Recently the American newspaper The Wall Street Journal has made a report in which he shows a comparison of vacations, working hours and wages in different countries. The first curious fact that we observe in it is that the country with the most parties throughout the year is Japan, with a total of 16, followed by South Korea with 15. In Spain, the national holidays, not counting the regional or regional holidays. local, there are 9.
However, Japan has 16 national holidays, yes, but an average of 17 vacation days per year. The remarkable thing about the case is that the Japanese do not enjoy all these days, since they only take half of the vacations that correspond to them, an average of 8,6. Something that does not happen, of course, in other countries. Russia is the country with the most vacation days, including holidays, with 40, followed by Sweden and Italy with 36, France, Norway and Brazil with 35, and Denmark and Spain with 34.
In this topic of work holidays (not counting holidays) there is variation in different European countries. In Germany they have 29 days, in Austria, Finland, France, Greece, Norway and Sweden 25 days, Belgium, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Hungary, United Kingdom and Switzerland 20 days, Spain and Portugal 22 days, and Holland and Ukraine 24 days.
With regards to workday Greece is the European country with the most hours per year, 2.032. It is followed by Hungary with 1.980 hours of work per year, Spain with 1.690, Denmark with 1.522, Germany with 1.413 and the Netherlands with 1.379 hours. As The Wall Street Journal points out, it is not because of spending more hours at work that you give up more. What you have to take into account is the productivity, which depends not only on the hours but also on how work is organized, technology and schedules among other factors.
In Spain, specifically, the hourly productivity of Spaniards is 107 points (the European Union average is 100 points), far from 124,8 in Germany or 132,5 in Belgium.
On the subject of salaries Yes, there is a more than evident difference between Spain and some European countries. The minimum wage in our country stands at 753 euros. Below are Greece with 684 euros, Portugal with 566, Turkey with 425, Croatia with 405, Estonia with 355, Hungary with 344, Czech Republic with 328, Latvia with 320, Lithuania with 290, Romania with 191 or Bulgaria with 174.
Between the minimum wage Highest in Europe are Luxembourg with 1.921 euros, Belgium with 1.502, the Netherlands with 1.486, Ireland with 1.462, France with 1.445 or the United Kingdom with 1.217.
Between the average wages, Spain has 26.027 euros, far from the 71.611 euros on average in Switzerland, 67.144 in Norway or 53.061 in Denmark. The lowest in Europe is the average annual salary of Bulgaria, with 4.590 euros, followed by Romania with 5.635 and Lithuania with 7.269.