The media is full of stories about summer vacation fun and the annoyingly named stay-cation trend, but what about those poor schlubs who have been spending all of their sunny days at the office this summer? Are all Americans entitled to paid vacation time?

A recent poll by Take Back Your Time/Opinion Research Corporation found that 69% of Americans support a paid vacation law while 27% are opposed. And how much vacation is enough? The majority of respondents said three weeks sounded about right. Read more about the poll.

American workers are obviously sick and tired of  "vacation starvation" and the burnout symptoms that often result from a non-stop work schedule. U.S. companies offer the stingiest vacation allotments in the industrialized world — an average of 8.1 days after a year on the job. Meanwhile, our French colleagues average 25 vacation days per year and German employees take off for 30 annual vacation days.

And those of you with 8.1 days off each year are among the lucky. 25% of Americans receive no paid vacation leave at all.

But wait, there’s more. Recent studies have shown that half of U.S. workers don’t even take the vacation days they’re given. U.S. workers forfeited approximately 421 million vacation days in 2005. Often, employees postpone their much-needed vacation breaks due to heavy workloads and/or concerns that employers will disapprove. But what if your employer was required by law to give you a break?

Take Back Your Time is a U.S./Canadian initiative to challenge the epidemic of overwork. Take Back Your Time believes that the lack of vacation time in the United States is a serious problem and that a law guaranteeing paid vacations would lead to higher hourly productivity and reduce the escalating cost of health care by making all Americans healthier.

According to their research, men who don’t take regular vacations are 32% more likely to die of heart attacks, and 21% more likely to die early of all causes.  Women who don’t take time off increase their risk of heart attack by 50% and are twice as likely to be depressed as women who go on vacation.

Evidence also indicates that workers who take regular vacations are more productive and loyal employees.  Read more about the Take Back Your Time initiative.

Has any of this convinced you to take some of those unused vacation days already? Do you believe that every hard-working American should be lawfully entitled to a few weeks of paid vacation? Would a paid vacation law put undue burdens on employers?

I’d love to hear opinions from all of you who are currently sitting at your computers instead of sitting on the beach (and all of you freelancers and telecommuters who might be currently sitting at your computer WHILE sitting on the beach).