european countries with most vacation time Where do workers get the most days off? | The Economist

Different countries have very different standards. Which is the most (and least) slothful?

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In which country do the workers get the most days off? Mayday is a public holiday, celebrated in many countries but the number of public holidays a year varies widely. Britons get just eight of them though an extra one was added this year for the royal wedding whereas the Japanese have 16 public holidays per year. Most countries have 10 or 11 but public holidays are not the only days off.

The number of days of annual leave granted to workers also varies widely. In Europe it's typically 25-30 days but in China it's just five days rising to 10 days for employees who have been in their job for more than a decade.

In America, employers are not required to give their workers paid time off but in practice the average is about 15 days. Add these figures to the public holidays and China becomes the hardest working country among our sample while France becomes the most slothful.

But you also have to take into account the number of sick days taken. The leader here is Bulgaria with 22 days a year. In Japan and China, by contrast, employers do not have to pay workers who take a day off due to illness and may consider it a day of holiday instead, so it's extremely rare.

Add in these figures and China remains the hardest working country while Bulgaria takes the prize as the most slothful. As an old Communist era joke puts it, "they pretend to pay us, and we pretend to work".

And if you envy the Japanese with 16 public holidays a year, consider the situation in ancient Rome. Under the emperor Claudius there were 159 public holidays a year, with public games staged on 93 of them.

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european countries with most vacation time Where do workers get the most days off? | The Economist
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