--- title: 'American Workers Are Letting a Third of Their Vacation Time Go to Waste: Report' description: Do you use all your vacation time at work? New surveys show that most U.S. workers don't use up all of their paid time off. authors: - name: Adam Hardy role: Lead Data Reporter url: https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/ bio: Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. Adam’s work has also appeared in Business Insider, Forbes, Nasdaq, The Penny Hoarder, Yahoo! Finance and more than a dozen local and regional newspapers. education: University of South Florida, BA, Magazine Journalism at_money_since: 2021 articles: 498 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Debt - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology also_seen_in: - The Penny Hoarder - Forbes Advisor - Creative Loafing - The New York Times - The Washington Post - Bloomberg - Harvard Law School - The Federal Register - National Consumer Law Center - CBS News - Becker's Hospital Review - Business Insider - Mother Jones - The Week - Fortune - The Philadelphia Inquirer - National Association of Student Financial Aid Administrators (NAFSAA) - Education Advisory Board (EAB) - The Institute for College Access & Success (TICAS) - This Morning with Gordon Deal - Empower - Reddit social: - https://www.x.com/hardyjournalism - https://www.linkedin.com/in/hardyjournalism/ editors: - name: Brad Tuttle role: Senior Editor url: https://money.com/author/brad-tuttle/ bio: Brad Tuttle is a former senior editor at Money with over 10 years’ experience covering a vast number of personal finance topics, including careers, cars, travel, budgeting, investing, insurance, credit cards, consumer psychology, real estate, banking, and shopping and deals. education: Columbia University School of Journalism, MS at_money_since: 2014 articles: 366 covers: - Career Advice - Banking - Business - Credit - Credit Cards - Economy and Politics - Education - Health and Wellness - Housing - Identity Theft - Insurance - Investing - Lifestyle - Loans - Mortgages - Personal Finance - Pets - Professional Services - Retirement - Shopping - Taxes - Technology social: - https://twitter.com/bradrtuttle - https://linkedin.com/in/brad-tuttle-834b225 former_staff: true published: '2024-07-24T19:06:51.000Z' modified: '2024-07-24T19:15:43.000Z' section: Career Advice tags: - News word_count: 421 canonical: https://money.com/workers-unused-vacation-time-pto-survey/ type: NewsArticle source: structured-blocks --- > **Disclosure:** We research all brands listed and may earn a fee from our partners. Research and financial considerations may influence how brands are displayed. Not all brands are included. [Learn more](https://money.com/page/disclaimer/). ![Photo collage of a man in an office looking at a computer with a beach photo](https://img.money.com/2024/07/News-Americans-Dont-Vacation.jpg) American workers are notoriously deprived of paid time off (PTO). New data suggests that even when they’re given time off, they don’t take full advantage of the perk. In 2023, 62% of workers with PTO did not use all of their vacation time, letting a third of it go to waste, according to a [survey released Wednesday](https://www.getsorbet.net/sorbet_pto_report_2024.pdf) by Sorbet, a fintech lending firm. Of them, 5.5% didn’t take any time off last year. The share of Americans with unused PTO is “climbing at an alarming rate,” the Sorbet report stated, nearly doubling since 2019. The company found that the average cash value of all that unused PTO comes out to nearly $3,000 per worker. ## Planning on taking a trip soon? ### Make sure that your trip is covered with Travel Insurance. Click your state to get coverage. [View Rates](https://money.com/pr/f4d78f1a1ce6?ap_referrer=%2Fworkers-unused-vacation-time-pto-survey%2F) ## PTO in the USA According to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the U.S. is the only member country to [not federally guarantee any paid time off](https://www.oecd.org/content/dam/oecd/en/data/datasets/family-database/pf2_3_additional_leave_entitlements_of_working_parents.pdf) to workers. By comparison, workers in OECD or European Union nations typically get at least 20 days of paid time off annually, the organization said. Paired with observed public holidays, that number is realistically over 30 in most cases. As a company perk, most full-time employees in the U.S. do get some paid time off. Sorbet’s survey found that the average PTO policy last year was 15 days off — but workers typically used only 10 of them. Sorbet’s findings largely mirror a [report](https://www.expedia.com/newsroom/expedia-report-finds-americans-win-the-gold-medal-for-taking-fewest-vacation-days-globally/) released in June from the travel site Expedia. Dubbed the “Vacation Deprivation Report,” Expedia’s 24th installment of the annual survey awarded America the tongue-in-cheek “gold medal for taking fewest vacation days in the world.” Here’s how the U.S. stacked up against other areas around the globe included in Expedia’s report: - **France**: average of 31 days of paid vacation time - **Germany**: 29 days off - **UK**: 27 days off - **Hong Kong**: 26 days off - **Australia:** 21 days off - **New Zealand**: 21 days off - **Singapore**: 20 days off - **Canada**: 19 days off - **Japan**: 19 days off - **Mexico**: 16 days off - **U.S.