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Siggi's is paying $5,000 to encourage Americans to use their paid time off

Americans left a staggering 700 million PTO days unused last year.

Photo credit: Canva

America has a vacation problem.

Paid time off is a sore subject for American workers. Yes, you know about the paid time off sitting in your account. You worked for it. But as the year slips by, each month, it remains unused. Suddenly, it’s nearly the end of summer, with no vacations, no road trips, or even overnight plans to see your favorite cousin on the horizon.

Why? You’ve earned those days fair and square. They’re yours. But with that earned time also comes a nagging guilt, which can take the form of voices saying “I’m too busy,” or “the rest of the team will resent me” when you need to rest the most.


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Which brings us to an unexpected champion: siggi’s, the Icelandic yogurt company that’s calling out America’s toxic work culture. In a campaign that’s as refreshing as their skyr (a thick, creamy, high-protein yogurt that hails from founder Siggi Hilmarsson’s home country, Iceland), siggi’s is offering $5,000 plus a $1,000 flight voucher to ten Americans who commit to taking all their paid time off this year. It’s called the “PT-YO Challenge,” and it’s rooted in something that might surprise you—Iceland’s approach to work-life balance and their consistently high rankings in global happiness indexes.

Iceland PTO policies: A model for well-being

While Americans struggle to use their limited vacation days, Iceland has built an entire culture around the importance of rest. Icelandic workers are legally entitled to 24 days of paid vacation per year, regardless of whether they’re part-time or full-time employees. On top of this, Iceland observes 13 public holidays each year (including Christmas Eve, Christmas, and the day after Christmas, which they refer to as “Second Day of Christmas”), bringing Iceland’s total guaranteed time off to at least 37 days.

Sounds nice, right? That’s because it is.


siggi's, vacation, challenge, skyr, time off siggi's is challenging Americans to use their PTO. All of it. Photo credit: siggi's

Research consistently shows that generous PTO policies like Iceland’s promote employee well-being, reduce burnout, and boost productivity. Countries with robust vacation cultures, like Denmark (which grants workers 25 days of PTO), the United Kingdom (28 days), and France (25 days) report higher job satisfaction, better mental health, and improved organizational loyalty.

So, in Iceland, taking your vacation isn’t seen as slacking off—it’s seen as essential maintenance for both your mental health and your ability to contribute meaningfully when you return.

It’s a virtuous cycle that benefits everyone: rested people are more effective at work. Simple as that.

“As an entrepreneur, I know how hard it is to step away,” said Siggi Hilmarsson, the company’s founder, in a press release. “But stepping away is where the real breakthroughs happen.”

And it’s more than talk. Beyond the PT-YO challenge, siggi’s and its parent company Lactalis Group support and offer a competitive suite of benefits for employees. Upon hire, siggi’s workers are granted automatic PTO days, and can build towards life insurance and a generous 401K plan.

The mantra here? “Life is stressful—but you’ll be surprised by how much simpler it gets when you slow down.”


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America’s PTO problem: Why aren’t we taking time off?

Now, for the not-so-fun part. The contrast with American work culture is stark. Unlike Iceland and most European nations, the United States lacks any federal law mandating paid vacation, personal time, or paid time off for private-sector workers. The average American private-sector worker receives about 12 days of PTO per year, less than half of what Icelandic workers get as a legal minimum. But remember, this only goes for those with full benefits, and many workers (especially low-wage, part-time, or gig employees) get far less or even none.

But here’s the kicker: even those measly 12 days often go unused. A 2024 study found that nearly two-thirds (62%) of Americans do not use all of their PTO, with 5.5% of American workers not using any of their PTO at all. The same study revealed that on average, employees only use 67% of their PTO allocation, leaving 33% behind! How many days is that, collectively? Well, siggi’s did the math.

Americans left 700 million PTO days unused in 2024. That translates to $312 billion in untouched vacation days, just sitting there, relaxing, like you were supposed to be in Saint-Tropez last year. That’s not a typo, by the way. Billion. With a B.


billboard, time square, new york, siggi's, challenge A billboard in Times Square advertising siggi's PT-YO challenge. Photo credit: siggi's

Dig a little deeper, and the reasons Americans give for not taking time off reveal a fractured work culture that’s filled with complex, overlapping issues and is fundamentally broken.

Marta Turba, WorldatWork’s vice president of content strategy, explains that the top three reasons why American workers struggle to take time are:

  • They lack adequate support and encouragement in this area from their employers.
  • They exhibit a compelling need for job and career security, which often leads to an “always on” mindset.
  • Their organization’s PTO plan designs do not incentivize taking time off.

