Canadians give up nearly 10 million vacation days

By Special to MoneySense on October 2, 2015
Estimated reading time: 1 minute

We're taking 15.5 of 17 days on average

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Canadians will receive an average of 17 vacation days from employers—an increase of one additional day over 2014—but will take only 15.5 of those days, an Expedia.ca survey finds. That represents close to 10 million unused vacation days by Canadians this year alone. Since the survey’s inception in 2003, Canadians have collectively left more than 350 million vacation days on the table, resulting in an overwhelming $53 billion in wages handed back to employers. For nearly a third of Canadians (32%) work schedules topped the list of reasons for leaving vacation days on the table, followed closely by saving for other obligations such as a house, tuition, or paying off debt (29%), and personal and family schedules ranked third at 24%. More than half (52%) of Canadians say they are vacation deprived versus 48% last year. Sixty-six percent say it is because they did not get enough vacation days this year while 34% say it’s because they do not get to take all their vacation days. The survey also revealed that more than one million Canadians have not taken a vacation in over 15 years and more than 1.4 million Canadians have never been on a vacation in their lifetime. [brightcove video_id=”6024378546001″ account_id=”6015698167001″ player_id=”lYro6suIR”] This article originally appeared on Benefits Canada.