Western European employees typically have the most statutory paid holiday globally while employees in Asia Pacific have the lowest, according to research by Mercer, a human resources consulting firm.

Specifically, workers in the United Kingdom have one of the most generous statutory holiday entitlements at 28 days, and U.S. workers have no statutory holiday entitlement, the research finds.

Mercer is of the belief that holiday entitlement is often more complex because actual holiday provision generally depends on company contracts as well as the number and treatment of public holidays. For instance, while UK employees are entitled to 28 days, the UK also has eight annual public holidays, which means UK employees could be on holiday leave for 36 days or 10 percent of each year for one of the highest entitlements of all 62 countries. However, companies are allowed to include the eight public holidays as part of the 28-day entitlement, meaning UK employees actually have fewer holidays than the rest of Europe, where most employees take public holidays along with their statutory entitlements.