Okay. I know I fell off the world for a minute after I left Cannes, but I’ve been enjoying some much needed R & R. I went on vacation and while I was there I had plenty of time to ponder the differences between the working lives of Americans like myself and that of our counterparts around the globe.
One of biggest differences I noted during my travels was the amount of vacation time, or holiday, that we are afforded by our employers and the amount afforded (and government-mandated) for our European counterparts.
Our country is the world’s richest, but offers the poorest vacation benefits around. We live in the only advanced industrialized nation (as distinguished from China’s new boom) that doesn’t guarantee its workers paid vacation days or holidays. A point which all of my new friends from Italy, France, India, China and Great Britain were all too eager to point out to me.
European countries, Australia and New Zealand guarantee workers at least 20 days of paid vacation per year. Canada and Japan require at least 10. And, surprise of surprises, Indian workers get a whopping 60 days per year!
I pointed out to my new compadres that the U.S. is not alone in its um…oversight on the whole paid holidays bit. No. We’ve got Japan, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and the UK keeping us company in the “zero paid holidays” lane.
But then, to be fair, I had to concede that these countries make up for their dearth of paid holidays by mandating a minimum of 10 days (after 2nd-10th years of service), 4 weeks, 25 days, 4 weeks (5 for younger workers) and 4 weeks of paid vacation days, respectively.
Worse yet, our friends in at least 12 other countries (including Austria, Denmark, France and Spain) get to enjoy at least 30 days of paid holiday time (versus our big goose egg).
Our little discussions made me curious about the vacation time we all actually use. I mean, it’s one thing to have the days guaranteed, but it’s another to make time to use them. Here’s what a little digging got me.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average U.S. worker actually receives a respectable nine days of paid vacation and six paid holidays per year, even without government intervention. That puts us in line ahead of Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan, and right behind South Korea.
Here’s the info I found on the average number of vacation days workers around the world take each year.
Italy         42 days
France        37 days
Germany    35 days
Brazil         34 days
United
Kingdom    28 days
Canada      26 days
Korea        25 days
Japan        25 days
U.S.          13 days
Source: Pearson EducationÂÂ
Okay. So, I agreed with my new friends that the U.S. government and its employers are a bit stingy with the paid days off, but then had to throw down the trump cards…We work harder, have a stronger economy, higher standards of living, greater career and entrepreneurship opportunities, and a government that pretty well leaves us to the pursuit of the life, liberty and the pursuit of the nearest approximation of happiness.
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