How much paid time off are workers legally guaranteed? It depends enormously on where they live — and nowhere more starkly than the contrast between the United States and almost everywhere else. Most developed countries set a statutory floor of four to six weeks of paid annual leave, plus separate paid public holidays. The US sets none.
The table below compares the statutory minimum paid annual leave in 30 countries. To make it a fair comparison, every figure is normalized to working days on a standard five-day (Monday–Friday) week — because countries write their laws in wildly different units (weeks, calendar days, or six-day weeks), and comparing the raw numbers is misleading. We also flag whether paid public holidays come on top of that leave, since that varies just as much.
| Country | Annual leave (working days) | Public holidays separate? | ~Paid public holidays | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 🇬🇧 United Kingdom | 28 | Can be included | ~8 | 5.6 weeks; bank holidays may count within the 28 |
| 🇫🇷 France | 25 | Yes | 11 | Law states "30 jours ouvrables" (6-day basis) |
| 🇸🇪 Sweden | 25 | Yes | ~13 | Right to 4 consecutive weeks in summer |
| 🇦🇹 Austria | 25 | Yes | ~13 | Rises to 6 weeks after 25 years' service |
| 🇩🇰 Denmark | 25 | Yes | 10 | Accrued at 2.08 days/month |
| 🇪🇸 Spain | ~22* | Yes | up to 14 | *Statute = 30 calendar days incl. weekends |
| 🇵🇹 Portugal | 22 | Yes | ~13 | First year of hire capped at 20 |
| 🇧🇷 Brazil | ~22* | Yes | ~12 | *30 calendar days + ⅓-salary vacation bonus |
| 🇦🇪 UAE | ~22* | Mostly | ~13 | *30 calendar days after 1 year |
| 🇳🇴 Norway | ~21 | Yes | ~10 | "25 days" is a 6-day-week figure |
| 🇵🇱 Poland | 20–26 | Yes | ~13 | 26 days once total service/education ≥10 years |
| 🇩🇪 Germany | 20 | Yes | ~9–13 | Statutory floor; market norm is 25–30 |
| 🇮🇹 Italy | 20 | Yes | ~12 | Union agreements commonly grant 26–28 |
| 🇳🇱 Netherlands | 20 | Not guaranteed paid | ~9 | Holiday pay set by contract/CAO; +8% holiday allowance |
| 🇮🇪 Ireland | 20 | Yes | 10 | Exactly at the EU floor |
| 🇨🇭 Switzerland | 20 | Yes | ~9 | 5 weeks for workers under 20; holidays set by canton |
| 🇧🇪 Belgium | 20 | Yes | 10 | Earned on prior-year basis + ~15% holiday pay |
| 🇦🇺 Australia | 20 | Yes | ~11–13 | 4 weeks under the NES; accrues from day one |
| 🇳🇿 New Zealand | 20 | Yes | ~12 | 4 weeks after 12 months' employment |
| 🇰🇷 South Korea | 15+ | Yes | ~15 | +1 day every 2 years, capped at 25 |
| 🇿🇦 South Africa | 15 | Yes | 12 | "21 consecutive days" = 15 working days |
| 🇮🇳 India | 12–21 | Yes | varies | No single national figure; varies by state Act |
| 🇮🇩 Indonesia | 12 | Yes | ~16 | After 12 months; plus collective "cuti bersama" days |
| 🇲🇽 Mexico | 12→20 | Yes | ~7–8 | Rises to 20 by year 5; ≥25% vacation premium |
| 🇯🇵 Japan | 10+ | Not required paid | ~16 | After 6 months → cap 20; holidays not legally paid |
| 🇨🇦 Canada | 10+ | Yes | ~5–9 | 2 weeks baseline; rises with tenure, varies by province |
| 🇸🇬 Singapore | 7→14 | Yes | 11 | 7 days year 1, +1/year to 14 at year 8 |
| 🇨🇳 China | 5→15 | Yes | 13 | By cumulative career service; holidays raised to 13 in 2025 |
| 🇵🇭 Philippines | 5 | Yes | ~18–20 | Combined leave (vacation/sick); exempt if <10 staff |
| 🇺🇸 United States | 0 | None mandated | 0 | No federal minimum for leave or paid holidays |
The United States Is the Global Outlier
The single most striking line in the table is the last one. The United States has no federal law requiring any paid annual leave, and no federal requirement that private employers pay for public holidays. Both are entirely a matter of agreement between employer and employee. The roughly 11 "federal holidays" apply only to federal government workers, and no US state mandates paid vacation either.
