Time off worldwide.

[piece-itpete]

Dave's post about maternity leave got me curious about time off.

Did a little digging...

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Employees in Finland, Brazil and France are entitled to receive as many as 30 days’ statutory holiday a year, with those in Lithuania, Russia and the UK being entitled to 28 days. Poland (26) follows closely behind, with employees in Greece, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Norway entitled to 25 days’ statutory holiday.



By comparison, Asia-Pacific countries fare poorly with Australian, New Zealand and Japanese employees receiving the highest levels of statutory holidays (20) followed by Taiwan (15), Hong Kong and Singapore (14), India (12) and China (10).



Employees in Canada are amongst those with the lowest entitlement with only 10 days and while there is no statutory minimum in the US, employees typically receive 15 days a year.



In addition to statutory holidays, public holidays can markedly increase the amount of time employees have off work. Japan and India top the global list with 16 days’ public holiday a year, closely followed by Cyprus, Slovakia and South Korea with 15. Malta and Spain both have 14 while Portugal, Austria, Lithuania, Slovenia and Taiwan all have 13 days’ public holiday. The UK, Australia and the Netherlands have the lowest number of public holidays (8) followed by Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada and Romania (9).



According to Matthew Hunt, a principal in Mercer’s International team who advises multinationals on their employment practices, “There are wide variations in the local implementation of employment practices governing public holidays. Employers are often within their rights to ask employees to work on public holidays, or require that they be taken as part of their annual leave entitlements. For example, while it appears that employees in the UK have more total holidays than those in Malta, company contracts can create a different picture. While the UK statutory minimum is 28 days, companies are allowed to include the 8 public holidays as part of this entitlement, so some employees may only be given 20 days holiday a year and Maltese employees may, in fact, have a better deal.”



Assuming they receive the maximum statutory holidays in addition to public holidays, employees in Brazil and Lithuania would have the world’s most generous holiday regime with a potential 41days off a year, while those in Finland, France and Russia could receive a total of 40 days. In contrast, Canadian employees receive only 19 days, Chinese employees 21, and those in the US and Singapore both 25.

.....

http://www.mercer.com/press-releases/1360620

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The chart is interesting. I do notice that it only deals in statutory days off outside the US, I'd prefer to see averages....


Pete