American staff are notoriously deprived of paid break day (PTO). Latest data suggests that even after they’re given break day, they don’t take full advantage of the perk.
In 2023, 62% of staff with PTO didn’t use all of their vacation time, letting a 3rd of it go to waste, based on a survey released Wednesday by Sorbet, a fintech lending firm. Of them, 5.5% didn’t take any break day last yr.
The share of Americans with unused PTO is “climbing at an alarming rate,” the Sorbet report stated, nearly doubling since 2019. The corporate found that the typical money value of all that unused PTO comes out to just about $3,000 per employee.
PTO within the USA
In line with the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the U.S. is the one member country to not federally guarantee any paid break day to staff.
By comparison, staff in OECD or European Union nations typically get not less than 20 days of paid break day annually, the organization said. Paired with observed public holidays, that number is realistically over 30 typically.
As an organization perk, most full-time employees within the U.S. do get some paid break day. Sorbet’s survey found that the typical PTO policy last yr was 15 days off — but staff typically used only 10 of them.
Sorbet’s findings largely mirror a report released in June from the travel site Expedia.
Dubbed the “Vacation Deprivation Report,” Expedia’s twenty fourth installment of the annual survey awarded America the tongue-in-cheek “gold medal for taking fewest vacation days on this planet.”
Here’s how the U.S. stacked up against other areas across the globe included in Expedia’s report:
- France: average of 31 days of paid vacation time
- Germany: 29 days off
- UK: 27 days off
- Hong Kong: 26 days off
- Australia: 21 days off
- Latest Zealand: 21 days off
- Singapore: 20 days off
- Canada: 19 days off
- Japan: 19 days off
- Mexico: 16 days off
- U.S.: 12 days off
Within the report, Melanie Fish, head of public relations at Expedia, explained that Americans may not give you the option to regulate the quantity of paid break day they get, but they need to break the “horrible habit” of not using all the vacation time they do get.
“Clearly,” she said, “there’s loads for the U.S. to borrow from [other countries].”
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