Americans are really, really resisting their vacation time. A new survey from the Pew Research Center finds that nearly half (46%) of US workers who receive paid time off—which includes vacation days, yes, but also time for an appointment, a day with the flu, or a much-needed mental health break—don’t actually use all of it.
The study also reveals exactly who is skipping those days: As it turns out, the more money you earn, the more likely you are to leave your PTO on the table.
According to the survey, more than half (51%) of high-earning employees don’t use all their allotted time off, while 45% of middle earners and 41% of lower earners say the same.
But it’s not just people bringing home bigger salaries. The Pew survey finds other patterns among those forgoing their vacation days, too. For example, managers are more likely than non-managers to say they don’t use all of their paid time off (54% to 42%). Similarly, salaried workers are more likely to skip PTO than those paid hourly (52% to 39%), and workers with a college degree are more likely to do so than those without (51% to 41%).
Why don’t US workers use all of their time off, for vacation or otherwise? There are a few overriding reasons. For one, workers say, vacation is stressful: About half (49%) of employees who say they don’t take all their time off do it because they worry about falling behind at work. Apparently, unplugging isn’t worth the scramble to catch up when they return.
But even more survey respondents (52%) point to another reason for not taking leave: They don’t feel like they need more time off. That’s a sure reflection of a uniquely American approach in a country whose citizens work longer, and with far fewer days off, than many of their global counterparts. (Meanwhile, paid time off remains a privilege, not a right: The US is still the world’s only advanced economy that doesn’t guarantee any paid leave for its workers.)
Can unlimited PTO fix Americans’ vacation problem?
Considering that Americans aren’t using all the time off their employers give them, it’s worth asking if a more radical approach to PTO can shake them into enjoying well-deserved breaks. Some companies have tested unlimited vacation policies as a way to signal that taking time away isn’t just offered—it’s encouraged.
While this is still a relatively rare practice—a recent survey shows that only 8% of US companies offer unlimited time off—it’s more common in industries like tech and media, and popular with workers.
But the hard data suggests that unlimited time off isn’t the solution. One oft-cited study from 2017 found that US employees who were given the option took less time off than those with a fixed number of days. In a 2022 follow-up, the gap between those with unlimited and fixed policies had narrowed, but everyone took fewer days off overall, regardless of their PTO plan.
Critics call unlimited time-off policies virtue signaling or the stuff of smoke and mirrors, a practice that allows companies to say they value work-life balance while bagging the cost-benefit. If you don’t guarantee vacation time, the thinking goes, you don’t have to pay unused days out when workers exit.
The critique is often aimed at businesses that employ all those high-earning workers most loath to take vacation. Just look at Goldman Sachs, whose announcement of unlimited vacation for senior bankers and other staffers last year was swiftly met with suspicion over all the dollars it would save.
Putting an unlimited policy on the books alone simply isn’t enough to get employees to take more time away. What US workers really need, it seems, are the culture shifts that explicitly welcome taking a break.