Vacation Days by Country: Comparing Paid Leave Without Miscounting

Compare ten countries' annual-leave rules, including France's five weeks and the U.S. federal baseline, without mixing day definitions or unsupported averages.

From MaiMai's World Desk · The World Compared

Updated 2026-10-02 · Ages 13–18 · Classroom-friendly

Why I researched this

MaiMai is a fictional teaching narrator. First-person scenes frame the inquiry; they are not reported interviews or fieldwork. Check factual claims against the linked sources.

In a fictional MaiMai family conversation, Bobo imagines every worker's holiday calendar looking like a school calendar. I bring that question to my World Desk because paid annual leave has its own rules. Our character scene is not evidence; the comparisons below come from official employment guidance and carefully labeled classroom examples.

The Quick Picture

5 weeks France: 30 jours ouvrables, ordinarily equivalent to 25 days on a five-day workweek Check source
5.6 weeks UK statutory paid holiday for most workers; bank holidays may be included Check source
No federal requirement U.S. FLSA does not require paid vacation; employer benefits are a separate question Check source

A holiday count needs a definition

Paid annual leave is time away from work for which an eligible worker receives pay under the relevant rules. It is not automatically the same as public holidays, weekly rest days, school vacations, sick leave, or parental leave. Countries can count and combine those categories differently. Before comparing totals, ask what is included and what the unit means. A day on a five-day workweek and a day under a six-day counting convention need careful explanation.

Alongside ten-country snapshots, we examine UK statutory entitlement, France's private-sector rules and the U.S. federal FLSA baseline, checked on 2 October 2026. These rules do not measure leave actually used or establish an American ten-day average. Contracts and collective agreements may add benefits. Employment category and eligibility still matter; a legal floor is not everyone's contract.

Country snapshots

These snapshots describe different rules, not a ranking of outcomes. Expand a country for its policy background and follow the source for current eligibility and dates.

🇫🇷 France — 5 weeks statutory paid annual leave30 jours ouvrables count a six-day week; on a five-day schedule the equivalent is normally 25 working days, not 30 plus every holiday.

Service Public explains accrual of 2.5 jours ouvrables per month of actual work up to 30 annually. Its definition of days is essential to interpreting the familiar '30 days' headline. Additional contractual leave and working-time reduction days may exist, but they are not the same statutory category. Compare equal workweek conventions rather than declaring six-day counting more generous.

Learn more: France

🇩🇪 Germany — 24 statutory days on a six-day weekThe equivalent on a regular five-day week is 20 days; collective agreements or contracts may provide more.

Section 3 of the Federal Holiday Act counts all days other than Sundays and statutory holidays as Werktage. That definition explains why a legal 24-day figure and a 20-day five-day-workweek figure describe the same basic four weeks. Do not confuse this floor with negotiated workplace entitlements, and do not automatically add every state's public holidays.

Learn more: Germany

🇬🇧 United Kingdom — 5.6 weeks paid holiday for most workersA regular five-day worker normally gets 28 days; bank holidays can count toward that total rather than being added.

GOV.UK distinguishes full-time, part-time and irregular-hours calculations. The statutory formula expresses an equivalent number of weeks, not 28 days for someone who works only two days each week. Employers can provide more than the minimum. Scheduling rights and holiday-pay calculations are separate issues, so a national total is not a promise that everyone can take the same dates.

Learn more: United Kingdom

🇦🇺 Australia — 4 weeks for full-time and part-time employeesLeave accrues according to ordinary hours; casual employees do not receive this paid annual-leave entitlement and certain shiftworkers get more.

The Fair Work Ombudsman explains the National Employment Standards and gives a part-time example: 20 hours a week produces 80 annual-leave hours in a year. The unit of weeks keeps the entitlement proportional to a person's schedule. Awards and enterprise agreements can add protections. Check employment classification before comparing a holiday entitlement with a casual job offer.

Learn more: Australia

🇯🇵 Japan — 10–20 days depending on serviceThe standard initial entitlement follows six months of continuous service and at least 80% attendance; part-time schedules can have proportional rules.

The Labour Ministry's Working Conditions Handbook shows ten days after six months, rising to twenty after six and a half years of continuous employment under the standard schedule. It also explains proportional rules and the employer's duty to ensure five days are taken when a worker receives at least ten. Entitlement and actual use are still different measures: this handbook states legal rules, not a survey of how many days workers take.

