Which Nations Get The Most and Least Vacations
Life Must Be A Breeze in Finland
When it comes to taking a holiday, it’s best to be Finnish, and (not quite) the worst to be American. Human resource consulting firm Mercer surveyed the most generous paid time off laws of 49 nations. Besides getting less vacation than workers in many other countries, Americans often don’t use all the time that they do get, and what vacation they take is spent in small slices and often in contact with the office. The typical practice in the United States - among large companies anyway - is 15 days paid vacation and 10 days of paid holidays for full-time employees with 10 years of tenure, Mercer found.
Another study, by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), found the norm to be much lower when considering companies of all sizes and workers of all tenures: 9 days of paid vacation with 6 days of paid holidays. It also estimates that almost 1 in 4 U.S. workers don’t get any paid days off at all. All members of the European Union, by contrast, must provide workers with a minimum of 20 paid vacation days a year plus public holidays. Companies in Europe are more likely to encourage workers to take at least two-week breaks at a time because they have seen an increase in work-stress-related absences and are increasingly concerned about potential litigation or long-term sickness or disabilities that result from work-related stress.
