Sep

7

Paid Time Off Work

Posted by cameron

September 7, 2007 |

Feeling overworked? If you live in the U.S. you certainly are, at least according to some recent research by Mercer Resources and reported by CNN. This is how bad it is in the States. First, there is no mandated minimum paid vacation as there is in much of the developed world. The U.S. average is 15 days paid vacation so there are many out there with less, me included. Here are some sound bites from the report. (You can click through at the end of the post to the CNN list.)

  • The United Arab Emirates, France and Finland top the list with 6 weeks paid vacation. That’s the minimum required by law.
  • Even using that average 15 days in the U.S. we are way, way down the list. In fact we are seventh from bottom behind such countries as Lebanon, South Korea and Slovenia. But take heart, we have Pakistan and Vietnam whipped.
  • When it comes to official paid holidays India, Lebanon and Morocco top the list. India is top with 19 days with the other two at 18 days.

The U.S. is way, way down that list with 10 days.

When you add paid vacation time to official paid holidays the total looks like this:

  • Finland is top with 44 mandated days off. France and Lithuania are next with 40 paid days.
  • The U.S. is fourth from last with 25 days assuming you get 15 days vacation a year. The U.S. has no mandated time off with pay as far as I know.

The other side of this coin is full employment. The U.S. is the envy of the world in its level of employment. Last time I looked France had a 10% unemployment rate with 20% in the younger age groups. I can’t imagine Lithuania has a great economy. So if you want a job it’s off to the U.S. you go, as tiring as that may be.

P.S. I just read that American workers are the most productive in the world. It’s no wonder, we work more hours than most.

You can see the complete table at CNN here.


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