Personal Time Off: We Have Far Less Vacation Time

American workers have far less vacation time than do their counterparts in OECD countries. In a 2024 study, New View Strategies found that 81 percent of Americans had four weeks or less in paid time off, and on average American workers took just thirteen days of vacation. By contrast, 70 percent of European workers receive four weeks or more of paid time off and took an average of twenty-one days of vacation. Americans also took fewer sick days, nine compared to thirteen for Europeans. But for Americans, there is more feelings of guilt for taking time away from work. When taking more than a week off, 41 percent of Americans feel guilty; just 28 percent of Europeans feel some pangs of guilt.

The United States is also the only OECD country that does not provide a statutory minimal annual leave policy for employees. In most European countries, workers are entitled to twenty days of leave per year. When public holidays are included, that figure increases to thirty to thirty-five days a year of vacation time. The United Kingdom has a statutory minimum of twenty-eight days annual leave, along with eight public holidays. Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, and Sweden provide twenty-five days. The US has ten public holidays and zero days of federally mandated days of paid leave.

Sources: Kerry (Rosvold) Peters, “Vacation Guilt: Americans vs. Europe PTO,” New View Strategies, June 22, 2022, https://getyournewview.com/vacation-guilt-america-vs-europe-pto/; Kerry (Rosvold) Peters, “Vacation Guilt: Americans vs. Europe PTO,” New View Strategies, June 22, 2022, https://getyournewview.com/vacation-guilt-america-vs-europe-pto/.