“While a PTO policy may offer generous benefits, the subtleties of company culture—daily workflows and unspoken expectations—often signal whether taking leave is truly acceptable and how it might impact one’s career,” she continued, to Workspan Daily.

This lack of rest on a nationwide scale has disastrous effects on the working public: research shows that employees who don’t take mental health days are more likely to experience stress and anxiety, as well as health problems, like heart disease, obesity, and depression.


woman, stressed, work, burnout, corporate Not taking breaks or vacations actually makes you less productive and more stressed. Photo credit: Canva

According to Tim Osiecki, a director at Harris Research, Americans have found themselves in a dysfunctional paradox—as employees continue to work without breaks (and employers enable this behavior), this can lead to burnout, decreased productivity, and increased mistakes. It pays to prioritize your employees’ right to rest, because for companies, the opposite can be disastrous: higher absenteeism rates and reduced job satisfaction/morale, which can lead to a decline in overall performance and loyalty.


siggi’s: A company that puts their money where their mouth is

The PT-YO Challenge isn’t just a marketing stunt—it’s a direct challenge to American work culture.

By offering $5,000 to help cover the costs of taking time off, siggi’s is addressing one of the real barriers Americans face: the expense of taking vacations that keeps so many workers chained to their desks, even when they have the days available.

Ready to join the challenge? Head to siggi’s website to submit your PT-YO request, or start by planning that vacation you’ve been putting off. Your future self will thank you.

NOTE: The deadline to submit to siggi’s PT-YO Challenge is Tuesday, August 5th.


woman, smiling, vacation, time off, happy This could be you! Enter siggi's challenge today! Photo credit: Canva

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Iceland just announced a no-nonsense plan to eliminate its wage gap in 5 years.

On Oct. 24, 2016, thousands of Iceland's women stopped working at 2:38 p.m.

At the time, the country's men were earning an average of 18% more for doing the same jobs.

So women decided they were going to work 18% fewer hours (hence walking off the job at 2:38 p.m.) for a day to prove a powerful point.

Thousands took off early and poured into the streets to voice their displeasure with the wage gap (which, hey, is actually a lot better than in most of the world but still needs to be fixed).

In early March 2017, not even five months later, things may finally be changing, in no small part thanks to the work of these protestors.

Government officials in Iceland just announced new legislation that would require companies to open their books and prove they're providing equal pay for equal work.

According to USA Today, the measure is expected to be approved by parliament because lawmakers across the political spectrum all agree that the wage gap needs to be fixed ASAP.

(That must be nice.)

"Equal rights are human rights," said Social Affairs and Equality Minister Thorsteinn Viglundsson. "We need to make sure that men and women enjoy equal opportunity in the workplace. It is our responsibility to take every measure to achieve that."

Iceland won't be the first nation to enforce equal pay, but its policy is considered to be one of the most aggressive yet as it targets any company, public or private, with at least 25 employees.

The government is hoping measures like this one will help to completely eradicate the pay gap in the next five years.

This is a massive victory, not just for women, but for the power of engaged citizens who refuse to accept inequality.

The news out of Iceland comes hot off the heels of A Day Without a Woman, which called for women all over the world to strike — from work, from home duties, from the multitude of tasks they juggle day in and day out — to make their value known to the world in no uncertain terms.

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A post shared by Áslaug Lárusdóttir (@aslauglar_) on

Critics of the strike questioned its ability to make a difference since turnout would be smaller and more scattered than the massive Women's March that took place shortly after Inauguration Day.

But the citizens of Iceland are proof-positive that public demonstrations can and do work. It sounds trite, but when enough people come together to make their voices heard, people in power have no choice but to listen. Even if it seems like they're not.

Change may not happen overnight, or even in five months as it did in Iceland, but as the saying goes, "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

Sometimes, the arc just needs a couple thousand badass women forcing it to bend a little more quickly.

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Discouraged by politics? You should check out the revolution happening in Iceland.

Iceland's newest political party — the Pirate Party — is proof that peaceful political revolutions might just be possible.

On Oct. 29, 2016, Iceland held a historic parliamentary election, and the results were pretty indicative of the political turmoil rocking Iceland right now. The ruling Progressive Party lost more than half of its seats in the election, which was sparked by anti-government protests earlier this year after Iceland Prime Minister Sigmundur David Gunnlaugsson resigned for being implicated in the Panama Papers.

Former Prime Minister Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson. Photo by Halldoor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images.

After so much government corruption was exposed, Iceland's citizens were understandably angry. They yearned for a new type of politician.

That's when the music swelled, the winds changed, and some swashbuckling pirates came swooping in. OK, not those kinds of pirates, but they did have a black flag.

He kind of looks like a pirate, right? Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images.

The Pirate Party is a group of political activists who are turning Iceland's anger and distrust of the government into real political change.