**: 12 days off In the report, Melanie Fish, head of public relations at Expedia, explained that Americans may not be able to control the amount of paid time off they get, but they should break the “horrible habit” of not using all of the vacation time they do get. “Clearly,” she said, “there’s a lot for the U.S. to borrow from \[other countries\].” ### Quote, compare, and buy in minutes—best price guaranteed ![View Rates](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/28840/medium_dca16b05-03f8-4766-b735-a167b0e7c79d.png) Our Partner [View Rates](https://money.com/go/1af4ff0b5968?bidid=4056816832&pmeta=p129-c539-u24443&ptid=665124919&ptoken=fe4b20e5e6ccb0609a3018032366ba17) ### Fast Claims & 24/7 Travel Support ![View Rates](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/24823/medium_475a7712-9b54-4b36-af8f-1ea2de63eb95.png) Our Partner [View Rates](https://money.com/go/51f1062280af?bidid=4056816843&pmeta=p129-c539-u24443&ptid=665124919&ptoken=6a942fb6a8a5e03fc5210e41736f5de8) ### Travel concierge services with premium plans ![View Rates](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/37203/medium_ccee2cd0-9a93-479b-9b91-e6556173f7a6.webp) Our Partner [View Rates](https://money.com/go/76b1833603c5?bidid=4056816829&pmeta=p129-c539-u24443&ptid=665124919&ptoken=ba2e5ea867873cf0a21b0a1645aeb1b8) ### Cancel-For-Any-Reason Coverage Options ![View Rates](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/37199/medium_f907be5a-b72c-4349-a7b7-3777f2c8ebcb.webp) Our Partner [View Rates](https://money.com/go/909770f15f35?bidid=4056816835&pmeta=p129-c539-u24443&ptid=665124919&ptoken=13d70d5b392930cb009debb200536d66) ![View Rates](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/36540/medium_81b9bfac-0870-4abf-a1d5-f86d60d3c8e0.webp) Our Partner [View Rates](https://money.com/go/8434a9a8c1ad?bidid=4056816839&pmeta=p129-c539-u24443&ptid=665124919&ptoken=fd2358679abfb10c51fbcb98cd153c93) ![](https://s3.consumersadvocate.org/prd/image/image/28840/medium_dca16b05-03f8-4766-b735-a167b0e7c79d.png) Enjoy your trip worry-free with the help of Travel Insurance [View Rates](https://money.com/pr/v76af457ef6b?ap_referrer=%2Fworkers-unused-vacation-time-pto-survey%2F) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://money.com/workers-unused-vacation-time-pto-survey/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://money.com" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Career Advice", "item": "https://money.com/career-advice/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "American Workers Are Letting a Third of Their Vacation Time Go to Waste: Report" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://money.com/#website", "url": "https://money.com", "name": "Money", "publisher": { "@id": "https://money.com/#organization" } }, { "@type": "WebPage", "@id": "https://money.com/workers-unused-vacation-time-pto-survey/#webpage", "url": "https://money.com/workers-unused-vacation-time-pto-survey/", "name": "American Workers Are Letting a Third of Their Vacation Time Go to Waste: Report", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://money.com/#website" }, "datePublished": "2024-07-24T19:06:51.000Z", "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://money.com/workers-unused-vacation-time-pto-survey/" }, "inLanguage": "en-US", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://money.com/workers-unused-vacation-time-pto-survey/#breadcrumb" }, "dateModified": "2024-07-24T19:15:43.000Z" }, { "@type": "NewsArticle", "headline": "American Workers Are Letting a Third of Their Vacation Time Go to Waste: Report", "articleSection": "Career Advice", "image": [ { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://img.money.com/2024/07/News-Americans-Dont-Vacation.jpg", "width": 2407, "height": 1605, "caption": "News-Americans-Dont-Vacation" } ], "author": [ { "@type": "Person", "name": "Adam Hardy", "url": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/", "@id": "https://money.com/author/adam-hardy/#author", "description": "Adam Hardy is a lead data journalist at Money, where he frequently reports on financial barriers that affect low-income Americans. 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