(CNN) – Earlier this week, voters in Switzerland went to the polls and said "no" to an additional two weeks vacation a year. In a national referendum, 66.5% opposed the chance to put Switzerland in line with its neighbor Germany, where employees enjoy six-week paid vacation every year. The Swiss apparently considered previous warnings of the government and business representatives who claimed that an additional fortnight of paid holidays increase labor costs and put their economy at risk. Federal Councilor Jean-Francois Rime told the Telegraph that “the Swiss are reasonable enough” in saying no. But Travail Suisse disagreed. The Swiss trade union launched the “6 weeks vacation for all” campaign after it found that a third of Swiss employees suffers from stress at work and blamed the “no” faction of using scare tactics amid the eurozone crisis. Travail Suisse argues that, according to an estimate of the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs Seco, health problems as a result of the work load will cost the country 10 billion francs ($10.8 billion) per year. The Swiss vote touches a topic that has long triggered debate: Does total vacation time enhance or hurt a country’s economic performance? According to Bloomberg, countries with long vacations are not necessarily lacking strong economic performance. In a 2009 survey it revealed that although the U.S. was the world’s most competitive country, if you factor the GDP per hours worked each year some countries with higher vacation levels outperformed the U.S. Based on data from the Organization of Economic Co-Operation and Development, Belgium and the Netherlands, with 30 and 28 vacation days per year, respectively, were 2% more productive in 2009 than the US. Luxemburg was 27% more efficient while mandating 32 days vacation per year. Europe’s leading economies France and Germany were only 2% and 7%, respectively, behind the U.S. in terms of GDP per hours worked. A study by the American Economic Journal, examined whether the elimination of a summer break influences student achievements. The results show that year-round schooling does not improve students’ academic success. In a vacation study between September 19 and October 9, 2011, by the online travel company Expedia, 7,083 respondents across 20 countries were asked how many vacation days per year they receive and how many of them they actually use. Expedia vacation survey
Germany, France, Spain and Denmark top the list with 30 paid vacation days, while the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and the UK come in second with 25 days. European respondents also turn most of it into holidays. German respondents said they use 28 of 30 days, while France, Spain, Sweden and Denmark use all of them. American respondents earn 14 days, from which they use 12. Asia, however, is more vacation averse. According to the survey, Japan is the most vacation-deprived nation in the world, with respondents saying they receive 11 paid days each year but only use five of them. South Koreans take seven out of their 10 days. Hard working employees can also be found in India, where five days from a total of 20 are not used, respondents said. “In India, vacations tend to be viewed as a guilty habit,” marketing head of Expedia India, Manmeet Ahluwalia, said in a press release. “As many as 54% Indians spend vacations usually secretly checking emails.” Besides economic performance, vacation levels might have an impact on the employees’ temper. Top scorers in the recent Legatum Institute’s list of the world’s happiest countries have many things in common. One of them, however, is a high number of vacation days. |
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What about New Zealand and why the hell isnt New Zealand include din this?? were a 1st world country yet you left us out, shame on you
newzealand is a petty island with 3 million so they don't count U keep thinking ur 1st world just cuz ur white. Its too bad the US gets 14 days on average, But with current economy people just can't afford to go on vacations anyway so they skip.
I'm a Nwe Zealander,, I'm not surprised that they leave us out if our spelling and grammer is like that of Mark who posted the first comment!.... I get heaps of holidays something like 7 weeks (but I am a shift worker).....
John, you should proofread all comments in which you insult another user's spelling or grammar. Wouldn't you agree?
South Korea, -sounds like a slavery state!
John, in addition to the more obvious mistake you made in the spelling of your nationality, note the spelling of "grammar".
Better than workers' paradise North Korea – food and vacation for party elite, gulags for dissenters.
First world countries get the most vacation, who cares, the wealth of these first world countries will never satisfy them, they work for more money, bigger houses, faster cars, likewise their vacation will never give them rest, just more reason to work harder. More like an open grave that is never filled up, of course first world countries get the most vacation.
Don't be fooled by Germany and 6 weeks Vacation. These figures only represent folks with full time jobs and not daily Euro Jobs. I know, my wife is German! Germany has done a good job at faking the funk of it's underemployed but it will catch them and the world by the nose soon.
Vacation is constant in Italy, especially when most people ages 21 to 51 stay at home with Mama because of unemployment or because the job they have makes it financially prohibitive from maintaining a residence on there own.
OK, without commenting on the rest of the article, its conclusions, or anything-
You can't use a self-reported Expedia survey as data! You have no way to control the self-reporting bias, and you have no way to determine if your samples for each country are large enough to be representative. To say nothing about self-selection bias!
