With summer around the corner, many of us are thinking about going to the cottage, planning a trip, or simply relaxing in the confines of our home.

However, even with Canadians having a relatively small amount of time off, most still do not take all of their vacation days.

Almost one-third of Canadians do not take all their allotted vacation time; with 33 per cent considering themselves to be vacation deprived according a new survey conducted by Ipsos-Reid.

To put things into perspective, the average Canadian worker gives back 2.43 days of their vacation. When all the unused days are added up, an astonishing 41 million days are left, for a total wage loss to employees of $6.3 billion.

In 2007, Mercer Human Resource Consulting found that Canada had the third lowest amount of vacation days given to employees of 49 nations surveyed. If you are wondering which countries Canada placed ahead of, they were Thailand and the Philippines.

According to the survey, Canadians were given an average of 10 days off per year, approximately one-third the amount that Finland, France and the United Arab Emirates received.

"Canadian policies are most similar to the United States although typically a bit more generous in practice," said Iain Morris, Principal, Mercer Human Resource Consulting.

Interestingly, the United States ranked 10 spots higher, with an average of 15 days off per year.

With the introduction of Blackberries, PDAs, cell phones and the ability to check your email from just about anywhere, workers are never too far away from their desks, even while on vacation. As a result, 48 per cent of Canadian workers think technology makes it harder to get away, while only 19 per cent think it makes it easier.

"It is becoming increasingly difficult for Canadians to break away and enjoy a real vacation, given the popularity of electronic devices like Blackberries and feelings of vacation guilt brought on by some employers or colleagues," says Beverly Beuermann-King, a stress and wellness expert.

Reasons for not wanting to take time off varies from not giving enough notice of wanting to take time off (12 per cent), to having to much work to do (eight per cent), to fear of being viewed in a bad light by fellow employees (three per cent).

Other reasons for not wanting to take vacation include guilt and not being encouraged by an employer to take time off, at 31 and 25 per cent, respectively.

The survey also broke down the results by province, from most deprived to least deprived. They order was:

• British Columbia, 42 per cent;
• Alberta, 41 per cent;
• Saskatchewan and Manitoba, 37 per cent;
• Ontario, 36 per cent;
• Atlantic Canada, 30 per cent; and
• Quebec, 19 per cent.

Switching gears, for those Canadians who did take time off, 51 per cent did so because of a family event including a wedding. Second on the list was an affordable trip at 43 per cent, followed by an interest in a destination (33 per cent) and having travel options, round out the list at 31 per cent.

Many Canadians say they are more likely to take that Caribbean vacation if their employers made it mandatory to take a certain amount of time each year or simply by decreasing the work load, so that employees don’t feel guilty that work will not get done.

For a breakdown of minimum vacation days allotted to an employee by province as well as a break down of when and how vacation time and pay is calculated visit our article on The Ins and Outs of Vacation Time and Vacation Pay.

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