How a Sunday Game Affects Monday Work

A record number of people stayed home from work today. They have Super Bowl Flu.

Super Bowl Absentees

According to an estimate from the global think tank UKG, 26.2 million workers are right now skipping work–up from last year’s 22.6 million. While 1% planned ahead, the totals probably rose to 2.3% of all employees with no shows and late calls. The reasons people give after a major event include, “needing to catch up on sleep,” (45%) and “feeling unmotivated.” (34%)

The numbers are approximately 26% higher than a typical February Monday:

One exception is Charles County Maryland where today government employees are celebrating an Employee Appreciation Day off.

Recognizing that the number of people in the labor force totals close to 171 million people, more than 26 million absentees is a hefty chunk.

Our Bottom Line: Paid Time Off

The United States is the only high income nation not to have mandated paid vacation days. In 1993, the EU required a minimum of 4 weeks of paid vacation.

While dating back to 2019, this graphic is close to the current numbers:

Meanwhile, you can see U.S. workers’ paid time off from work for sick leave and vacation:

My sources and more: We checked last year’s econlife for Super Bowl PTO facts and then Axios and Bamboo for the update. In addition, we located more facts about PTO in a 2019 CEPR report and then learned about the Charles County Employee Appreciation Day. Finally, I do recommend taking a look at Expedia’s vacation day analysis. Also, the Visual Capitalist has an excellent map (with numbers that differ from ours) that you might enjoy pondering.