Employees in Western Europe have the greatest amount of statutory paid holiday. Employees in the Asia Pacific region, on the contrary, have the lowest amount of statutory paid holiday. However, actual number of the days of paid holiday is not limited to the statutory levels but also defined by specific contracts or the number of public holidays. These are results of a study by HR consulting firm Mercer named Worldwide Benefit and Employment Guidelines describing regulation of employer-employee relations in 62 countries.
According to the study, most days of statutory paid holiday are entitled to British employees - 28 days statutory minimum and 8 days of public holidays. Polish employees, who are entitled to 20 days of state-guaranteed holiday if they work less than 10 years and 26 days if they work more than 10 years, are on the second place. Moreover, they have 11 days of public holidays. Austrians follow with 25 days statutory minimum and 13 days of public holidays.
US employees are on the last place because the USA have no federal law that would define the required number of days off for employees. Most organizations offer 15 days of paid leave after five to ten years of work. Employees organized in trade union have their holidays defined in collective agreements. Canadians and Chinese have 10 paid days of holiday from the state (after ten years of work).
The entire list summarizing days of statutory holiday and public holidays in all the states examined can be found in the press release published by Mercer.
-kk-