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U.S. Workers Explain Why They Don't Vacation

This article is more than 8 years old.

Labor Day has come and gone, and many American workers haven’t taken a single vacation day this year.  Even worse, some don’t plan to.

The U.S. is the no-vacation nation, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, because we are the only advanced nation that doesn’t mandate paid holidays or paid vacation for workers. As a result, one in four U.S. workers have no paid time off.

But even those who get paid leave are leaving more of it unused than we did in the past. According to an analysis by Project Time Off, employed Americans have been taking about 16 of their allotted vacation days in recent years; compared to the 20 days U.S. workers took advantage of up through the late 90s. Another survey, by the travel website Skift, found that nearly 42% of Americans took no vacation days in 2014.

Why not put work down for a few days—or go crazy and take a whole week!—and get all of the health, life and family benefits of taking time off? I asked some anti-vacsers (i.e. people who have yet to take a single day of vacation so far this year) to explain themselves.  For most people, vacation avoidance was due either to the cost of travel, or the nature of their work. Sometimes, both.[/tweet_quote]

Vacations Are Expensive

U.S. families who travel out of town on vacation drop an average of $4,700 on these trips in a typical year, according to an analysis of data from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Consumer Expenditure Survey. This includes transportation—getting there is half the budget, especially if you have to fly—lodging, food and entertainment costs for things like tickets to cultural or sporting events.

And staycations don’t seem to hold the same allure. “I just can’t afford the expenses of a nice vacation, so why take off the time for one when I cannot travel away for it,” says Tanja Crouch, who manages a post-production sound facility in Nashville. She adds that with no one at work to cover her scheduling and contracts obligations, it would be hard to take a week off even if she just wanted to rest at home.

Teresa Coates, the online media manager for a large fabric store, is in a similar bind. “I don’t make enough to afford to do something really fun on vacation. If I did, that’s totally what I would do,” she says. She dreams of taking a long road trip with her teenage daughter to see the Grand Canyon, “taking the slow route there and back,” she says, adding, “It feels a bit impossible since I have responsibilities at work that no one could take over. So I feel guilty even thinking of leaving for a week.” Instead, her vacation time is accruing—it’s up to 40-plus hours, and she hasn’t taken a single day off this year.

For Many People, Time is Quantifiable Money

Many anti-vacsers are entrepreneurs. Not only don’t they have paid vacation days; they can calculate the exact amount of money they’ll lose by stepping away from their business.

“It’s just not worth it,” says Gayle Lynn Falkenthal, a PR pro at Falcon Valley Group in San Diego. “I get no vacation pay so a real vacation would be doubly expensive because I’m not billing anyone. Fortunately, I like what I do. I admit, I grind my teeth and I’m a little green looking at Facebook posts from friends crowing about their fabulous trips and time off. So I have the brief pity party once in a while, but this is the path I chose.” Luckily, she lives in a beautiful part of the country. “That’s part of the reason I never leave!” she says. If she did it would be for a big event like the Summer Olympics or the Tour de France.

“Each year, I tell my wife this will be the year we vacation with the kids, but something comes up,” says Mike Kawula, CEO of Social Quant and resident of Tampa, FL. “This year is no different as I’m head deep in another startup and won’t be able to take time away.” His kids dream of going on a cruise or spending a week at Walt Disney World. “Go figure with Disney, right? Only a 2-hour drive from Tampa,” he laughs.

As working Americans have rejected time off, the number of domestic and international vacation trips have plunged in recent years. In 2013, the most recent year for which data is available, there were 30% fewer domestic vacation trips taken compared to 2005; and 36% fewer international ones. Our inability to vacation hurts the 6% of Americans who work in the travel and tourism industry and workers themselves, who get no relief from job stress.

The no-vacation status is “a cross between a badge of honor and something I’m very bitter about,” says Danielle Rothweiler, who owns Rothweiler Event Design, a full-service wedding and event planning company in West Orange , NJ. Her last vacation was in March of 2014 and she even worked while in labor with her youngest child last December. “We are absolutely doing something wrong,” she says.

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