Almost Half of U.S. Workers Don't Use Their Vacation Time

Did you use your allotted vacation time last year? If not, you have plenty of company. A recent survey conducted by Kelton Research found that 48 percent of U.S. workers left some vacation time on the table in 2011.

Why not take some time away? Respondents cited workload and a reluctance to have to catch up on a backlog of post-vacation work among their reasons for not taking vacation time. However, just over one-half of U.S. workers did use all their vacation days. One-in-four respondents even indicated that they would give up 5 percent of their salary to get five more vacation days!

Other things workers who wanted more vacation indicated they would forgo to get that vacation time:

• All office-sponsored events (52%)
• Their favorite beverage (30%)
• Lunch breaks (23%)
  
• An extra hour of sleep a day (20%)

You can find more details in stories from USAToday and The Boston Globe, among others.