Learn more: Japan

🇰🇷 South Korea — Translated Article 60 baseline: 15 daysThe cited 2021 English consolidation uses at least 80% attendance for a qualifying year; check current Korean law, service and workplace coverage.

Korea's translated Labour Standards Act distinguishes annual entitlement from accrual for workers with less than a year's service. Its applicability and working-hour conditions matter. This older English consolidation supports the explained baseline, but does not certify that every provision is unchanged today. Unused leave and employer procedures require further checks. The figure is not an average number of days Korean workers actually take.

Learn more: South Korea

🇨🇦 Canada — Federal example: 2, then 3, then 4 weeksFor federally regulated employees the minimum rises after 1, 5 and 10 years with the same employer; provincial and territorial rules differ.

The federal guidance separates vacation time from vacation pay: corresponding minimum pay percentages are 4%, 6% and 8% of wages. Those percentages are not extra weeks. Most Canadian workers need their province's or territory's law instead of this federal schedule. A national ten-day shorthand hides jurisdiction, service and the distinction between earned money and time off.

Learn more: Canada

🇲🇽 Mexico — At least 12 working days after year oneThe minimum rises with service; compulsory rest days and the vacation premium are separate categories.

The 2023 reform doubled the first-year statutory minimum from six to twelve days. Articles 76 and 78 of the Federal Labour Law set the increasing entitlement and rules on taking leave. This change makes an older international table especially misleading. Verify the completed years of service and applicable law rather than recycling a pre-reform six-day figure.

Learn more: Mexico

🇧🇷 Brazil — Normally 30 calendar days after 12 monthsThe CLT entitlement depends on unexcused absences; calendar days include weekends, so this is not 30 five-day-week working days.

Articles 129–130 of Brazil's Consolidation of Labour Laws establish paid vacation and a schedule that can reduce duration with unexcused absences. The normal thirty-day period uses calendar counting. Brazil therefore illustrates why converting everything into a bare 'days' ranking produces errors. Employment category, attendance and the statutory vacation-payment rules should accompany the headline.

Learn more: Brazil

🇺🇸 United States — No federal paid-vacation requirementMany employers offer paid vacation or combined PTO, but there is no single statutory national annual-leave minimum under the FLSA.

The Labor Department says vacation pay is generally a matter of agreement between employer and employee. This does not mean U.S. employees never get holidays or that every worker averages ten days. Surveys must specify service length, sector, full-time status and the benefit measured. Compare a federal legal floor with other legal floors, and an employer-benefit average only with comparable survey evidence.

Learn more: United States

United Kingdom: weeks first, then days

GOV.UK says almost all people classed as workers are entitled to 5.6 weeks of paid holiday a year. For someone working five days a week, its example is 28 days. The weeks-based framing is useful because a person who works fewer days each week should not be compared as though they worked five. Part-time workers also have entitlement, calculated with the relevant pattern. The official page and calculator help readers apply the correct approach.

Do not treat 28 as a universal number of days for everyone. GOV.UK describes a cap at 28 days for statutory entitlement and rules for irregular-hours and part-year workers. Those categories require their own guidance rather than a casual multiplication. An employer can provide additional leave beyond the statutory minimum. The statement here concerns the legal baseline, not a survey of all British contracts. The exact question is which calculation applies to the worker and leave year under discussion.

France: five weeks and a counting convention

France's official Service Public guidance for private-sector employees describes accrual of 2.5 working days per month of actual work with the same employer, corresponding to 30 days, or five weeks, for a full year. The English page is automatically translated and uses terminology that can be confusing. The French concept of jours ouvrables generally uses a six-day weekly counting convention. Readers should consult the French original when terminology affects a conclusion rather than treating the translated word day as self-explanatory.

The page also says employers may calculate using another working-day method provided it guarantees at least equivalent entitlement. The important comparison is five weeks under the applicable method, not a claim that France's 30 and Britain's 28 are simply two extra days on identical calendars. Service Public describes rules for employees and apprentices, as well as circumstances affecting accrual. We are not claiming the same calculation settles every public-sector, self-employed, or special absence situation.

United States: the federal baseline is not everyone's contract

The U.S. Department of Labor states that the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require payment for time not worked, including vacations, sick leave, or federal and other holidays. Those benefits are generally matters of agreement between employer and employee or employee representative. That statement describes what the FLSA requires. It does not establish that American workers receive no vacation, and it does not summarize every other law or employment arrangement.

