The National Plan for Vacation Day

Launched by the U.S. Travel Association’s Project: Time Off initiative in 2017, the National Plan for Vacation Day is an event most Americans planned for a vacation. It is always on the last Tuesday of January. 

What does it mean?

We are starting to encourage Americans to plan for an annual vacation. Implementing the vacation set aside to all employees will help reduce staffing issues, reduce the company’s cost of unused benefits, and boost work productivity. 

Employees, please view the toolkit to commit to using all of the available vacation days here. It can help you with coordinating their plans in advance.

Here I talked about the upcoming trips in the future (2022 and beyond).

Here and I am jogging down where I am going both solo, with my family, friends, and on tour. I usually took 1-2 weeks off to see off to travel internationally and sometimes domestically. From 2020, I registered as a frequent traveler. I planned to travel abroad at least once a year with my average trip was:

• Solo Trip to only one big city: (5-7 days)
• Escorted tour: (6-10 days)
• Family Trip (7-14 days)
• With friends (6-9 days)

Your results for the travel may vary.

Fact:

The United States is the country where it isn’t required nor to provide any vacation days, and it is a big problem. 

While Americans received only 10 paid holidays and little to no paid vacation days, they usually don’t have time to plan an affordable vacation. Missing a vacation day was the norm for Average Americans, but there are negative consequences of missing out.

Even small businesses or any type of business in which employees have vacation policies that require them to use the available vacation days they need to improve health, wellness, governmental funding to the public, economy, and other taxes.

According to the Bankrate Summer Vacation Survey (Graph), about 36% of all U.S. employees have taken all vacation days (Smith, 2018). Our goal for all employers to use all of the vacation days in the future.

Here are the cause and effects of not using all vacation days:

• It can harm the U.S. economic growth:
  • The U.S. economy had lost 62.2 billion dollars in benefits.
  • About 2 million jobs in the U.S. jobs are lost due to missed benefits that are available.
  • It costs the economy over 225 billion dollars in lost benefits due to unused vacation days and other available benefits.
• It can harm both the employees and employers:
  • Missing just a week of time off had been linked to both overworked and exhausted workers. It costs more hours than those who took all of the vacation days available to the employers (Smith, 2018).

Missing a week of vacation for most workers, especially Americans, have overall health consequences, including work-ache, depression, anxiety, irritability, health problems, etc. There is a reason why annual leaves have overall positive health benefits, mainly because I already planned a yearly vacation time.

Reasons why vacation time:

There are reasons why vacation time is essential in U.S. society. 

• It boosts productivity after your vacation.
• It helps your employers motivate their work-related tasks.
• Vacations help reduce depression relating to the exploration of places and to learn the experiences.
• It boosts mental health about comfort zones, and to adapt to life-skills, you might need to survive.

How many days does American don’t use these vacations?

American employees leave 705 million unused vacation days (U.S. Travel Association, 2018). Three hundred twenty-seven million Americans are living in America (Census). The employment rate currently is 61.2% (United States Employment Rate). This leaves the total population of 200,124,000 working Americans in America (327 million x 61.2% = 200,124,000) (Census).

• In 2017, Americans accumulated 705,000,000 total unused vacations piled up (U.S. Travel Association, 2018). The total unused vacations will significantly affect the Employer/employees and the toll on the economy and health. 
• The fewer total unused vacations, the less damage not only on the employer/employees but also on society. 

Out of 61.2% employed, about 200,124,000 people are working with generous benefits, including vacation days. To calculate the overall vacation days annually, you should divide the number of total unused vacation days working over the number of employees in America.

• 705,000,000 / 200,124,000

The result: It leaves each worker an average of 3.52 unused vacation days annually (U.S. Travel Association, 2018).

What’s more:

About 52% of all American Employees don’t use all of the vacation days in 2017 (U.S. Travel Association, 2018). These unused vacation days can affect the U.S. economic growth needed to sustain positive employee retention. This positive employee retention is our goal, too, to have a positive working reinforcement.

New York will soon be implementing a mandatory time off for all employees, regardless of the circumstances, annually for 10 vacation days. This will quickly change to all employees’ and employers’ bill legislation benefits (Schulte, 2019).

I believe that these states will soon implement their mandatory leave or offer PTOs, no matter if the employer doesn’t provide any of the benefits, full or part-time. Use them. It is suitable for society and the economy. It is also ideal for your health. 

What is your response?

All employers and companies should implement a mandatory annual leave, including time off to all employees no matter if the pay is at the minimum wage. No matter what countries you live in, U.S. employers will soon guarantee an annual leave, just like in E.U. countries, Brazil, India, Libya, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Oman, Arab countries, and other foreign countries. This leaves employees to have a chance to relax from work and to learn more valuable skills once they took time off. The reasons:

• They will learn skills that they have not experienced before.
• They will return to work with less depression, worker fatigue, less burnout, and other health-related problems.
• They will feel happier and more energetic.
• They will be more willing to take more risks to reach their goals.
• They will be more inclined to tell stories to share with someone – more socializing time.

What can employees do to use all of the vacation days?

You don’t have to go far to enjoy yourself. You can plan a short, fun weekend trip instead of faraway places. Just arrange your vacation days, so you will know what your upcoming trip plans are.

Now, I know how to balance work, life, fun, and other things I loved.

If you live in Philadelphia (like me), I usually took a day off to travel to Wilmington to explore environmental things. 

…and the reduction of the staff issues

…the health improved

…and finally the decline of the cost to the employer

A day at Wilmington Blog (Funtastic Philly)

After I get back to work the next day, September 26, I have a story to tell employers I am working together. I felt happier and more productive than I was before.

Hashtag: #planforvacation

References:

Census. Retrieved from https://www.census.gov/popclock/

Schulte, B. (2019, December 24). Why the US is one of only a few countries with no paid time off. Vox. Retrieved from https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/12/24/21035628/new-york-paid-time-off

Smith, K. (2018, August 27). The financial costs of not using your vacation days. BankRate. Retrieved from https://www.bankrate.com/career/take-time-off-economic-and-individual-health/

U.S. Travel Association. (2018, May 8). Project Time Off. Report. Retrieved from https://www.ustravel.org/research/state-american-vacation-2018

U.S. Travel Association. Project Time Off. Retrieved from https://www.ustravel.org/toolkit/time-and-vacation-usage

United State Employment Rate. Trading Economics. Retrieved from https://tradingeconomics.com/united-states/employment-rate