Project: Time Off, an initiative of the U.S. Travel Association, released new research that provides a look at the vacation behavior in all 50 states and the 30-largest metro areas in the country. As the largest leisure travel agency in North America, AAA is a travel industry coalition partner of this initiative.
According to the report, 54 percent of Americans did not use all their vacation time in 2016, leaving a collective 662 million vacation days on the table. Arizona and Phoenix rank third on the list of states and metro areas with the least unused vacation time, with 41 percent and 44 percent of employees leaving vacation time on the table, respectively.
Additional findings from Project: Time Off’s report, Under-Vacationed America, include:
- • U.S. workers took an average of 16.8 days of vacation in 2016. This was up from 16.2 days in 2015.
- • Last year, employees gave up $66.4 billion in forfeited vacation days, time that cannot be rolled over, banked, or paid out. This translates to an average of $604 per employee.
- • 17 percent of workers nationally say their company sends negative or mixed messages about time off.
- • Idaho (78 percent), New Hampshire(77 percent), and Alaska (73 percent) hold the top spots for the states with the most workers leaving vacation unused. Looking at cities, Washington, D.C. (64 percent), San Francisco, CA (64 percent), and Tampa, FL (62 percent) are home to some of the most under-vacationed employees in America.
- • Maine (38 percent), Hawaii (39 percent), and Arizona (41 percent) top the list of states with employees who are least likely to leave vacation time on the table. For cities, Pittsburgh, PA (40 percent), Chicago, IL (44 percent), and Phoenix, AZ (44 percent) are home to employees who take more of their earned time off.
