The countries promoting a positive work-life balance in 2022

A positive work-life balance is proving increasingly important to employees across the world as perks and benefits prove vital, even leading to people relocating or switching industries as a result.

Acuity Training has researched which countries are offering the best perks, promoting the idea of a positive work-life balance, examining factors such as holidays and paternity leave. 

Firstly the countries offering the most amount of holidays per year were investigated:

• France: 37 days 

• Luxembourg: 32 days

• Denmark: 25 days

• Finland: 25 days
  
• Austria: 25 days

France and Luxembourg are the only countries offering more than 30 days of holidays, the United Kingdom currently offer 20 days. It was interesting to see Luxembourg offer the second highest amount of holidays, ultimately promoting a positive work-life balance.

Additionally, let’s take a look at the top 5 countries offering the longest amount of paid maternity leave:

• The United Kingdom: 39 weeks

• Czech Republic: 28 weeks

• Ireland: 26 weeks

• New Zealand: 26 weeks

• Luxembourg: 20 weeks

It’s interesting to see the UK offer the longest amount of paid maternity leave in the world, with 39 weeks paid. On the opposite end of the scale, the US offers 0 weeks of paid maternity leave.

Moreover, the top 5 countries offering the longest amount of paid paternity leave were:

• Norway: 15 weeks

• Sweden: 12 weeks

• Iceland: 12 weeks

• Finland: 11 weeks

• Netherlands: 6 weeks

On average, countries offer a much less amount of time for fathers after the birth of a child. Norway topped this list, offering 15 weeks of paid paternity leave. The United Kingdom ranked low on this list. Currently, the UK offer 2 weeks of paternity leave.

Lastly, they explored the countries offering time devoted to leisure/personal care to their employees:

• France: 16.2 hours

• Denmark: 15.7 hours

• Norway: 15.7 hours

• Germany: 15.6 hours

• Belgium: 15.5 hours

Like the holiday ranking, France also tops the list for the country, offering the most amount of time devoted to leisure and personal care. This factor may seem minimal, but being offered time for personal care from an employer is a statement of intent to promote a positive work-life balance.

Overall, we hope these rankings have helped educate you on the countries leading the way in promoting a positive work-life balance. It was interesting to see Luxembourg make the top five in two rankings, whilst France topped the list for countries offering holidays and personal care time.

-ENDS-

Notes to editors

The full piece can be found here.

Methodology

Acuity Training looked at several factors, such as the amount of maternity leave, paternity leave, holidays and personal care time being offered to employees in different countries around the world.

About Acuity Training

Acuity Training is a small training business based in Guildford with a permanent training centre in London.

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