N. American Workers Receive Least Amount Of Vacation

Of the 21 countries surveyed by Hewitt Associates LLC, Mexican employers provide workers with the least amount of vacation time -- six days -- after one year of service. The typical U.S. and Canadian company offers a little more time off -- 10 days after a year of service.

And even though the U.S. and the UK were the only two countries Hewitt surveyed where the government does not mandate the number of vacation days, there's a wide difference in attitudes toward vacation between employers in those countries. The typical UK employer provides more than twice as many days of vacation -- 23 -- to employees with one year of service than the typical U.S. employer. The three most generous countries: Denmark, 33 days; and Austria and Brazil, 30 each. Workers in France, Norway, and Sweden get 25 days of vacation after one year; German workers get 24.