10 Best Countries for the Most Paid Vacation Days

As we approach Canada Day and long weekend is on the mind of most Canadian’s, I thought this would be an appropriate time for this particular country ranking. I regularly feature lists as they generally spotlight how (favourably) Canada ranks in areas like the best country to live, smartest countries, the happiest countries, the  most peaceful countries, the most sustainable countries, the friendliest countries, the most charitable countries, the most prosperous countries, the best countries for quality of life, the best countries for business, the top countries for life expectancy, the best countries for working women, the best country for world travel & tourism, the best countries for human development, the top countries for Clean Capitalism, the best country for child well-being, the best countries from social progress, the best countries for higher education, the most popular countries and the 10 least corrupt countries. Today I’ll be writing about the No Vacation Nation Revisited study released by the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR) which ranked countries based on paid vacation days.

The CEPR “was established in 1999 to promote democratic debate on the most important economic and social issues that affect people’s lives.” CEPR released the No Vacation Nation Revisited as a follow-up to the original study conducted 6 years ago and it reviews “the most recently available data from a range of national and international sources on statutory requirements for paid vacations and paid holidays in 21 rich countries (16 European countries, Australia, Canada, Japan, New Zealand, and the United States).” Worth noting is that the “analysis does not cover paid leave for other reasons such as sick leave, parental leave, or leave to care for sick relatives.” It is strictly vacation days. According to this research conducted by the CEPR report, the top ten countries when it comes to paid vacation days are:

1) France – Paid vacation: 30 days. Paid holiday: 1 day
2) United Kingdom – Paid vacation: 28 days. Paid holiday: 0 days
3) Norway – Paid vacation: 25 days. Paid holiday: 2 days
4) Denmark – Paid vacation: 25 days. Paid holiday: 0 days
5) Finland – Paid vacation: 25 days. Paid holiday: 0 days
6) Sweden – Paid vacation: 25 days. Paid holiday: 0 days
7) Germany – Paid vacation: 24 days. Paid holiday: 10 days.
8) Austria – Paid vacation: 22 days. Paid holiday: 13 days
8) Portugal – Paid vacation: 22 days. Paid holiday: 13 days
10) Spain – Paid vacation: 22 days. Paid holiday: 12 days

Canada ranked 19th out of the 21 countries included in the research and mandates at least 10 paid days off per year. It should be noted that provincial law mandates the length of days off. This in contrast to the United States that was the only country in the study that does not require employers to provide paid annual leave.

Another surprising finding of the study was that despite austerity measures taken by Europe in the face of their economic crisis employees’ vacation time seems unchanged. It wouldn’t have been a stretch to see this number drop in light of recent economic developments.

Though Canada didn’t make the top ten for this list, we can take pride in the fact that we’re just hard workers and we have statutory holidays scattered through the year like Canada Day on Monday.

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