Holidays in Spain are usually 38 days a year (30 days plus the bank holidays). UK is 20 days plus the bank holidays (only recently, though, as the law said it was 20 days including bank holidays). That means the Spanish get 6 weeks holiday a year as opposed to 4 in the UK (this usually goes up the more time you put in but generally (unless you're a public employee or politician) doesn't stretch to more than 5 weeks a year.)
However, I had an attachment to the USA some years ago. Americans get NO holiday entitlement by law and it all depends on your contract. After a year, the normal amount is 1 to 2 weeks a year. Americans do not tend to go away for a week or two like us but normally take long weekends to stretch it out. It is often said an American won't take a week off or his boss will find out how little he does! Funny as that sounds, I did meet an American on a cruise who was having his first complete week off for 10 years and he said he daren't take two weeks off as, if his boss found he could do without him for 2 weeks, he would do without him forever. They don't even get public holidays as a paid entitlement. The average time off in USA is 14 days plus 1 public holiday. In fact, 1 in 4 Americans get no paid holidays or bank holidays. Hence you will find Americans filling up their weekends and don't sit around stagnating (probably the wrong word) like we do in UK. It was the norm for guys I was working with in DC to get a plane somewhere on Friday evening (Las Vegas and Cancun seemed the favourites) and then come back again on Sunday. Three people I worked with had cabins in Connecticut or Virginia which they used to drive to straight after work. Friday was the only day I saw them knock off at 5 o'clock as they were mostly at their desks til gone 8pm. Considering they started at 7 in the morning it made a long week.
Plus, they all had to pay into a welfare scheme (usually this was paid by their employers in the form of a tax along with medical and dental insurance, hence the relatively lower pay in the States) but, if they lost their jobs, they only got unemployment benefit until the amount they had paid in was used up, usually for a maximum of 26 weeks and only if you lost your job due to redundancy or "lack of work".
On the other hand, Brazilians get 6 weeks statutory holidays a year plus 12 days public holidays so 42 days in all.
However, probably a good idea to get back on thread (sorry for the drift) the UK news had an item on the strike in Spain. In it, they quoted a primary school teacher as receiving £945 a month take home pay. I know the NI equivalent in Spain is rather high but this amount seemed rather low. This was after a recent 7% cut in pay. Judging by the cost of telephones/broadband and other services in Spain, makes you wonder how they can afford to maintain a decent lifestyle.