Want More Vacation Time? Get a Job in Western Europe
Workers in Western Europe have bargained their way to the longest annual paid vacations, while their American counterparts have the shortest vacations and the Japanese have to be persuaded to take time off, according to an International Labor Organization report published Tuesday.
The study shows that legislation and collective bargaining have lengthened vacations in Europe, but there is little movement in this direction in the United States.
In West Germany, nearly two-thirds of the work force gets six weeks of paid leave each year under deals struck by employers and unions, even though the legal entitlement is only three weeks. Ten years ago, nobody in the country had six weeks paid holiday.
In France, Sweden, Belgium and Luxembourg, collective bargaining often boosts the statutory five-week leave by another week, the report says.
In legal terms, Spain has made the most progress, increasing paid leave from one to five weeks over the last 25 years.
Italian workers are frequently given six weeks of annual leave, while most British employees enjoy at least four weeks paid vacation, even though neither country has laws on holiday rights.
However, collective bargaining in the United States has not had the same results. In the United States, there are no laws on holiday entitlement, and time off depends on the length of service with an employer, the report notes.
It cites a U.S. government survey showing that, on average, employees who had worked for a company for one year got less than nine days paid holiday. This rose to nearly 23 days after 30 years with the same company.
“But not many people in the United States stay in the same place for 30 years,” said Joseph Thurman, an expert on working hours at the International Labor Organization.
He said cultural differences and lack of pressure to increase holiday time are among the reasons for the United States lagging behind Western European countries.
“If you told an American that a West German got six weeks’ holiday, he would be astounded. Similarly, a West German would be amazed that anyone could make do with two weeks’ paid leave a year,” Thurman said in an interview.
Although Japan cut working hours last year, he said, the Japanese are proving reluctant to take advantage of their increased leisure time.
Thurman said most Japanese workers take only half their yearly allowance of 10 days’ leave. But the 17 to 18 days of public holidays in Japan compare favorably to eight days in Britain and Switzerland, he added.
Thurman noted that Japan’s Ministry of Labor had set up a special Leisure Development Center to persuade people to take their full holiday entitlement.
