U.S. is among the stingiest nations in world for paid worker holidays

A worldwide study by HR consulting giant Mercer has found that The United Kingdom and Poland are the most-generous countries for paid holidays and vacations. The United States is the stingiest.

In its "Employee holiday entitlements around the world" report released Tuesday, Mercer found that by law U.K. workers generally get 28 paid vacation days plus 11 paid holidays for a total of 36 paid days off. Workers in Poland get 26 paid vacation days and 11 paid public holidays. Must be nice.

Workers in the United States surely wouldn't know. The United States has no federal law requiring companies to pay workers for holidays. In general, however, many U.S. companies give workers at least two weeks of paid vacation and up to 10 public holidays. U.S. workers tend to get more vacation time after five or 10 years on the job.

According to the study, the United States is not alone in dolling out vacation sparingly. The Philippines, Thailand, China, Canada and Indonesia give workers between 19 and 26 days off a year.

After the United Kingdom and Poland, the most-generous nations for time off include the Austria, Greece, Bolivia, Denmark, Finland and France.

Country Statutory minimum holidays (working days) Ranking by statutory minimum Public holidays (days) Ranking by public holidays Total (working days) United Kingdom 28¹ 1 8 11 36² Poland 26³ 2 11 8 37 Austria 25 3 13 5 38 Bolivia 25⁴ 3 12 7 37 Denmark 25 3 9 10 34 Finland 25⁵ 3 10⁶ 9 35 France 25⁷ 3 11 8 36 Greece 25⁸ 3 12 7 37 Luxembourg 25 3 10 9 35 Sweden 25 3 11 8 36 Malta 24 4 14 4 38 Venezuela 24 4 12 7 36 Hungary 23 (age 31/32)⁹ 5 10 9 33 Brazil 22¹⁰ 6 11 8 33 Peru 2211 6 12 7 34 Portugal 2212 6 13 5 35 Spain 2213 6 14 4 36 United Arab Emirates 2214 6 9 10 31 Norway 2115 7 10 9 31 Argentina 2016 8 12 7 32 Australia 20 8 1017 9 30 Belgium 20 8 10 9 30 Croatia 20 8 13 5 33 Cyprus 20 8 15 3 35 Czech Republic 20 8 12 7 32 Germany 2018 8 919 10 29 Ireland 20 8 9 10 29 Italy 20 8 11 8 31 Japan 2020 8 15 3 35 Latvia 20 8 12 7 32 Lithuania 2021 8 13 5 33 Netherlands 2022 8 8 11 28 New Zealand 2023 8 11 8 31 Romania 20 8 9 10 29 Russia 2024 8 12 7 32 Serbia 20 8 8 11 28 Slovakia 20 8 15 3 35 Slovenia 20 8 13 5 33 Switzerland 20 8 925 10 29 South Korea 1926 9 15 3 34 Morocco 1827 10 14 4 32 Ukraine 1828 10 9 10 27 Turkey 1729 11 13.5 6 30.5 Malaysia 1630 12 16 2 32 Mexico 16 12 731 12 23 Chile 15 12 14 4 29 Colombia 15 13 18 1 33 Ecuador 1532 13 9 10 24 Lebanon 15 13 16 2 31 South Africa 1533 13 12 7 27 Taiwan 1534 13 13 5 28 Hong Kong 1435 14 1236 7 26 Pakistan 14 14 11 8 25 Singapore 1437 14 11 8 25 Vietnam 14 14 9 10 23 India 1238 15 1639 2 28 Indonesia 12 15 14 4 26 Canada 1040 16 941 10 19 China 1042 16 11 8 21 Thailand 6 17 16 2 22 Philippines 5 18 15 3 20 United States No mandatory requirement, see explanations below. Typical practice would be 15 days. 19 10 9 25 (including typical vacation time)