What determines vacation leave? The role of gender

Abstract

Vacation leave is introduced in workplaces to improve the working environment. Surprisingly, it has been observed that a large number of workers do not use all of their entitled vacation days. This paper provides a novel set of facts about the gender differences in taking vacation time using the Canadian Workplace Employee Survey, which is a linked longitudinal employer-employee dataset. The results show considerable differences between men and women in the estimated effects of some demographic characteristics after controlling for job and workplace characteristics. However, they reveal significant implications of work arrangements (e.g., part-time work, flexible work schedules, and home-based work), job promotion, supervisory tasks, and union membership for vacation use, for both men and women. This paper provides further insights on the use of fringe benefits that may be useful to policymakers and businesses.