. Airbnb employees receive a $2,000 travel credit to use on Airbnb while TED gives employees a compulsory summer vacation. More recently, Richard Branson’s Virgin Group announced unlimited vacation for the company’s staff in London, New York and Geneva. Netflix also offers unlimited holiday. Other examples include Patagonia, which offers flexible hours for its employees to surf and take advantage of the day’s best waves, as well as Evernote, which gives its employees a $1,000 bonus to take a whole week off.
MORE: This Organization is Sending Business Students on Road Trips for Change