Countries with Most Holidays

 

India ranked 15th on the statutory holiday entitlements according to Mercer's Worldwide Benefit and Employment Guidelines, conducted for 62 countries. The survey was based on the number of statutory minimum holidays and number of Public holidays. In India, the basis of statutory leave entitlement is as follows:

• Any worker who has worked for at least 240 days in a calendar year becomes eligible for earned leave which he can enjoy in the subsequent year.
• In case of an adult, he/she becomes eligible for a day leave for every 20 days worked in previous year.
• In the Indian context the use of public holidays is not appropriate when dealing with private establishments as private establishments must observe national holidays (26 January, 15 August and 2 October) as well as holidays on major festivals.

India, Malaysia and Thailand have the highest number of public holidays in the South Asian region.

The U.S. ranked the lowest on the list of holiday entitlement with no statutory holiday entitlement.

Canada, Philippines, China and Thailand made their places on the bottom of the list too with entitlements of 19, 20, 21 and 22 days respectively.

United Kingdom:

The United Kingdom enjoys the greatest amount of statutory paid holiday in the world, thus making its place right on top of the list. A worker is entitled to 28 days of annual leave each year, public holidays being 8 days, adding to a total of 36 days. The survey also suggested that in spite of having the highest potential holidays, in reality U.K. employees fare worse than other European employees.

Brazil:

Brazil, Peru, Portugal, Spain and United Arab Emirates has a statutory minimum leave of 33, 34, 35, 36 and 31 days respectively. Brazil, Peru and U.A.E’s legal definition of minimum leave entitlement is 30 calendar days. U.A.E makes for the highest amount of statutory holidays in the region of Middle East and Africa. Spain has a paid vacation period not lower than 30 calendar days or 22 working days.

South Korea:

South Korea ranked ninth on the list with a statutory entitlement of 34 days where annual vacation is variable according to length of service, 19 days for an employee with 10 years of service.

Morocco:

Morocco and Ukraine took the tenth place with a holiday entitlement of 32 and 27 days each. Ukraine’s legal definition of vacation is 24 calendar days.

Austria:

Austria, Bolivia, Denmark, Finland, France, Greece, Luxembourg and Sweden shared the third position. Austria has 38 days of total number of holiday entitlement while Bolivia has 37 days.

Bolivia’s legal definition of annual vacation is 30 days with 10+ years of seniority where vacation days do not include Sundays.

Denmark has a total of 34 days of entitlement and Finland has 35 days where employees are entitled to five weeks of vacation per year, with Christmas Eve and Midsummer Eve not being considered as official public holidays.

France has an entitlement of 36 days with the law providing for five weeks of paid vacation.

Greece has a holiday entitlement of 37 days, based on its legislation employees who have completed 10 years of service with the same employer or 12 years with several employers are entitled to 25 working days as paid leave per annul.

Luxembourg has a total statutory paid leave of 35 days where as Sweden has a total of 36 days.