Employees Deserve More Vacation: Report

“The Scandinavian countries are particularly generous,” the report says, “and the fact that these countries rank high in international competitiveness rankings gives the lie to the claim that more vacation time undermines national economic performance.”

The United States is a major outlier in the world of OECD countries. It’s the only country which provides no legal right to any paid vacation time.

In Canada, employment standards can vary. All workers have access to a minimum of two weeks paid vacation(or vacation pay)after one year of service. There is no entitlement at all to a third week in Ontario, Prince Edward Island and Yukon.

And access to paid statutory holidays is different across the country. New Brunswick, Newfoundland and Nova Scotia have six paid vacation days while Saskatchewan has ten.

The Canadian Labour Congress has long called for an increase in paid vacation time as a basic right for all workers. Most recently, in the review of federal employment standards, it called for three weeks of paid vacation after five years(instead of the current six years), and four weeks of paid vacation after ten years, matching the Saskatchewan standard.

Below is a table of the minimum paid leave and paid public holidays(combined)in countries around the world.

Source: Canadian Labour Congress

To comment on this story, email craig.sebastiano@rci.rogers.com.