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“Workers in the United States left a record number of vacation days not taken last year, according to newly released research from the U.S. Travel Association, Oxford Economics and Ipsos,” reported CNN and other news outlets.
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A whopping 55% of all workers indicate they left vacation days on the table, a 9% increase over the year previous.
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What does 768 million unused vacation days in 2018 look like? “If American workers used their time off to travel, the study says, the economic opportunity amounts to $151.5 billion in additional travel spending and would create 2 million American jobs.”
In related news, a startup has turned this into a business. PTO Exchange, a service that offers employers more flexible ways to compensate their workers for unused time off, has raised a $3 million seed round. WestRiver Group, a collective of investment funds based in Kirkland, Washington, led the round.
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Employees of participating companies that use the product can swap their unused paid time off for cash, pay student loans, make donations to nonprofits, contribute to a 401(k) or health savings account or even gift it to a colleague who needs extra time off for personal reasons. The software costs companies about $3 an employee a month, plus a fee of between 3 and 5 percent per employee payout.