The average American worker took 16.8 days of vacation in 2016.[1] According to Project: Time Off, a group that advocates more time away from the job, that’s up slightly from 16.2 days in 2015. But it’s down from "the 20.3 day long-term average from 1976 to 2000.”
The average worker earns 22.6 days off per year, meaning that they leave nearly a full week of time off unclaimed. Overall, that means 662 million vacation days went unclaimed in 2016.
Forty-three percent of workers say the fear of returning to a mountain of work is a major barrier to taking time off. Other barriers include the belief that no one else can do their job, cited by 34 percent, and a desire to show complete dedication to the job (26 percent).
"Employees who forfeit their vacation days do not perform as well as those who use all their time." According to Project: Time Off, "these employees are less likely than non-forfeiters to have been promoted within the last year (23 percent to 27 percent) and to have received a raise or bonus in the last three years (78 percent to 84 percent)."[1]
Footnotes:
- Project: Time Off, "The State of American Vacation 2017," accessed September 1, 2017
Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day is published by Ballotpedia. Each weekday, Scott Rasmussen’s Number of the Day explores interesting and newsworthy topics at the intersection of culture, politics, and technology.
Scott Rasmussen is a Senior Fellow for the Study of Self-Governance at the King’s College in New York and an Editor-At-Large for Ballotpedia, the Encyclopedia of American Politics. His most recent book, "Politics Has Failed: America Will Not," was published by the Sutherland Institute in May.To read more of his reports — Click Here Now.
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