In the 25 years between 1976 and 2000, American workers used an average of 20.3 days of the vacation time they had earned. Since then, U.S. workers report that they took just 16.2 days of vacation in 2015, nearly a full week less than they had earned. More than half of Americans (55%) did not use all their earned vacation last year.
According to a study by Project: Time Off (PTO), a partnership sponsored by the U.S. Travel Association, American workers did not use 658 million days of vacation time in 2015 and lost 222 million of those days completely because they could not be rolled over, paid out or banked. That averages out to two full days per worker per year.
In a similar study completed in 2014, the authors noted:
Americans suffer from a work martyr complex. In part, it’s because ‘busyness’ is something we wear as a badge of honor. But it’s also because we’re emerging from a tough economy and many feel less secure in their jobs. Unfortunately, workers do not seem to realize that forfeiting their vacation time comes at the expense of their overall health, well-being and relationships.
The net effect is that workers who lost their vacation time added $61.4 billion to their employers’ coffers last year in foregone vacation pay. Fear of returning to a mile-high pile of work was the most often stated reason (37%) for failing to take vacation time. Fully 30% said there was no one else to do the job, and another 30% said they could not financially afford to take a vacation.
Forfeiting vacation time is not a particularly good way to climb the ladder at work either. According to the survey, employees who take 10 days or less of vacation time are less likely to have received a bonus or a raise in the past three years.
Unused vacation also reduces the flow of cash through the economy. PTO reckons that if all earned vacation days were used, another $223 billion in spending would have supported 1.6 million new jobs, resulting in $65 billion in additional income.
The 2016 study does indicate the Americans are slightly less worried about taking vacation time than they were in 2014. That’s some progress at least.
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