European Workers Get More Time Off than U.S. Workers

October 13, 2009 (PLANSPONSOR.com) - A new Mercer study of employer vacation policies found the average U.S. allowance is 15, days while Canada has a statutory minimum of 10 days.

A Mercer news release said contrary to popular European belief, low levels of statutory time off in the United States and Canada are not comparative to European standards when taking public holidays into account.

Workers in United States and Brazil have an additional 10 and 11 days of public holiday, respectively, while workers in Canada are entitled to nine. In total, employees in Brazil that can take the full entitlement and the full number of public holidays would receive 41 days off, those in the United States typically 25 days, and those in Canada 19 days, Mercer said.

The study focused on statutory entitlements for an employee working five days a week, with 10 years of service.

Meanwhile, employees in Europe receive the most generous statutory time off allowances in the world according to Mercer data. However, taking public holidays into account, employees in Lithuania and Brazil have the potential to access the most time off work.

Mercer said employees in Finland, Brazil, and France are entitled to receive as many as 30 days total statutory time off a year, with those in Lithuania, Russia, and the U.K. entitled to 28 days. Poland (with 26 days) follows closely behind, with employees in Greece, Austria, Denmark, Sweden, and Norway entitled to 25 days.

By comparison, Mercer said Asia Pacific countries fare poorly with Australian, New Zealand, and Japanese employees receiving 20 days total statutory time off followed by Taiwan (15), Hong Kong and Singapore (14), India (12), and China (10).