The French take more holidays and work less – but does it matter?

The average French worker can expect 30 days a year of paid vacation. See how this compares with employees in other countries

The Guardian of London

Since 1999, employees at the French utility giant EDF who work more than 35 hours a week have been eligible for an additional 23 days off a year on top of the standard 27 – a total of 10 weeks’ paid vacation. The state-owned company is trying to renegotiate the arrangement.
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According to research by the Centre for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), among OECD countries France is the most generous when it comes to annual leave. The average French worker can expect 30 days a year of paid vacation, compared with 28 days for workers in the UK and 25 for most workers in Denmark and Sweden.
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Employees in most of the rest of Europe’s economies get about 20 days of annual leave, and those in Japan are granted half that. The US is the only industrialised country where employers are not required to provide paid vacation.

Of course, that doesn’t mean American workers don’t get to go on holiday. Most receive vacation leave as part of their compensation package. According to Expedia, Americans on average were given 15 days off in 2014 (and took 14).
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The French work on average about 1,500 hours per year. Among OECD members only employees in the Netherlands, Germany, Norway and Denmark work fewer hours.

However, the number of hours worked tells only a partial story. At the other end of the OECD rankings, workers in Greece clock more than 2,000 hours a year on the job, but in terms of productivity the output of Greek workers generates far less value compared with most other European countries. By this measure, those slackers in France, the Netherlands and Denmark perform better than most other EU members, including Germany and Britain.
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An analysis in the FT points out that shorter hours are often associated with higher output. In Japan, several companies including Uniqlo are cutting working hours, and the government – faced with the challenge of an ageing population (like many parts of Europe) – is introducing legislation to force workers to take at least five days of holiday each year.
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As many governments in the world’s richest economies try to shake the rust off labour markets and reform their welfare systems, they may well find that the task at hand is far more complicated than counting hours worked and vacation days.