38 thoughts on “Vacation and holiday laws by country”

  1. Guess which nations workers riot the most when the government tries to make their economy more productive? I’ll give you a hint…they speak French…

  2. So the takeaway here is the more your government meddles in employee and employer relations, the poorer that country becomes.

  3. “So the takeaway here is the more your government meddles in employee and employer relations, the poorer that country becomes.”

    HAHAHAHAHHAH!!11!

    Like one could be more broke than you are.

    Greetings from Germany.

    • There’s a difference between broke and in debt.
      Broke is a homeless person with no where to live and no clean clothes. That would be Germany
      In debt is a physician who lives in a 30,000 sq ft house and owes $1.5 million on it. That’s the U.S.

    • Actually, you guys need to read your history books a little more in depth. West Germany swallowed the broke and penniless East Germany along with the East’s lack of jobs and skills and hardly felt the pinch.

      The US has been borrowing money from China to give it to the Arabs because we’re too dumb to invest our money in clean energy instead. And now we’re owned by other nations.

  5. “There’s a difference between broke and in debt.”

    Sure.

    The difference is timing. Like in “It`s time to call in my debts!”.

    “That would be Germany”

    LOL
    Like we would need to hand out IOUs.

    Sic transit gloria mundi motherfucker

      • And somewhere is someone selling your bonds for good.

        At least we can be trusted with money.

        Look at you:
        You need to buy your own bonds,just so no one realizes the monumental fuckup you commited.

        And all you can do is mocking the ones actually doing some work?

        And about the houses you are so proud of:
        Ever heard of the three little piggies?

        I would`nt live in one of your shithole cardboxes if i got paid to.
        Less accepting this junk as a collateral.

        And no one else does.

        You`re going to pay your debts. By the way of inflation, of course.

        So this chart is kinda just. If you don`t get any benefits for doing the work, why should you get paid?

        • Hey, dumbass, the chart refers to government sponsored days off, and has nothing to do with the economy. Speaking of which, did Germany ever finish repaying it’s debts from WWII? I don’t think so…

          • “Hey, dumbass, the chart refers to government sponsored days off”

            Hey, dumbass.
            It does not.

            “did Germany ever finish repaying it’s debts from WWII? I don’t think so…”

            At least WE could.

    • You are all immature AND WRONG!!! Everyone knows that the KAZAKHSTAN GREATEST COUNTRY IN THE WORLD. ALL OTHER COUNTRIES ARE RUN BY LITTLE GIRLS.KAZAKHSTAN NUMBER ONE EXPORTER OF POTASSIUM. OTHER COUNTRIES HAVE INFERIOR POTASSIUM. !@#!@#

  6. By holidays does it refer to public holidays? If so, why is the UK missing the eight annual public holidays that we’re also paid for?

  7. Actually I believe the last of WW II debt was repaid last year. That does not mean Germany’s economy is sound. Germany’s undoing will be civil unrest from North Africa immigrants. The US’s will be civil unrest from Central America.

    And dear Mr. Nix, I hate to break it to you but Germany’s debt to GDP equals the US’
    welcome to the neighborhood Mr. kettle

    • “Actually I believe the last of WW II debt was repaid last year.”

      Nope. That was WW1.

      “Germany’s undoing will be civil unrest from North Africa immigrants”

      I really don`t get this. What do you mean?

      “Germany’s debt to GDP equals the US’”

      But we hold the money. You people are just plain broke. We are not richin a way of saying:”people lend us their money for our crappy houses, we`re rich!”.

      We actually OWN Money. We even can afford to bail out greece, spain or the uk.

      You can`t do shit.

      Sorry.

      • Just curious where you get your facts Nix.
        Germany had to be forced to participate in the Greece bail out and it was no where close to what the US pays in Afghanistan and Iraq. Your ‘bailout was 145 Billion complete – not German’s contribution but all in. The US has spent more than 900 Billion on these two conflict alone. We spent another 800 Billion on stimulus within the US. I don’t think you quite grasp the difference in scale between the US and Germany.

        Germany’s was 3.3 Trillion
        The United States was 14.5 Trillion

        I always find it a little ironic how Europeans are quick to criticize the US yet we still have the highest immigration numbers in the word. I would really like to see the US pull back for decade and leave the rest of the world to its own and see how well you fare.

        For such a comparatively young nation we have certainly surpassed any ‘old world’ European counties in GDP and standard of living. Hell, all the European Union together just barely exceed the US’ GDP

        I tend to think your still pissed about getting your ass kicked twice by the new kid on the block

    • “I’ve never understood why ANYONE should be paid to not work.”

      They`re not paid for not working.

      They are paid for work they allready did.

      This can`t be much different from you. Even if there is no paid leave or no paid holiday, you people must make up for the time you need to take care of whatever isn`t work related.

      According to this chart, americans don`t do holidays? Or do these nasty germans don`t show up at work ever?

      It`s nothing like that.

