From Italy to Poland and Norway, the international human resources platform Remote (based in San Francisco according to its LinkedIn account, but whose European headquarters are in Amsterdam according to the legal notice on its website) has compared the work-life balance in 30 European countries. And the winner is... Luxembourg.
The grand duchy obtained an overall index of 85.26 out of 100. Spain came second, followed by France. Germany came 12th and Belgium 13th. Last place went to Romania, with a score of 55.28/100.
To establish these ‘indexes,’ Remote uses eight indicators: the number of days off per year, sick leave, the length and coverage of maternity leave, the minimum wage, the healthcare system, the happiness index, average working hours and the LGBTQ+ inclusion index.
Good scores across the board
Luxembourg scores “well in all key indicators,” the platform analyses. This is thanks to its 37 days of leave per year ( and ), 100% minimum sick pay (), 20 weeks’ maternity leave covered at 100% (Remote based its analysis on leave, without taking into account parental leave, which is added after maternity leave. Here too, the allowance cannot exceed five times the minimum social wage), a minimum hourly wage of €14.26 (), a “universal public health insurance system,” a happiness index of 7.4/10, an average of 27.4 hours worked per week and an LGBTQ+ inclusion index of 75/100.
When asked about the source used for these last three indicators, as well as the weighting between the different criteria, Remote had not yet replied to Delano’s sister publication Paperjam at the time of publication. According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), , each person worked , or around 34 hours a week (taking into account 52 working weeks and subtracting 37 days of 8 hours’ leave).
“Famous for being the second richest country in the world, Luxembourg is an economic power perfectly aware of the importance of a good work-life balance,” concludes Remote. It should be noted that the top five countries in the ranking are among the six for which its ‘Remote relocation’ programme (which enables the relocation of company team members and their employees) is available...
Last July, researchers at the European Trade Union Institute (ETUI) proposed an indicator of the “quality of employment in the countries of the European Union,” based on a different list of criteria. .
This article was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.