Deel, a global HR platform, has launched Deel Works, an editorial hub dedicated to the future of work, alongside new research indicating significant global disparities in employee time-off practices.
The inaugural study from Deel’s Economist, Lauren Thomas, analyzed over 159,000 approved time-off requests from more than 17,000 employees in Europe and North America during 2025. The findings reveal that European workers took a median of 23.5 days off annually, considerably more than their North American counterparts, who took a median of 14 days. Canadians took the fewest days off globally, with a median of 11 days per year.
The research also challenges common assumptions regarding unlimited paid time off (PTO) policies. While unlimited leave is more prevalent in North America, European workers with such policies utilized them more effectively, taking a median of four additional days off compared to those with fixed leave. In contrast, there was virtually no difference in time off taken under unlimited versus fixed policies in the United States and Canada. Thomas stated, “Cultural differences like these reflect more than just vacation plans. They reflect fundamental differences in how employees view the balance between their work and life.”
Beyond Canada’s 11 days, American workers took a median of 16 days. European nations reported higher figures, with Sweden leading at 28 days, followed by France at 27 days, and Germany at 26 days. This gap persisted even within companies employing staff on both continents, where Europeans took a median of 25 days compared to 15 days for their North American colleagues. Alice Burks, Director of People Success at Deel, noted, “The most flexible PTO policy imaginable fails without implicit or explicit permission to take it. For flexible PTO policies to scale, companies need to create a globally consistent culture.”
The study further identified distinct cultural patterns in how time off is utilized. Germans and French employees favor extended breaks, with 1.8% and 1.3% of their time-off requests for leaves of 16 days or more, respectively, compared to just 0.5% for Americans. The United Kingdom and Ireland showed higher rates of holiday season time off, with 28.8% of Irish and 27% of British workers booking three or more days around Christmas. France stood out in sick leave patterns, with 23% of requests lasting 11 days or more, possibly influenced by their medical certification requirements. Overall, 39% of European workers took sick leave in 2025, compared to 29% of North American workers.
Deel Works aims to provide data-driven insights into the evolving global workforce, leveraging real-time data from over 1.5 million workers across 150 countries. Future topics for the hub include the impact of AI on hiring, immigration trends, compensation patterns, and the state of remote and global work outside the United States. Cunningham added, “We can finally bring rigorous analysis to questions about remote work, AI’s impact on labor markets, and immigration trends that have been largely based on vibes rather than facts.”
Deel is an all-in-one payroll and HR platform designed for global teams, integrating payroll, HRIS, compliance, benefits, performance, and equipment management. The platform supports various worker types across more than 150 countries, facilitating compliant and efficient global scaling for businesses.