      • You just don’t get it, idiot…”legal right” means that the government has granted the time off, not the companies that folks work for. Oh, and if you want to talk “crappy”, I think that the German translation is “Mercedes Benz”. A lot of money for a half assed Lexus…

  10. Let me get this straight, US workers do not get paid for 4th of July and other national holidays?

    (Pardon my ignorance I am in Canada)

    • Companies are only required to pay for time you are at work. Many have added a number of paid holidays (and sick time, or personal time) to their employee benefit packages (or union contracts), but this isn’t required by the government. A non-union person working a holiday (such as a nurse) would not get special holiday pay on top of their normal wages).

      • Again that depends on the company. When I was working at a plastics factory while i was in college I got a shift differential to work on weekends and then extra pay to work on holidays, to entice people to voluntarily to work on holidays.

        As an adult I have always had paid holidays plus time off.. This is the beginning of my second year with my current employer and we get 6 paid holidays plus I get 22 days of paid time off.

      • Thanks Julie. In Canada there are 5 federal statutory holidays during which all companies have to pay the employees, or if the employee is required to work, he or she is paid twice the rate of regular wage.

        We also have provincially mandated statutory holidays (4 for BC) to which the same rules apply.

    • There is no law that requires it. Many companies offer paid holidays (about 6 per year is the norm). But they don’t have to.

      • Thanks Ron. You make the point that the village idiot can’t grasp. Workers in the U.S. get lots of vacation and holidays, per union contracts or company benefit packages. For example when I hit 25 years of employment, my company benefits amounted to 10 paid holidays, 25 days of vacation, and sick time (as needed and reasonable). When I went into teaching, I was off from the last week in May ’til the first week in August. I still had 9 holidays and two weeks off at Christmas and one week in April…not bad for no “legal right to paid vacation.”
        By the way, Germany has one of the worst GDP’s in the world, they have the second highest personal tax rate and the highest corporate tax rate among all of the industrialized nations.

        • “By the way, Germany has one of the worst GDP’s in the world”

          Maybe you have to be the village idiot to get your facts straight.
          http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29

          And just take a look here:
          “As of February 28, 2011, the Total Public Debt Outstanding of the United States of America was $14.19 trillion and was 96.8% of calendar year 2010’s annual gross domestic product (GDP) of $14.66 trillion.”

          And when you say:
          “they have the second highest personal tax rate and the highest corporate tax rate among all of the industrialized nations.”

          this is
          a) just plain wrong
          b) wouldn`t prove shit, even if it was true.

      • It’s a good thing that employers don’t have to offer paid holidays. In an economic downturn they can cut costs and benefits to stay afloat. High unemployment works against the workers. The flip side is, when the economy is strong and there is low unemployment. Employers have to offer benefits to attract and keep good employees. A win for workers. When government intervenes on behalf of either side, everybody looses. Either the company goes under, or we pay more in taxes, or both.

  11. Who is this Nix idiot that’s trying to bash the US? If it wasn’t for the US, he would be speaking Russian.

    What this chart simply means is that we have a capitalist system. Employers offer paid vacation, I get more than France does… the difference is that THE GOVERNMENT DOESN’T TELL MY EMPLOYER THAT I HAVE TO. The employer has the option to, and the employer does so simply because that’s the way to get the best people. Meanwhile, France and others reward mediocrity and their economies show the results of that. The 2 richest countries in the world don’t reward lackluster behavior as much. Coincidence? I think not.

  13. wow, this is the first time i’ve seen contentious discussion on B&P.

    anyway, the way i see it is this chart is a bit misleading. it might make some people think america doesn’t get any benefits from working. what i think this chart really shows is america’s extreme dislike for socialim. it is a strong american sentiment in saying “I’ve never understood why ANYONE should be paid to not work.”

    there’s pros and cons to living in any of the countries, but as a citizen, i’d personally prefer France to America.
    (i’m from neither)

  14. Most of the jobs I’ve had in my life offered no paid vacation, no paid holidays, and no paid sick leave. Oh sure, you could take some time off, but no one ever did because they couldn’t do without the money.

    And since this is a “right to work” state, taking unpaid time off could cause you to be the first fired in favor of those who never take time off.

    Now that I work by internet, I am treated like someone that’s not from Kentucky. Not only do I make more money, but I get paid time off! Not many people classified as “self-emplooyed” get that.

    • A blogger with paid time off? A blogger with pay?
      OK, we do make a little money on ads and can take off any time we want, but for the time we put in it you’d think we were working in a third world country if you figured out the hourly wage. And it’s a 7 days a week job most of the time. Not that I’m complaining. I enjoy what I do.

  16. Keep that GOV. out of Business, remember before those Damn Child Labor Laws and we could abuse Children as much as we can Abuse Unedj. Adults. In bad times we can require adults to work 24 hours a day or get Fired. Wouldn’t it be great if we could do that to Kids too. (Business profits are WAY more important then people). Keep fighting and soon you will have no job, because a 10 Year old will have it.

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