Skift Take

Unused vacation days don't always equal longer hours and more demanding jobs, especially in cities like LA and San Francisco that tend to shut down work early as the chatter from the east coast dies down.

Here’s something to ponder as Labor Day approaches: Los Angeles workers leave the highest percentage of their total employer-provided vacation time unused: 35%. By comparison, Boston workers let only 16% of their vacation days go unused.

That’s according to a new survey of America’s 10 largest cities released this week by private destination club Inspirato.

Santa Monica beach. Photo by Alberto Cabello.

In all cities except Boston and Philadelphia, the majority of employees do not use all of their vacation time.
San Francisco workers leave 32% of their total vacation days on the table, second only to L.A.’s 35%.

Among America’s 10 largest cities, the study found residents of Washington, D.C., were the most likely to take a vacation over the last five years while Chicagoans were the least likely.

According to the survey, for all but one year in the five-year study, the percentage of Washington, D.C., residents taking a vacation was significantly higher than the 10-city average.

Harris Interactive conducted the online survey on behalf of Inspirato and polled 2,534 respondents 18 years or older in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Los Angeles, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.

(c)2012 the Los Angeles Times. Distributed by MCT Information Services. 

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Tags: labor, vacations

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