The number of people who can’t afford a week’s holiday despite being in work has risen again by over a million in a single year, showing the EU is in a job quality emergency and needs to rebuild its social contract through collective bargaining.
An analysis of the latest Eurostat microdata, which is not publicly available, by the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) found a summer break was beyond the means of 41.5 million people in 2023 – up from 40.5 million in 2022.
It is the third consecutive annual rise in holiday poverty and means that 15% of all working people in Europe are now missing out on time away with their families - while CEOs, who now earn more than 100 times the average worker, sun themselves in luxury resorts.
The findings are the result of an increasingly unequal economy, in which workers are forced to give up their holidays due to rising costs for accommodation, transport and food, combined with declining purchasing power and speculation.
The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) calls on national governments to fully implement the Minimum Wage Directive and for the European Commission to ensure the Quality Job Package due this year includes legislation to rebalance the economy, including by making respect for collective bargaining a condition for access to public contracts.
10 EU member states with the highest percentage of holiday poverty
| Number of workers who couldn’t afford a holiday 2023 | Change in number vs 2022 | Percentage of workers who couldn’t afford a holiday | Change in percentage vs 2022 |
|
| EU | 41.576.504 | 1.046.584 | 15% | 2,6% |
| Romania | 3.963.764 | -294.384 | 32% | -6,9% |
| Hungary | 1.604.388 | 107.335 | 26% | 7,2% |
| Bulgaria | 945.717 | 34.228 | 24% | 3,8% |
| Portugal | 1.506.778 | 86.154 | 23% | 6,1% |
| Cyprus | 147.663 | -5.541 | 23% | -3,6% |
| Slovakia | 772.656 | 167.914 | 22% | 27,8% |
| Greece | 1.345.285 | -256.550 | 20% | -16,0% |
| Malta | 74.837 | -2.044 | 20% | -2,7% |
| Croatia | 445.847 | -18.798 | 18% | -4,0% |
| Lithuania | 335.219 | 5.762 | 18% | 1,7% |
ETUC General Secretary Esther Lynch said:
“Taking a break with family or friends is important for our physical and mental health, and it is a basic part of the European social contract. After working hard all year, it is the least working people should be able to expect to afford and should not be allowed to become a luxury for the few.
“However, these figures show that Europe has a quality jobs emergency and that our social contract is continuing to crumble as the result of growing economic inequality. It is sadly no surprise that more people can’t afford a holiday when, at the same time, dividends increased up to 13 times more quickly than people’s pay packets and CEOs paid themselves over 100 times more than the average worker.
“The European economy increasingly rewards financial speculation instead of real work. That needs to change. And the best way to rebalance the economy is by ensuring more workers benefit from collective bargaining, which not only delivers higher wages but also better conditions like up to two weeks extra paid holiday every year.
“This further shameful rise in holiday poverty puts a responsibility on politicians to act when they return from their own summer holidays. The European Commission’s forthcoming Quality Jobs Package must include urgent legislation that matches the scale of the crisis we face.”
Notes
Excel file with full data.
Photo credit: Andrew Write/Flickr Creative Commons
Statistical note: The estimates are obtained from the EU-SILC microdata, a cross-nationally harmonized survey instrument representative of the population. This is used to estimate the share of the European population aged 15-64 who are working and who report they cannot afford a week’s holiday away from home. This share is then multiplied with the number of people aged 15-64 in each European country to obtain the estimate of the number of workers who cannot afford a week’s holiday.
For technical questions about the statistics, please contact ETUI researcher Wouter Zwysen: [email protected]
