If You Could, Would You Buy Extra Vacation Time?

It's a well known fact that people in the U.S. don't get nearly as much vacation time as those who live in other countries.

For instance, Brazil and Lithuania each get a total of 41 paid days off each year. Followed by Finland, France and Russia at 40.

In other countries the U.S. is often referred to as the "No-Vacation Nation." Believe it or not, the United States doesn't even rank in the top 10 when it comes to paid days off each year.

With that being said, it begs the question, if your company offered you extra vacation time, but you had to buy it, would you be willing to cough up a little extra dough to secure a few more days off? And would you still consider it vacation time, since you had to pay for it?

Apparently 5% of companies in the U.S. already let their employee's buy extra vacation days according to a new survey.

All of the companies currently offering that benefit "charge" a different amount, but it usually ends up working out to be a day's worth of salary for the rite to take a day off. So in essence, you're really just taking unpaid time off.

The survey also found that 9% of companies let their employees cash out their leftover vacation days at the end of each year for extra money. If that were the case where I work, I'd be ready to retire already!

7% of U.S. companies also let employees donate vacation time to a pool that other people can draw from.

Maybe you'll get lucky and the company you're currently working for will follow suit and adopt a flexible vacation policy down the road. If that happens, you better be ready to be first in line to hit up that workaholic in the office and see if you can broker a deal for some of his or her vacation time.

Who knows, maybe that person will be willing to take 50 cents on the dollar?