* Typical practice among large U.S. companies

Source: Mercer's Worldwide Benefit & Employment Guidelines, 2009

Editor's Note: Each Friday, CNN will examine statistics or world rankings to show how various countries compare with one another. Who's the best? Who's the worst? And where does the U.S. fit in? You'll find those answers in our Country Comparisons series.

(CNN) -- The United States has been called the "no-vacation nation," and looking at the table above, it's not hard to see why.

Many other countries allow for much more vacation time, according to a 2009 survey by Mercer, a human resources consulting firm.

The numbers above reflect the minimum vacation days for an employee who works five days a week and has 10 years of service with a company. But the United States comes with an asterisk. That's because the U.S. -- unlike the other countries on the list -- lacks a federal law that mandates vacation time.

For comparison purposes, Mercer listed the "typical" amount of days off that large U.S. companies give their 10-year employees: 15 paid vacation days and 10 public holidays (25 total).

That's a far cry from Brazil and Lithuania, which top the list with 41 total days off. Finland, France and Russia offer a minimum of 40 days off.

India and China are the only countries in the survey that typically have fewer paid vacation days than the U.S., but India makes up for it with 16 public holidays -- the most in the survey along with Japan.

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