As workers travel for the holidays and spend time with their loved ones, many may find themselves scraping the bottom of their PTO. But do paid vacation days always have to feel like a precious commodity?
Resume builder Resume.io ranked 197 countries based on the number of paid vacation days workers were entitled to by national law. After examining annual statutory paid leave and paid public holidays laws in each country, Resume.io found that the U.S. had the second lowest number of paid vacation days, only beaten by the Federal States of Micronesia. In fact, the U.S. has zero days of paid leave and 10 paid public holidays, while Iran, which ranked number one for the most vacation days, has 26 days of paid leave and 27 paid public holidays.
"The key reason why the U.S. lags so far behind is because it is the only advanced economy that does not mandate any paid vacation time for workers," says Lotte van Rijswijk, content team lead at Resume.io. "The U.S. has one of the top-performing economies, but workers don't have the same rights to paid leave that other countries around the world have."
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Notably, there are countries like Yemen and Andorra that have nearly half the amount of paid public holidays that Iran does, but guarantee 30 days of paid leave for all their workers. Employers in the U.S. are not even legally required to give workers paid time off on public holidays, unless by state laws such as those in Massachusetts and Rhode Island.
As burnout and mental health challenges continue to weigh workers down, the U.S. and employers will have to consider catching up with the rest of the world, says Rijswijk.
Here are 10 countries with the most paid vacation days, according to