The party's humble origin stems from Sweden, where it was originally established to protest Swedish file-sharing and copyright laws. The name of the party comes from a Swedish torrenting site called "The Pirate Bay," where people could illegally download movies, music, and a host of other files they might want to get their hands on.

The Pirate Party exists officially in over 60 countries with dozens elected to government positions. As of Iceland's October election, the Pirate Party holds 10 out of 63 seats in Iceland's parliament. The other big winner of the election was women — who won a record 30 parliament seats (more than any single party).

The Pirate Party is being called radical, but really they're just frustrated voters who wanted to see some change in their political system.

The group is a legitimate political party with candidates running for (and winning) real elections around the world with platforms of government transparency and increased participation in democracy.

In Iceland, they also want to end the war on drugs, put more gender identity options on government documents, cut the gender pay gap, and increase privacy.

The pirates are young, new, and here to disrupt the system, but they're not interested in mask-wearing Mr. Robot-style hacktivism. The pirates have decided that the best way to change a system they don't like is by getting involved in it.

Their approach to politics is, well, political. There's a system in place, and the Pirate Party has chosen to work within it instead of yelling at it.

The Panama Papers, more than anything, created anger and distrust in Iceland. We've seen similar feelings in the United States this year, along with a rise of non-business-as-usual candidates like Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

There are a lot of Americans who feel disenfranchised, misled, and cheated by their government. Just like people in Iceland, Americans are angry and yearn for sweeping change.

The Pirates are taking that anger and using it as motivation for a real grassroots political revolution. They're not trying to elect a radical leader who will change everything for them; they're building their own political party based on their interests from the ground up.

Iceland Pirate Party founder Birgitta Jónsdóttir and fellow activists reacting to the election results. Photo by Halldoor Kolbeins/AFP/Getty Images.

Political revolution doesn't happen overnight, and it doesn't happen with a single election. It's a slow, steady climb.

Whether the Pirate Party can accomplish everything it wants remains to be seen, but its growing success is a reminder that our hunger to change everything can be used to work with the system instead of just being aimlessly angry about it or seeking to burn the whole thing to the ground to start over. Democracy tends to work best when we're all active, motivated, and participating.

As Margaret Mead famously said: "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has."

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Why thousands of women in Iceland walked off the job at 2:38 p.m.

For thousands of women in Iceland on Monday, fighting for equal rights meant ditching out on work early.

Women across the country powered down their smartphones, closed their laptops, and canceled meetings at 2:38 p.m. to protest the gender pay gap, according to an Iceland Review report.

Why 2:38? The protestors didn't just choose a random time.

Women in Iceland make roughly 18% less than their male counterparts, according to the latest European Union data. Which is good, compared to a lot of other countries — including the United States (which ranks 28th on the World Economic Forum's Gender Gap Report; Iceland is first). But still pretty unfair.

Unless, of course, their work day was 18% shorter. Which means they'd get out at 2:38 p.m.

This isn't the first time women in Iceland have gone on strike.

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A photo posted by Áslaug Lárusdóttir (@aslauglar_) on

In 1975, labor unions and women's rights organizations in the country organized the first Women's Day Off. According to a BBC report, 90% of women in the country participated, including domestic workers and stay-at-home mothers. The strike paralyzed the country, forcing many men to take their children into the office.

"Probably most people underestimated this day's impact at that time — later both men and women began to realise that it was a watershed," Styrmir Gunnarsson, a former newspaper editor, told the BBC.

Iceland's (and Europe's) first female president, Vigdis Finnbogadottir, who joined that first protest 40 years ago, believes the mass demonstration helped pave the way for her election five years later.

This 2016 protest is the fourth time Iceland's women have gone on strike — and the time of the walkout has gotten progressively later with each one as women's relative wages have increased.

In 2005, protestors walked off the job at 2:08 p.m. In 2008, they left at 2:25.

Frelsi og feminismi. Við systurnar viljum jafnrétti núna STRAX!

A photo posted by Dóra Júlía Agnarsdóttir (@dorajulia) on

But 2:38 p.m. is still not late enough!

At that rate, the wage gap in Iceland will take more than 50 years to close on its own. A WEF report estimates that the global wage gap may take as long as 118 years to sew up. But if the first protest changed the way the country values women's labor, then perhaps the pressure from more massive events can speed up the clock.

Women of Iceland are gathering at Austurvöllur today to protest against the gender wage gap #kvennafrí

A photo posted by Reykjavik Grapevine (@rvkgrapevine) on

Perhaps on a Women's Day Off not too long in the future, they'll be skipping out at the end of the day with their male colleagues.

Hopefully happy hour will still be running.

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