The facts and conclusions in this article may well be true, but better supporting evidence is needed.
NIce list
Vacation!! well in India i get 22 days earned leave, 7 day casual leave which lapses every year, 7 days sick leave.
But have taken none so far.....really need a vacation...away from this computer and blackberry, the bane of modern society
I live and work in Spain and I must say I love my 30 days of holidays per year – I find it to be a great motivator. Curiously we are also the country that works most hours per year in Europe and the 4th in the world.
I think that renders this chart sligthly misleading.
Unfortunately, I see that the researchers, in some cases, did not include National Holidays in their data. I live in Germany and yes, the workers do get 30 days paid vacation. However, they also have 10 National Holidays that, for the most part, they take off but albeit, are unpaid days off.
Seriously do u expect us to believe the Italians forfeit 7 days each
I think one of the reasons for Asia being so low on the list is because of the countless cultural festivals that they are given time off for. I know, I know, a holiday is not the same as a vacation (but then again, that is a matter of perspective). We often take our vacation time and append it to a holiday to make our vacation longer (taking a week off at Christmas, when we are only given 1 or 2 days off). They do the same thing, but their holidays are a week, while their vacation time is one or two days.
What about Maldives?? Maldives is the world best destination..!
A psychological study a while back offered people 2 choices in each of scenarios:
EARNINGS:
1) You earn $100k per year and your friends / peer group earn $85k per year
OR
2) You earn $120k per year and your friends / peer group earn $135k per year
VACATION
3) You have 18 days vacation per year and your friends / peer group have 15 days
OR
4) You have 20 days vacation per year and your friend / peer group have 22 days
People overwhelmingly chose 1 and 4. People measure earnings in relative terms and time/leisure in absolute terms.
This partly explains certain phenomena:
a) that reported happiness rises with wealth only up to a given level and that once this level is reached, getting richer only has a very weak impact on happiness. If everyone is trying to get richer, nobody's relative position changes so nobody gets any happier despite having more money.
b) High rates of taxation do no necessarily have much of an impact on economic output or efficiency, provided they are progressive in nature and a sufficient net after tax differential between earnings remains.
Culturally, a lot of the US seems sadly locked in a 'Work, Consume, Die' mentality.
Where would Chna appear on the list? Hardly seems the world's most populous country should be left out of a well researched article.
Happy vecation – Take your own when you can.
Im glad to be no american or asian, waste my life by working..
While I greatly appreciate that we get a lot of PAID vacation days compared to other countries, the writer of this article needs to recheck facts re: The Netherlands. On record the standard is 21 days holiday leave. The employer/employee can offer/bargain for more based on various criteria such as age, position, work hours, benefits...
Poor Americans, They work all this extra hours just so their superrich can afford even more escorts and cocain. and they are even proud of being exploited like this. strange, strange peolpe.
Until last year I was given seven weeks a year vacation, but that has been negotiated down to six. Also, about a quarter of my co workers work one month on, one month off on tours so they effectively have six months off at home. The generous vacation packages are a legacy of colonial era civil servant working conditions for expatriate Australian administrators (Papua New Guinea).
I don't know where they get their numbers from for the US. I get 4 weeks vacation (20 days) and 11 holidays. Total 31 days off paid. Most of the people get pretty much the same. If you are new at a company you get less, but it increases the longer you are with the company.
Bad research – some of these countries (e.g. Brazil) count 30 consecutive calendar days instead of business days, such as the US. 30 calendar days get reduced to 22 business days.
and what about Australia..?
The figures for Belgium are incorrect. I live and work here, and I can attest that while some workers might get more time based on seniority, the mandated number of vacation days per year is 20, not 30.
This is wrong, Brazil has 30 straight days, but only 20 as paid leave, 30 only if counting weekends as well...
Kiwis are the worst native English speakers when it comes to spelling and grammar.
There is a mistake. Argentina: 15 days, not 21.
There is a mistake. Argentina: 15 days, not 21..
I think workers should get a 2 weeks paid vacation and another 2 weeks unpaid vacation.
The whole concept of "paid leave" is an insult to an employee. It simply means that the lawmakers reckon employees are too dumb to manage their own money. So their employers have to hold back some of what they earn to give to them for special use: Medical expenses, Pension and.. yes, holiday.
I think the researcher should also visit Afghanistan where there is 365 days holidays.
Yes, here in America you may get something like four weeks of paid vacation but consider yourself lucky. You have to admit the standard is two weeks. Even in large energy companies (doing very well in this economy) I have to have a total of seven years working before I get three weeks (15 days paid leave) and they now have a limit on sick days
What no Greece? Oh so all the rubbish CNN have been sprouting about the Greek people not working and always on 'holidays' is now proven to be a lie.