In practice most US employers do offer paid time off to stay competitive — but the average American gets only around 11–15 paid vacation days after several years of service, well below the statutory minimum in most of the countries above. It's why a US company hiring its first employee in the UK, Australia, or the EU is often surprised by how much paid leave it's now legally required to provide.
What This Means for Employers Hiring Globally
If you're a US or global company hiring across borders, these differences aren't trivia — they're compliance obligations and budget lines. Get the statutory leave wrong in a country with a strong labor regime and you're underpaying employees and exposed to penalties. The leave entitlement is also only the start: each country layers on its own payroll taxes, social contributions, and termination rules.
This is why most companies hiring a handful of people abroad use an employer of record (EOR) rather than setting up a local entity in every market. The EOR is the legal employer in-country, so it applies the correct statutory leave, runs compliant local payroll, and keeps you on the right side of each jurisdiction's rules. Deel is one of the leading EOR platforms, covering 150+ countries — useful precisely because the rules differ so much from the table above.
Hiring across these countries?
An employer of record applies each country's statutory leave and payroll rules for you — so you can hire compliantly without opening an entity in every market.
See how Deel hires globally →We're building out country-by-country guides that go deeper than this table — the full leave, payroll, and compliance picture for hiring in each market:
- Hiring Employees in Australia — annual leave, superannuation, PAYG, the Fair Work framework.
- Hiring Employees in Canada — provincial rules, vacation pay, CPP/EI, and why Canada isn't at-will.
- Hiring Employees in Singapore — statutory leave, CPF, the SDL, work passes, and why you don't withhold income tax.
- Hiring Employees in the UK — statutory leave, PAYE, National Insurance, pensions.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which country has the most statutory annual leave?
Among major economies, the United Kingdom has one of the highest statutory minimums at 5.6 weeks (28 working days), though UK employers can count public holidays within that figure. Several European countries — France, Sweden, Austria, Denmark — guarantee 25 working days plus separate paid public holidays, which often makes their total paid time off the highest in practice.
Does the United States have a legal minimum for paid vacation?
No. The US is the major-economy outlier: there's no federal law requiring any paid annual leave, and no federal requirement for private employers to pay for public holidays. Both are entirely at the employer's discretion. The roughly 11 federal holidays apply only to federal government employees.
Are public holidays included in annual leave entitlements?
It varies by country and is the most common point of confusion. In most countries paid public holidays are separate from and on top of annual leave. The UK is a notable exception — employers may include its bank holidays within the 28-day statutory entitlement. In a few countries (such as Japan) public holidays aren't even legally required to be paid.
Why do annual leave figures differ so much between sources?
Two reasons. First, some laws are written on a six-day working week (Germany's 24 days, France's 30), which inflates the headline versus a five-day week. Second, some are written in calendar days (Spain and Brazil's 30 days include weekends), which makes them smaller than they look. This guide normalizes everything to working days on a five-day week for a fair comparison.
How much annual leave do employees get in Australia and the UK?
Australia guarantees 4 weeks (20 working days) of paid annual leave under the National Employment Standards, with public holidays separate. The UK guarantees 5.6 weeks (28 days), which can include its 8 bank holidays. See our dedicated guides to hiring in Australia and hiring in the UK for the full rules.