Many United States Citizens Took Zero Vacation Days Last Year – Are Americans Happier At Work?


Citizens of United States may be envied for their alacrity to take vacations. However, according to a new research, the United States workforce seems to have rooted itself behind work-desks.

According to a recently conducted survey by travel website Skift, about 42 percent Americans revealed they didn’t take a single vacation day last year. While this may seem as a classic turnaround in the work ethics department, the truth is far more somber than sudden escalation in the commitment to the job.

Employees in the United States are increasingly struggling to get by on the meager wages of their first job. Low-wage professions or part-time jobs, are increasingly pricing workers out of taking time off, forcing them to be tethered to their work-bench or workplace trying to make a few extra bucks and squeeze a little more from a work-week.

Many In The United States Are Stuck In Low-Paying Jobs, Making Vacations A Distant Dream
Many In The United States Are Stuck In Low-Paying Jobs, Making Vacations A Distant Dream

The survey revealed some highly disturbing facts about the workforce situation in the United States. Americans who earned less than $25,000 per year were least likely to take vacation days, with almost half of that income bracket taking no days off last year. Apparently, workers who managed to earn relatively well, weren’t taking time off either. Workers earning more than $150,000 reported taking just about one or at the max, a couple of vacation days.

Low-Paying Jobs Seem To Be Forcing Americans Out Of Vacations
Americans Are Increasingly Struggling To Get By

What’s even more striking than the absenteeism of absent days, is the fact that part-time wage-earners may not be entitled to paid vacations or strongly feel they can’t afford the time away, shared Skift founder and chief executive Rafat Ali.

“It’s a reflection of the current post-recession period, which still feels like a recession. A lot of jobs that were lost haven’t come back, and more people are working part time. [Moreover] Part-time jobs or low-wage jobs, such as hourly restaurant work, may not come with paid vacation.”

Skift collated and summarized the results based on a survey of 1,500 United States adults through Google Consumer Survey and they seem to eerily indicate the country’s widening income inequality, with lower-income workers unable to afford the basics of what many would consider a stable middle-class life: An annual vacation.

Unsurprisingly, it is understandable why Americans are forgoing vacations. The average American vacation budget in 2014 was $8,272, or about 1 percent higher than the previous year. Though this might seem a little costly, these too become seemingly nonviable because taking them means saying bye to those already meager paychecks.

Going without vacations might be helping the workers in United States earn more, but they will eventually pay for it through stress and a lower sense of wellbeing, caution experts.

[Image Credit | National Lampoon, CNN, Skift]

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