Last weekend was the 4th of July, which in America was a time for fireworks, socially distanced barbecues, and most importantly, an extra day off from work.
July 4th was a Saturday this year, which means that per American federal holiday guidelines, the holiday was observed on Friday, July 3rd and Day Jobbers across the country took a three-day weekend. For me in Japan, though, Friday was a regular workday, and I celebrated the 4th by playing some online Scythe with my friends back home.
There is, however, an up side: this month Japan has two holidays, Marine Day and Sports Day, which, because of the now-postponed Tokyo Olympics, the government moved to July 23rd and 24th, respectively, giving us a four-day weekend. Score!
No disrespect to my country of birth of course, but I’d waaaaaay rather work on the 4th of July and take a four-day weekend later than have 4th of July off and then work the rest of the summer with no holidays.
This got me thinking about paid holidays in America versus paid holidays in Japan, and how workers in different countries get different deals. This can have some big repercussions for you as an employee, Day Job worker or otherwise…
Japan Has Waaaaaaay More Paid Holidays Than America
America has ten federal holidays, and the calendar looks like this:
- New Year’s Day (January 1)
- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day (third Monday in January)
- Washington’s Birthday (third Monday in February)
- Memorial Day (last Monday in May)
- Independence Day (July 4)
- Labor Day (First Monday in September)
- Columbus Day (second Monday in October)
- Veterans Day (November 11th)
- Thanksgiving Day (fourth Thursday in November)
- Christmas Day (December 25)
While every workplace is different, teachers, government workers, and most companies give full-time employees paid days off on these days—or, if workers are needed during the holiday, they can earn overtime pay (like I did when I worked at a grocery store) or take a different paid day off.
Extra time off or free money for literally doing no extra work? I’ll take that, thank you.
Now let’s look at the Japanese holiday calendar:
- New Year’s Day (January 1)
- Coming-of-Age Day (second Monday of January)
- National Foundation Day (February 11)
- The Emperor’s Birthday (currently February 23)
- Vernal Equinox Day (March 21)
- Showa Day (April 29)
- Constitution Memorial Day (May 3)
- Greenery Day (May 4)
- Children’s Day (May 5)
- Marine Day (third Monday in July)
- Mountain Day (August 11)
- Respect for the Aged Day (third Monday in September)
- Autumnal Equinox Day (September 22 or 23)
- Health and Sports Day (second Monday in October)
- Culture Day (November 3)
- Labour Thanksgiving Day (November 23)
The first thing you’ll probably notice is that the Japanese list is a LOT longer—sixteen holidays in total. The only months that don’t have a holiday are June and December, though this is recent because the previous emperor’s birthday was observed on December 23rd. Japan also has a SWEET law where if two holidays fall two days apart (for example, as they might in September) the day in between becomes an extra sandwich holiday—oh yeah.
While observing the Emperor’s birthday as a holiday dates back to 1868, the majority of the other holidays were created by the Japanese government in the decades after World War II to give the Japanese people a break from their crazy work schedules. There’s also the argument that Ewan McGregor’s character makes in the Christopher Robin movie: more long weekends and days off means more people traveling, and more people traveling means more people spending money to stimulate the economy.
Last year, almost every month had at least one Japanese holiday, and sometimes more than one—and we even enjoyed a ten-day holiday in early May the week the new Japanese emperor ascended to the throne. Not only was this extra time that I used to travel, get creative work done, and in general de-stress, they were days when I literally got paid to do zero Day Job work.
Let me say this again: more paid federal holidays means more days that your Day Job pays you to not do work.
That’s a pretty good deal, especially for people who have unpaid (or low-paid) creative work they want to be doing instead.
Fewer Holidays Makes Life More Difficult for Americans
In comparison to America’s 10 paid holidays and Japan’s 16, Trinidad and the Philippines each offer its citizens 18 holidays, while India offers 21 and Sri Lanka offers 25.
The country with the highest number I could find, though, is Cambodia, which gives its citizens 28 paid days off per year.
When you translate this into total time spent at work per year, this means that Americans are working 18 days more than Cambodians every single year (not including vacation days).
While the countries above are all developing countries, a lot of the developed world STILL beats out the US: New Zealand has 11 holidays; Australia has 11-14 depending on the state; Norway, Belgium, and South Korea all have 14; and Sweden tops Europe at 15 holidays per year—though none of them can top Japan’s 16 ;-)
All told, this means Americans are doing more work for their yearly salaries, which, if you don’t consider vacation days, translates into a lower hourly rate for actual work done—d’oh!
Moving to a country with more paid holidays wasn’t a primary motivator behind my taking a job in Japan, but it is a nice bonus. (Of course, many employees in Japan who aren’t me also work ridiculous amounts of overtime and don’t take their vacation days at all, so the large number of holidays here can be seen as a way of mandating that people take time off.)
If you’re thinking seriously about working a Day Job abroad, even for a short time, the number of paid federal holidays, as well as your number of vacation days, are definitely factors worth considering. If the country you’re moving to has more holidays than America (and odds are, it probably does!), than you might be in a position to earn more money for less time at work, which in turn gives you more time to focus on your creative work.
Score.
A Plea for America to Give Workers More Holidays
Again, not only does more paid holidays equal less stress, more time to focus on family, and better work-life balance, it also stimulates the travel, restaurant, and lodging industries because more people take trips and do fun things that cost money. That’s win-win for everybody.
For most companies, adding more holidays to the calendar wouldn’t cost them a dime, since they’re already paying their workers for the time anyway. And for those who argue that more holidays would mean less productivity, do you REALLY think a bunch of burned-out workers who haven’t had a holiday for three months are working to their full potential? Consider Microsoft Japan, which started giving workers four-day workweeks and enjoyed a 40% productivity boost, plus money saved on electricity and paper costs.
I’m all for America giving its workers more holidays, and there’s another side to this as well—there have been a lot of recent calls to make Juneteenth, the day commemorating the end of slavery, a federal holiday, as well as calls for an Indigenous People’s Day to honor Native Americans. Also, why is it that the end of World War I got a federal holiday (Veteran’s Day) but the end of World War II didn’t???
Adding more holidays to the calendar would give America more space to honor not only more aspects of its history, but more aspects of its culture and diversity. We could decide together which aspects of America we felt were most deserving of a holiday (perhaps with federal or state votes?) and then put them on the calendar—that way, we can honor more stuff, people get more time to do what they want, and everyone wins.
And I sure do love scenarios where everyone wins.