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# Americans Get 12 Vacation Days. France Gets 31. It Shows
- URL: https://www.zilck.com/americans-get-12-vacation-days-france-gets-31-it-shows/
- Published: 2026-10-05T23:38:54.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-05T23:38:54.000Z
- Description: Americans get the fewest vacation days of any country Expedia surveyed and still don't use them all — and the reason is something your team's manager can actually fix.
- Author: Zilck Team
- Tags: Productivity

French workers are offered 31 days of vacation a year and take 29 of them. Germans get 29 and take 27\. Americans are offered 12 and take 11, the lowest of the 11 countries in [Expedia's most recent Vacation Deprivation report](https://ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/human-interest/2024/06/21/americans-take-fewest-vacations-globally--expedia-report-says?ref=zilck.com).

It isn't hard to see where that ends up. Aflac's [2025 WorkForces Report](https://newsroom.aflac.com/2025-10-09-American-workforce-burnout-reaches-6-year-high?ref=zilck.com), which surveyed 2,000 employees and 1,002 employers, found U.S. burnout at a six-year high. Among Gen Z workers, 74% report at least moderate burnout, making them the most burned-out generation in the workforce.

The usual response is to argue about policy. The more useful question is why Americans don't even take the few days they already have.

## The Days Exist. The Exits Don't.

Expedia's 2024 data show that 65% of Americans describe themselves as vacation-deprived, and 32% said they had gone a year or longer between vacations, compared with 18% globally, [according to a breakdown of the report](https://www.resortpass.com/blog/americas-wellness-gap/?ref=zilck.com).

When Expedia asked workers what stops them, the answers were less about money or ambition than about logistics. In [its 2023 edition](https://www.expedia.com/newsroom/global-vacation-deprivation-at-a-ten-year-high-expedia-reports?ref=zilck.com), 61% pointed to difficulty finding someone to cover their work. Sixty-six percent worried about the workload waiting for them when they got back. And 58% cited labor shortages at their workplace.

Read that list again from a manager's chair. None of those are personal failings. They're design flaws in how the work is organized: no backup, no handoff, and a pile of deferred tasks that punishes anyone who leaves.

"Breaking the cycle of stress and burnout may begin with employers carefully analyzing employees' responsibilities both on and off the clock," [says Matthew Owenby](https://newsroom.aflac.com/2025-10-09-American-workforce-burnout-reaches-6-year-high?ref=zilck.com), Aflac's chief strategy officer. Aflac found heavy workloads were the most-cited source of workplace stress, named by 35% of employees.

## Burnout Has a Birth Year

The generational split in Aflac's data is striking. Seventy-four percent of Gen Z workers report moderate to high burnout, followed by 66% of millennials, 56% of Gen X and 34% of baby boomers, [per the report's figures](https://www.resortpass.com/blog/americas-wellness-gap/?ref=zilck.com).

Some of that gap is about career stage. Younger workers have the least seniority, which often means the fewest days, the least scheduling power and the least confidence that stepping away won't be held against them. They are also the people most companies will be depending on for the next two decades.

There's a financial edge here too. In [Aflac's survey](https://newsroom.aflac.com/2025-10-09-American-workforce-burnout-reaches-6-year-high?ref=zilck.com), employees' confidence that their employer cares about their mental health dropped from 54% to 48% in a single year. That is the kind of decline that shows up later as turnover.

## The Productivity Case Is Older Than You Think

The business case for time off isn't new, and it isn't soft. In a study with the U.S. Travel Association, researchers Shawn Achor and Michelle Gielan found that people who took 11 or more vacation days a year were [30% more likely to receive a raise or bonus](https://hbr.org/2016/07/the-data-driven-case-for-vacation?ref=zilck.com) than those who took fewer.

Their explanation is the one any coach would recognize: ["without recovery periods, our ability to continue performing at high levels diminishes significantly."](https://hbr.org/2016/07/the-data-driven-case-for-vacation?ref=zilck.com) The study is a decade old, and a raise is an imperfect proxy for performance. But nothing in the more recent burnout data suggests the relationship has weakened.

The honest caveat: nobody needs to copy France. A U.S. small business can't add 19 days of paid leave overnight, and plenty of high-output companies run lean. The point isn't the number. It's that the 11 or 12 days most American workers already have are being left on the table or taken in fragments, because the work isn't built to let anyone leave.

## What This Means

The fix is mostly operational, which makes it cheaper than it sounds.

- **Make coverage someone's job.** If [61% can't find cover](https://www.expedia.com/newsroom/global-vacation-deprivation-at-a-ten-year-high-expedia-reports?ref=zilck.com), the problem is the absence of a backup, not the absence of desire. Pair people up for each role and write a one-page handoff for every recurring task. A team where nobody can be gone is a team with a single point of failure — and a vacation just exposes it early.
- **Kill the return pile.** Agree that nothing non-urgent gets assigned to someone while they're out, and block the first half-day back for catch-up. [Sixty-six percent of workers told Expedia](https://www.expedia.com/newsroom/global-vacation-deprivation-at-a-ten-year-high-expedia-reports?ref=zilck.com) that the work waiting for them is what keeps them home.
- **Set a floor, not just a ceiling.** Unlimited or generous policies don't help if nobody uses them. A minimum — say, one full week off per half-year, scheduled in advance — gives people permission the policy alone doesn't.
- **Model it from the top.** If the owner never disappears, nobody else will either. Take the week, stay offline, and let the team see the business survive it.

Twelve days a year is a thin margin. Using all of them, properly, is one of the cheapest retention and performance tools a business has — and right now, most teams aren't even spending what they've got.