Do you know how much paid vacation time is common in the industrialized nations?

Do You Know? From: karlascottspeaker.blogspot.com

Today’s topic: Average paid vacation days for workers in 18 countries

One of the core values upon which the US was founded was that of hard work. According to Gay Alten, American Ways, there is still a strong belief that the ideal person is a hard worker.—one who gets right to work, on a task without delay, works efficiently, and who completes a task in a way that meets reasonably high standards of quality. We are a society that admirers achievers—not just on the job but in all other aspects of life. We are known as a nation of “human doings” (rather than human beings) who feel compelled to always be engaged in doing.

Does this hard work ethic exert any influence on the amount of time Americans take for annual vacation time—in comparison to other nations? What does Capitalism have to do with this? What about materialism and the desire for more goods? Japan, although known for its strong work ethic, offers more than twice as much paid vacation time as the US.

Is it no wonder we are the most stressed and depressed. We can discuss those stats later.

Here are rankings of 18 nations:

Spain 32.0
Netherlands 31.9
Norway 31.4
Germany 29.9
Finland 28.6
Sweden 27.8
France 27.0
Austria 26.8
Denmark 25.0
Belgium 24.6
Italy 24.6
The UK 24.5
Japan 24.0
Switzerland 23.4
Ireland 22.9
Australia 22.4
Canada 14.7
The US 10.8

Some might ask “how do these results reflect the economic health of these nations”? That is a question for another discussion.

Source: somewhat outdated survey by the Union Bank of Switzerland, Prices and Earnings Around the Globe

Although the actual numbers may have changed in the last two decades, the rankings have remained fundamentally unchanged. In the US, with the increase in the number of part time jobs, has this number actually declined?