Color scale dumb af and USA is fucking backward.
this post was submitted on 08 Aug 2025
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You’re not wrong. I have >30 paid days off a year when you include the holidays, but a lot of my peers have zero. They don’t understand what it means to wake up one morning and just be like… nah, I don’t want to go to work today.
I think this is a good statistic but I'd also recommend looking up the average amount of hours worked per country - I think that paints a better picture of how much time you'll spend working.
I moved to Germany two years ago and the work has been fantastically human-centric, major life over work expectations, and I have no doubt that doesn't apply to everyone in the country but it's been very nice.
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United States over here with literally zero… haha!
not even independence day. absolute cucks to capitalism.
Seeing a chart like this is absolutely insane.
I understand folks are debating the accuracy of some of the European countries here, but United States is fucking ridiculous… what a shit show.
land of the free (TM)!
Free to lie dying in the streets while everyone serious over your body.
Ew, what an eyesore, can’t you go be sick and die on someone else’s block please.
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USA, leader of the ~~free~~ indentured servitude world!
Good grief, this map really puts it in perspective.
Curious American farmer here. Who provides the payment for the mandated paid leave? The state or the employer? How does this work for people who are self employed?
Spaniard here. The employer, if you are self employed this doesn't apply.
In Germany also the employer. If you are self employed, my understanding is that you don't have a salary as such, so it doesn't apply. But if you own your own company, where you work (as the CEO or whatever) and have a salary, that company pays you, even if you own it.
Another important point that these overviews don't convey: if you are on vacation (be it abroad or at home) and you get sick, you get your paid leave time back and you can take it another time. There's some asterisks attached to this, but generally that's how it works. There's a big emphasis on the text that your vacation days are yours. To regenerate, just relax or whatever you wanna do. So being sick "doesn't count", basically.
In Japan, employers who have permanent employees need to offer the paid leave. There are various schemes for other special types of leave and there is government assistance. There might be something from smaller companies, but I'm not sure. In Japan, the 10 days is only for 正社員 seishain full-time permanent employees. I think companies can also decide the dates for half of that for you, which is dumb.
The employee. It's a cost of doing business. Just like overtime, sickpay and superannuation. Massive fines in Australia if you don't adhere to them.
The govt funds an ombudsman that helps employees enforce their workplace rights.
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France's famous 35-hour-week law means that you legally have to get holidays in lieu of weekly hours worked over that number. In my job I worked (theoretically) 37.5 hours, which earned me 47 paid days off. Not including public holidays.
I think those 47 come from more than the 35h RTT, which generally add about 10 days to the 25 minimum. You probably have some additional branch agreements and company benefits.
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I think in most countries there are different nuances when it comes to annual leave, which makes the numbers incomparable. For example, there are differences in whether weekends are counted as part of annual leave, even if the person doesn't normally work weekends. Where I live, Saturday is usually counted as part of your leave unless a union agreement says otherwise.
Where I live there is this thing called 13th salary, basically extra salary on the end of the year, I guess it could be counted a paid leave since it is usually vacation
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Yemen? Wasn't expecting that.
Well this map also includes Sudan, I doubt it is possible/useful to make a statistic about a country that is at civil war.
US doesn't have paid public holidays?
Not legally mandated paid holidays. Your employer is not required to give you PTO, sick leave, or paid holidays.
can you feel the freedom? Land of the free!
My husband applied for a high level management position at a nonprofit and they only sent him the benefits info after his 3 interviews and after he settled on pay. Turns out they only offered 6 days of holidays a year: Christmas Eve and Black Friday didn’t make the list. They offered him 1K more money, twice, but wouldn’t budge on the holiday pay. Fucking incredible if you ask me.
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I guess in the US we have "market based" paid time off like we do with so many other things. The results are the same. Inequality. Poor people put through the grinder and get nothing while the rich just watch numbers go up while life stays exactly the same.
The Netherlands:
- minimum of 20 days of paid leave
- public holidays are up to the employers to decide, but in practice most public holidays are additional paid leave in most cases
- public holidays during the weekend are not moved to weekdays like they are in some other countries
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Austria has the most in Europe in theory, but if they fall on a weekend then they dont matter. We dont do the thing that other countries do with "free day afterwards" in these cases.
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I'm pretty sure that the number for Switzerland is wrong. There's at least 20 days of paid leave and one federal holiday, but in each canton there's at least 6 additional holidays, which makes for an absolute minimum of 27 days of paid leave.
PTO in the US is at least dependent on which state you’re in. NJ has PTO mandates for full time employees. It’s pathetically low, but still better than most states.
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USA should be white. They don't even get up to light blue status.
If you work at sea with a favourable contract, you can be off for 182 days a year.
With an unfavorable contract, you could be permanently enslaved at sea for years at a stretch for no pay.
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The image says that it is including public holidays, but Spain’s number is not.
There are 14 mandated public holidays (8 at national level, 4 by region and 2 local ones).
And Belgium is also missing 12 days since the workweek is 38 hours but in effect that's just given out as 12 more holidays.
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GOP: "Filthy evil socialism by country. USA best #1, 0 Socialism, all hail glorious leader!"
Love how 30 looks almost as pale as 0
This is most likely very inaccurate following what the law says. In Germany a full-time employee has the right to (must take) 20 days paid leave, however many people have 30 with just very few having the minimum of 20 (I don’t know anyone in in their 30s have this few). It is mostly for student workers or other in between jobs. The statistic instead should be based on average paid-leave taken.
Hell yeah, best of Latin America
Cannot understand American employer's reluctance to give out PTO. Someone check my logic?
Regardless of PTO granted, the employer is going to be paying $X for 40-hours a week, 52 weeks a year. They're out nothing!
The obvious counter is that they're out that employees productivity. Now think about the places you've worked. Unless it's a fairly high-end, specialized job, the work is getting done regardless. When someone on your team takes PTO, everyone else picks up the slack.
For a large company there is an argument to be made that they have to hire more people to fill in the rotating PTO gaps through the year. A new employee is a significant cost. Recruiting, advertising, HR and IT onboarding, training, and one no one thinks or knows about, the upfront costs of unemployment insurance.
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