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CCH® HR MANAGEMENT - 10/15/09

Global analysis of employee leave reveals U.S. falls in the middle of the road when it comes to employee leave entitlement, holidays

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

All employees are entitled to a statutory holiday allowance, which is the term given to the amount of paid leave that companies must, by law, offer their staff. Employees in Finland, Brazil and France are entitled to receive as many as 30 days statutory holiday a year, with those in Lithuania, Russia and the UK entitled to 28 days. Poland (with 26 days) follows closely behind, with employees in Greece, Austria, Denmark, Sweden and Norway entitled to 25 days statutory holiday.

By comparison, Asia Pacific countries fare poorly with Australian, New Zealand and Japanese employees receiving the highest levels of statutory holidays (20) followed by Taiwan (15), Hong Kong and Singapore (14), India (12) and China (10). Employees in Canada are among those with the lowest entitlement with only 10 days. While there is no statutory minimum in the United States, employees typically receive 15 days a year.

In addition to statutory holidays, public holidays can markedly increase the amount of time employees have off work. Japan and India top the global list with 16 days a year for public holidays, closely followed by Cyprus, Slovakia and South Korea with 15. Malta and Spain both have 14 days while Portugal, Austria, Lithuania, Slovenia and Taiwan all have 13 days of public holiday. The UK, Australia and the Netherlands have the lowest number of public holidays (8) followed by Denmark, Ireland, Switzerland, Canada and Romania (9).

"There are wide variations in the local implementation of employment practices governing public holidays. Employers are often within their rights to ask employees to work on public holidays, or require that they be taken as part of their annual leave entitlements," said Matthew Hunt, a principal with Mercer's international consulting business. "For example, while it appears that employees in the UK have more total holidays than those in Malta, company contracts can create a different picture. While the UK statutory minimum is 28 days, companies are allowed to include the eight public holidays as part of this entitlement, so some employees may only be given 20 days holiday a year and Maltese employees may, in fact, have a better deal."

Assuming they receive the maximum number of statutory holidays in addition to public holidays, employees in Brazil and Lithuania would have the most holidays amount of holidays in the world with a potential 41 days off a year, while those in Finland, France and Russia could receive a total of 40 days. In contrast, Canadian employees receive 19 days, Chinese employees 21 days, and those in the U.S. and Singapore 25 days.

The United States offers employees no statutory minimum holiday allowance, but the average is 15 days compared to Canada which offers a statutory minimum of 10 days. Contrary to popular European belief, low levels of statutory holiday in the United States and Canada are not comparative to European standards when taking public holidays into account. Employees in the United States and Brazil have an additional 10 and 11 days of public holiday, respectively, while workers in Canada are entitled to 9. 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.

"Employers trying to coordinate business operations around the world are caught in a maze of legislation when it comes to holidays," commented Mr. Hunt. "Public holidays tend to be rooted in local tradition or religious beliefs, so it can be difficult to change practices. But with the increasing cultural diversity of the global workforce there is pressure for greater flexibility around public holidays."

The data comes from Mercer's 2009 Worldwide Benefit and Employment Guidelines which provides data about global working practices and regulations. The report analyzes both the minimum number of days for statutory holiday that companies must provide to staff, as well as the number of public holidays in over 40 countries. The comparison is based on statutory entitlements for an employee working five days a week, with 10 years' service.

Source: Mercer; www.mercer.com.

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