Even with the ready supply of cheap airplane tickets and discount hotel rooms as well as cheap vacation packages, American workers do not tend to take a lot of vacations.
Other than a few major national holidays, the average American worker gets between two to three weeks of vacation annually, which is much less than what people in many other developed countries receive.
Even the limited amount of days off Americans have come with limitations. Many American companies do not want their employees taking off more than one week at a time. Others expect them to be available by phone or email even when they are at the beach or hiking in the mountains. Being unreachable is considered a no no at many companies.
It has gotten to the point where vacations at some companies simply means that you just work from somewhere else. On average, only 57 percent of American workers use up all of the vacation days they have earned vs. 89 percent of workers in France.
A big reason for the discrepancy is that paid time off is mandated by law in many parts of the world. Australia, Germany, Japan and Slovenia are some of the more than two dozen industrialized countries that require employers to offer four weeks or more of paid vacation to their workers. Brazil, Finland, and France guarantee their workers six vacation weeks annually.
There is no federal law in the U.S. concerning paid vacation. Approximately 25 percent of all American workers earn no vacation time. The U.S. is the only advanced nation in the world that does not guarantee its workers annual leave.
Although most U.S. companies provide vacation as a way to attract and retain workers, fear of layoffs and an ever increasing pace of work means many Americans are reluctant to be away from the office.
In spite of research showing the health and productivity benefits of taking time off, for many U.S. workers a long vacation is undesirable, scary, unrealistic or impossible.
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