‘Holiday poverty’ is a very real problem for 40 million Europeans—and Ireland, France and Italy are leading the pack

a person looking down at their phone with screens at the back (Credit: We Are—Getty Images)

Everyone loves a good vacation. But what if, despite working, you can’t buy yourself and your family a trip away?

That’s increasingly the reality for European workers. Nearly 40 million people, or 15% of the European Union’s working population, face “holiday poverty” as they can’t afford even a week’s holiday, according to a study by The European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), a union representing workers in the region.