The Centre for Future Work published a report revealing a growing number of Australian workers do not qualify for, or are not taking, their entitled paid holiday leave.
- Almost one-third (32%) of workers don’t have access to paid holiday leave
- Over half of those with annual leave didn’t take their whole entitlement
- That result equates across the whole labour market to 48 million unused holiday days, worth $11.1 billion — annually
- The average full-time worker in Australia loses 5.1 hours per week to unpaid overtime — or 264 hours per year
- Workers donate $116 billion dollars’ worth of hours to their bosses every year
“About half of those who responded cited work-related pressures as inhibiting their leave: including being too busy, having too much to do, being reluctant to ask, or worried it would affect their job security,” said Jim Stanford, Director of the Centre for Future Work.
Related research
Hard to Get Away: Is the paid holiday under threat in Australia?