New Zealanders get Asia-Pacific's most-generous holidays, Mercer says

Thursday 15th December 2011

New Zealanders have some of the most generous holiday entitlements in the Asia Pacific region and rank eighth worldwide for the amount of leave they’re entitled to, according human resources consultants Mercer.

New Zealand, Japanese and Australian employees all have a legal entitlement to 20 days annual leave, ahead of Hong Kong, Singapore and Vietnam on 14 days and the workers in the Philippines, who get the lowest entitlement at five days a year.

“With pay rises muted and often below the rate of inflation, companies are searching for other ways to motivate their staff,” said Georgina Harley, leader information and product solutions at Mercer. “Flexible working and a good work/life balance helps improve employee engagement when the usual financial tools are unavailable.”

New Zealanders also get 11 public holidays a year, taking the total to 31 days they can put their feet up.

India, Thailand and Malaysia have the highest number of public holidays in the region on 16 days, followed by Japan, South Korea and the Philippines at 15, Australia at 10 and Vietnam nine.

New Zealanders ranks below Western European employees, who on average get 25 days of statutory leave and 13 public holidays.

Canadians get the greatest number of public holidays on 18 days and Mexico the lowest on eight.

The research comes from Mercer’s worldwide benefit and employment guidelines, which provide an overview of employee regulation and practice across 62 countries.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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