How many bank holidays does France get vs Europe and US?
See how France compares as MPs debate taking away one of the country’s jours fériés
France compares fairly well to the rest of Europe and the world when it comes to bank holidays
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The number of bank holidays in France has come under scrutiny recently, as MPs consider whether to replace one non-working day with a working ‘day of solidarity’, in a bid to save more than €3 billion.
The suggestion came as part of discussions for the 2025 Budget, which is yet to be approved by the Senate.
The idea would be to replace one of France’s jours fériés (public or bank holiday) with a jour de solidarité. In France, an example of this is Whit Monday (lundi de Pentecôte, also known as Pentecost Monday).
What is a jour de solidarité?
A jour de solidarité is when workers may or may not get the day off work, depending on their role and their employer. But, even if they take the day off, most workers will not get paid for that day, and will need to dip into their annual leave allocation to do so.
Whit Monday in particular is when employers are supposed to pay a contribution to the state (rather than pay their staff for that day), in a bid to raise money for people who need it most.
The Whit Monday 'jour de solidarité' tradition dates back to 2004, the year after more than 15,000 elderly people died in a heatwave (with temperatures of up to 42C). The resulting furore led to the first Whit Monday jour de solidarité.
How many public holidays does France have per year?
France has 11 public holidays throughout the year, including one extra solidarity day, Whit Monday.
These are:
New Year's Day: January 1
Easter Monday
Labour Day: May 1
Victory in 1945: May 8
Ascension Day: May 9
Pentecost, which is also a day of solidarity
Bastille Day: July 14
Assumption Day: August 15
All Saints' Day: November 1
Armistice Day: November 11
Christmas: December 25
Read also: Whit Monday: France’s most confusing bank holiday
How does France’s public holiday total compare to other countries?
France’s bank holiday total comes in fairly middling in comparison to other European countries.
It has the same number of bank holidays as: Germany, Greece, Luxembourg, Estonia, Sweden, Italy, and Hungary (11 days).
It has fewer than: Slovakia (15 days); Spain, Finland, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Lithuania, Malta (14 days); Austria, Portugal, Poland, Latvia, Romania (13 days); and Czechia and Slovenia (12 days).
It has more than: Belgium (10 days); UK, Denmark, the Netherlands, and Ireland (nine days).
However, the number of actual non-working days may vary depending on region (for example, Scotland and England sometimes have different days), as do different regions of Spain and Germany.
Similarly, different countries have varying rules for when days off are taken, which can affect the actual number of non-working days.
For example, France takes the days off on the specific date they fall on, even if this is already a non-working day (e.g. Saturday or Sunday). This means that the non-working day is effectively ‘lost’ (in terms of days off work).
In contrast, in the UK, bank holidays tend to be taken on the closest Monday to the actual date, meaning that there is always a non-working day, even if the actual date falls on a weekend.
Yet, France has some traditions that help maximise non-working days; for example, workers tend to ‘faire le pont’ (bridge the gap) if a non-working day falls close to a weekend. For example, if the day off is on a Thursday, many workers may take the Friday off as well, to give themselves a four-day weekend.
Next year (2025) is looking positive for workers, with the majority of jours fériés falling on a weekday.
Read also: Does working on a bank holiday in France impact pay?
Days off plus bank holidays: France v Europe v Rest of World
France does particularly well when it comes to the total of paid holiday days typical for a normal job, when the bank holidays are added. (Of course, this may vary considerably depending on the job and the employer.)
Figures from Statista put France in second place, behind the UK, for the total number of days off plus bank holidays (as of 2016).
Europe
Rest of the world
France and Europe fare very well in comparison to many other non-European countries, particularly the US, which languishes at the bottom of the table, with no legal paid leave, and 10 public holidays.
