In a study of benefits, Glassdoor research revealed that the United Kingdom has one of the “most frugal” benefits offerings out of 14 European countries.
The pan-European study ranked the UK in the bottom three when maternity/paternity entitlement, annual leave, sick pay and unemployment benefits were considered.
At the other end of the list, the top countries with the mot generous in-work and welfare benefits were Denmark, France and Spain. When this data is further broken down by benefit type, the list changes. When just looking at in-work benefits like sick paid time off, the Netherlands was named the most generous. Here, employees can be absent from work for up to 104 weeks and receive 70% of their wages for the entire period of absence. Unfortunately, the UK was still one of the least generous countries. In this particular country, workers are offered a flat rate of approximately £88 a week.
Although the European Union offers a statutory minimum of 14 weeks of paid leave for maternity, this was one area where the United Kingdom came out on top. British workers are offered the most leave with 52 weeks. While the UK offers the most leave, they do not offer the most pay (which some will argue is more important). Austria, Denmark and Germany were among some of the countries that offer new mothers 100% of their earnings for the entire maternity leave period.
Paternity is a different story. This rule does not fall under EU regulation and while the UK just offers 10 days of leave for new fathers, countries like France don’t offer too much more. Paternity leave is still a fairly new concept for businesses. Facebook recently made headlines for offering an extremely generous amount of time off for new fathers.
Glassdoor chief economist, Andrew Chamberlain, said that governments all have limited budgets but perception has always been that the United Kingdom does provide a generous benefit scheme for all people. Now, it could be argued that parental leave, sick pay and unemployment benefits are not as rich in quantity in the United Kingdom. If perception truly is reality, the United Kingdom may have some very angry employees after the release of this report.