Interesting China is not on the list. That's why they are the hardest working people and currently bailing out all the broken economies.
Who did the research on this...not accurate at all !! In Germany you get 24 days by law. If you work a job that has a six day work week, such as in the retail business that amounts to 4 weeks, with a five work week you get 4 weeks and 4 days. Anything above that is per work contract with your employer or based on a union tariff contract and not nearly every job falls under that criteria. Inacccurate reporting like this is almost as bad as the humbug Rick Santorum is spreading about euthansia in the Netherlands! Journalists do your homework, please!
Hahaha..love the article. I live in the Netherlands and I get 38 days per year. My company considers 38 hours/week full time but you work 40 so that adds 12 extra days per year and my companies provides 26 days for full timers. I actually only take about 3-5 days with me per year. I am eager to take time off even if it means unwinding only in my home and not vacation destination. The only problem with NL is they don't have very many public holidays and if the holiday falls on the weekend they don't give you the friday or monday off as a consequence. In the US you may not have alot of vacation time but you have public holidays almost every month.
CNN DUMMYS– YOU FORGOT GREECE WITH 58 DAYS FOR HOLIDAYS... THAT'S WHY THEY HAVE DEFAULTED!
I`m filthy rich and i have 365 days of vacation per year. My life is boring as hell.
This table is misleading because it mixes natural and working days. It's true that Spain gets 30 days, but those are natural days. By contrast, if Germans say they get six weeks, that means the 30 days they posted are working days. In Spain we have a month. I'd love to see an updated chart that compares apples with apples in this case.
Just to elaborate on KPat comment, most of Job Contracts in Spain include 22 working days a year. Then depending of Job seniority with the same employer you get extra vacation days but never beyond 30 working days a year as total. Again I agreed with some of the comments that refer the figures shown by Expedia Vacation survey as misleading.
there is absolutely nothing wrong with Vacation -i dont think ANYONE in the world gets enough compared to how much people worldwide give up to the big machine.
how about vietnam? this is a beautiful country.
Your data is incorrect. there is a difference between the legal minimum (for example 5 weeks in France and not 6 so 25 days and not 30), and what has been negotiated in certain collective bargaining agreements (for example there is no law in germany on the 6 weeks and not all compaines apply it but it is an obligation in ceratin industries) and the practice.
This list does not consider special holidays like Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving, etc. In the Netherlands, the number of those days is very limited compared to the rest of Europe. Especially (partly) catholic countries have a relative large number of those days; Germany then has even more holidays. If those holidays are on weekends, in the UK these are moved forward to the next Monday as 'bank holiday's. No such thing in the Netherlands. For the last 2 years, Christmas and New Year were in weekends and we only had a few special holidays.
I wonder where US economy would be if we had 30 days vacation?
Same as it is now, down the toilet!!
In the U.S. there is a lot of variability depending on your employer and your longevity. I worked for an engineering company and started with 15 days/year, and it gradually increased up to 25 or 30 days/year (I can't remember exactly) over about 15 years' time. Now, I'm self employed so I take days off when it makes sense. I probably average about 6-7 weeks per year. They aren't paid, but then again I make a lot more than when I worked for a corporation.
LOL..India beating Ireland and Aussies..gr8 going
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The question is when people goes on six weeks paid holiday who will do their jobs? This is the issue, there are not enough Swiss people to cover Swiss socalled jobs. The Swiss do not employ immigrants unless it is to clean the toilets etc. They are not prepared to properly accept immigrants in to the labour market as this may help immigrants to integrate and next 'they will bring their whole family' into 'precious' Switzerland and deprive the Swiss. This is the view of the Swiss people and the reason the six weeks holidays were rejected. Do you know that even after living lawfully in Switzerland for nine years an immigrant cannot join the police or work for the State and local government in any meaningful capacity. Yes immigrants will be tolorated to clean the toilets but nothing more. In Switzerland, it is not about getting the best persons for the job, it is about getting a White Swiss employed and all the international companies that conducts business here complies with the Swiss ways even it is in breach of both domestice and international Laws.
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what about bali?
http://onlinetravelmagazines.com/
I am final, I am sorry,, but it does not approach me. There are other variants?
hpixel
Reblogged this on ELITE TRAVEL GUIDE BLOG.
What about Poland, Czech Republic and Austria?? I'm sick of the ignorance of "western countries" who really think too much of themselves but actually as a unit are not worth a penny.