More than 4 in 10 U.S. workers took no vacation days in 2014, survey finds

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last updated 8 January 2015

Not only do Americans get less vacation than their peers in the developed world, they don't even use the days off they have, according to a new survey by travel site Skift. In fact, almost 42 percent of U.S. adults took no vacation days at all in 2014, the Jan. 3-5 online survey found — a result Skift calls "as predictable as it is shocking." Only about 13 percent of respondents took 10 days off — the typical allotment for U.S. private-sector workers — while 15 percent took more than 20 vacation days.

In all, Americans let 169 million vacation days go unused, Quartz reports. While Skift seems concerned about the effect America's pathetic vacation habits has on the travel industry, Quartz cites studies showing that vacation days correlate with happiness and earnings (wealthy people take more vacation, which is probably a chicken-and-egg phenomenon). And research suggests that a big reason Americans don't take time off is that they don't want to face the pile of work that will await them when they return — or worse, the pink slip.

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Peter has worked as a news and culture writer and editor at The Week since the site's launch in 2008. He covers politics, world affairs, religion and cultural currents. His journalism career began as a copy editor at a financial newswire and has included editorial positions at The New York Times Magazine, Facts on File, and Oregon State University.