Many American Workers Don’t Use Their Vacation Time

June 4, 2004

Many American Workers Don’t Use Their Vacation Time
June 4, 2004 – According to an article in the New York Times, many Americans do not use all of their vacation time away from work, says an annual "Vacation Deprivation" survey.

On average, workers say they will likely lose up to three days of vacation time this year by not using it, up from two days in 2003. As a result, employers get about 415 million vacation days returned to them, according to the findings from a survey by travel site Expedia.com of 1,301 workers last month.

Even those that do use their vacation time say that they are checking their e-mail or office voice mail while they are off. Nearly one third (32 percent) say they work while on vacation.

The survey also divided respondents by geography, with Midwesterners the least likely to miss a vacation, 24 percent compared to 30 percent nationally. Those who live in the West were most likely to sacrifice their vacation time when confronted with a heavy workload.

The average vacation allotment for the workers was 12.4 days a year.

To read the complete article, visit http://preseason.ntaonline.com/www.nytimes.com