Workers in Malta, Austria, have most holidays

A survey of 62 countries has found that Malta and Austria offer their workers the most generous holiday packages, with a combination of public holidays and statutory holiday entitlement meaning they can expect to enjoy 38 days away from work every year, the Daily Telegraph has reported.

The UK actually ranked the highest in terms of statutory holiday entitlement, with an unusually high 28 days put aside for workers. But because, unlike in many other European countries, British companies are allowed to include public holidays within that entitlement, employees usually have less time off than most of their European counterparts.

When considering statutory entitlement alone, the US scored the worse, as there is no minimum amount of holiday required by federal law. On the presumption that the average American worker is given 15 days off a year, plus bank holidays, however, the countries with the lowest amount of total holiday overall turned out to be the Philippines and Canada. There, workers can expect to have only 20 and 19 days off respectively.

Wolfgang Seidl, head of health care consulting at Mercer, which conducted the research, warned that helping employees create a good work/life balance was a central factor in keeping them happy and productive – especially during a period of economic instability.