Search icon

News

20th Dec 2016

This Is The Number Of Bank Holidays We SHOULD Have Each Year

katedemolder

Fed up of working five day weeks? 

Wouldn’t mind an extra bank holiday or two to make life seem a bit more bearable?

Yep, us too. 

And it turns out that we’re due an extra one or two here or there. Below are the amount of public holidays each country should have, theoretically. 

Public Holidays Europe

It might cross you that we have very few in comparison to some countries (Slovakia we’re looking at you).

These stats come from the highly informative website Jakubmarian.com, which also define what a ‘public holiday’ actually means.

A public holiday, also called national holiday or legal holiday, is a special holiday established by each country’s (or autonomous region’s) law. Public holidays are usually non-working but paid, which means that they serve as additional paid holidays with dates fixed by law. Alternatively, workers usually receive a higher hourly wage if they work during a public holiday.

One notable exception is the United Kingdom, where observing public holidays is not obligatory for employers, and employees are not entitled to an enhanced pay rate. This is partially compensated by the fact that British workers are entitled to 28 days of annual leave, which is more than in any other European country, and when an employer observes a public holiday, it counts towards the minimum.

The following map shows the theoretical maximum number of non-working days as defined by law. However, the real number of non-working days varies from year to year depending on the number of holidays falling on a weekend (which, however, may be compensated by an additional non-working day during the workweek in some countries). When a range of numbers is given, the actual number depends on a municipality or religious affiliation.

So, there you have it. 

Ready to kickstart an extra holiday campaign, anyone?

READ NEXT: Now’s Your Chance To Spend Hallowe’en Night In Dracula’s Castle

Topics: