The average American worker barely takes advantage of half of their allotted vacation time, according to a Glassdoor survey released earlier this year. Most American workers are currently entitled to 10 vacation days -- which is 10 fewer days than the Germans and Irish get, and 20 days short of the French. When Americans finally do take our time off, we don’t actually disconnect from our work responsibilities -- 61 percent of us work while on vacation out of fear of falling behind, losing our job or appearing less dedicated than our colleagues.
Even more upsetting is that one in four American workers do not have vacation options at all. The United States is the only advanced country in the world that does not guarantee vacation days to its workers. And there is a new White House petition out to fix that, the Vacation Equality Project.
Supported by Hotels.com -- which presumably sees a business opportunity in an America where more people have mandated vacation time -- the goal of the Vacation Equality Project is simple: Give every American employee much-needed and much-deserved time off (making sure they use it is another story). Launched on July 16, the campaign is hoping to gather 100,000 signatures by next Friday, August 15, in order to force the issue to the top of Congress’s priority list -- a group that is currently taking advantage of their mandated month of vacation.
Want to learn more? Check out the Vacation Equality Project's campaign video below.