The same federal guidance notes special holiday or vacation requirements for certain government contracts. This is a reminder that broad statements need scope. An employer's benefits package can provide paid vacation even when the general federal baseline does not require it. To compare an actual job, check its contract, handbook, relevant state guidance, and any applicable agreement. A zero in a statutory-minimum column must never be presented as a measurement of all employees' actual days off.

Accrual, scheduling, and pay are separate questions

Accrual means building up entitlement over a period. Scheduling concerns when the leave can be taken. Pay concerns what income is received during it. Knowing the annual total does not answer all three. Service Public explains accrual and rules around the leave period; GOV.UK provides separate guidance on holiday pay. Read those sections before concluding that a worker can take any dates they choose or that every day off produces the same payment.

A workplace also needs people available to perform its work. Asking how requests are coordinated is therefore different from asking whether a right exists. In a fictional café exercise, two employees request the same week. Students can discuss fair scheduling procedures without inventing a country's legal answer. An acceptable classroom proposal should distinguish its suggested policy from sourced law. That distinction makes debate more useful: classmates can assess fairness without accidentally learning a made-up legal requirement.

Availability does not tell us take-up

A legal entitlement is a rule, while take-up is what people actually do. To determine how many days employees use, researchers need appropriately collected data with a clear population and period. An entitlement page does not provide those results. Workplace culture, finances, awareness, and scheduling could influence use, but those are hypotheses to investigate rather than conclusions drawn from the three guidance pages. Avoid turning a familiar story about overwork into a national statistic.

The distinction matters when someone claims that one country relaxes more or another works harder. Such descriptions stereotype people and ignore differences within countries. Actual working time, productivity, and well-being require separate measures. More days in a statutory annual-leave system do not automatically prove lower output, just as fewer required days do not automatically prove greater dedication. A careful student writes down what the evidence measures before explaining what they think it implies.

Worked check: equal weeks, different day counts

For fictional employees working five days every week for a full leave year, France's standard five weeks ordinarily corresponds to 25 scheduled workdays, while the UK baseline is 5.6 weeks or 28 days. France's headline of 30 jours ouvrables uses a six-day convention; it does not establish two more comparable days than Britain. Ask students to correct a chart that ranks 'France 30, UK 28' without definitions. Their replacement must state the workweek, entitlement category and treatment of public holidays.

For a regular UK worker scheduled two days each week, 5.6 weeks corresponds to 11.2 scheduled days, not 28. This is a proportional classroom calculation, not an irregular-hours accrual formula. Australia's guidance illustrates a different unit: twenty ordinary hours weekly yields eighty leave hours annually, or four of that worker's weeks. Require students to explain why fewer counted days or hours can preserve the same number of weeks away. A sound answer does not assume a part-time worker receives a full-time day total, or mistake a casual Australian job for one with this paid-leave entitlement.

Family Discussion

A fictional conversation with MaiMai, Roly, and Bobo — a teaching prompt, not a reported account or policy evidence.

Roly (age 10) asked me: “Fictional Roly (age 10): Is thirty days always more holiday than twenty-five?”

My answer: At our fictional dinner table I ask Roly to draw one calendar and one work timetable. Some systems count Saturdays, and some count only days the person normally works. Five weeks can be described as thirty six-day-week days or twenty-five five-day-week days. The numbers look different even when the time away is the same. We need to know what the country means by a day.

Bobo (age 12) wondered: “Fictional Bobo (age 12): If people are allowed a holiday, why would they not use it?”

My answer: I explain in this imagined dialogue that permission does not always remove workload, money worries or pressure from colleagues. Employers also need to arrange coverage. A useful investigation would compare legal rights, pay during leave and days actually taken. Advocates of strong leave rules emphasize reliable rest; critics ask how staffing and costs are handled. Evidence about use tells us more than guessing about a country's attitude.

Questions to think about

Use evidence to explore these questions; there isn't one answer to memorize.

How would you convert calendar days, six-day-week days and five-day-week days into a fair comparison?
What evidence would you need before claiming that Americans 'average ten days'?
Should public holidays count inside annual leave or be a separate entitlement, and why?
How might holiday rules affect a part-time teenager differently from a full-time adult?
What prevents people from using leave they have earned, and how could those barriers be measured?
How could a small workplace preserve reliable rest while covering essential work?

Sources and further reading

Follow these sources to check definitions, eligibility rules, and dates. Policies can change; this is educational research, not legal or financial advice.

Policy glossary →