Equal Futures

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Labor Labor Labor Labor Labor Equal Futures is pleased to support WORLD's long-term mission of moving evidence to impact by becoming the new home for WORLD's public use data on constitutional rights, laws, and policies. Equal Futures will continue to maintain and update these datasets, alongside constructing data for new policy areas, building on WORLD's history of providing rigorous, actionable data across all 193 UN member states.Annual Leave and Weekly RestEqual Futures reviewed original labor legislation from each UN member state to construct information about labor policies governing annual leave and weekly rest broadly for all workers and specifically for agricultural and domestic workers as of January 2026. Equal Futures is grateful to the WORLD Policy Analysis Center for collecting the updated legislation from country legislative repositories, the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s NATLEX database, and internet searches.Initial data analysis has focused on national-level law and policy. In countries where labor policies are set at the state or provincial level, such as the U.S. and Pakistan, we coded based on the lowest level of guarantee.Labor Rights & ProtectionsThe WORLD Policy Analysis Center reviewed original labor and social security legislation, complemented and verified by information on social security systems from each UN member state and global sources to collect information about policies for adult labor. The following sources were used to gather information on this subject:

International Labour Organization (ILO)’s NATLEX database;

ILO’s Maternity Protection and Working Time databases;

World Bank’s Women, Business, and the Law;

Official country websites;

Lexadin;

World Legal Information Institute;

The Social Security Programs Throughout the World database (SSPTW); and

Hard copies of relevant legislation at the ILO’s headquarters in Geneva and McGill University's and Harvard University’s law libraries.

Additional information to fill in gaps from the abovementioned sources was drawn from the following:

International Review of Leave Policies and Related Research;

Benefit summaries and information available from the Mutual Information System on Social Protection (MISSOC) and the Mutual Information System on Social Protection of the Council of Europe (MISSCEO).

Initial data analysis has focused on national-level law and policy. In countries where labor policies are set at the state or provincial level, such as the U.S. and India, we coded based on the lowest level of guarantee.Preventing Workplace Discrimination and Sexual HarassmentThe WORLD Policy Analysis Center reviewed original legislation and statutory protections extended to the private sector in labor codes, anti-discrimination legislation, equal opportunity legislation, and penal codes. Data is current as of January 2024 for variables focused on gender and sexual harassment, and as of May 2023 for other protected characteristics. Data on independent monitoring bodies is current as of January 2021. Original, full-text, national-level legislation for all 193 United Nations member states was identified primarily using the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s NATLEX database and individual country legislative repositories. The World Bank’s Women, Business and the Law and other supplemental sources were consulted to ensure all applicable legislation was reviewed.This data analysis has focused on national-level legislation; for countries that legislate at the sub-national level and have no federal policy in place, we coded based on the lowest level of protection set at the state or provincial level. This analysis captures legislative language that explicitly applies to private-sector workplaces, and excludes provisions that guarantee non-discrimination without specifying their applicability to work (such as protections which may apply to public spaces or educational institutions). In some countries, case law has extended the application of more general prohibitions to specific areas of work and to cover additional protected characteristics. However, systematic review of case law is outside of the scope of this analysis and rights extended through litigation are not reflected in these findings.Constitutional Rights to WorkThe WORLD Policy Analysis Center analyzed national constitutional texts in force as of June 2024.

The Constitutions database includes analyses of constitutions from all UN member states.

We only referred to additional legislation when it was explicitly referenced in the constitution.

Although the vast majority of countries have written constitutions in place, a few countries (e.g. the United Kingdom, Canada, New Zealand and Israel) either have no written constitutions or have a series of laws that function similarly to a constitution, rather than a single text. In these cases, our data was collected from documents or laws that are considered to be constitutional in nature either by the country itself or by the legal community.

Why consider constitutions? Governments establish human rights through national and sub-national legislation, targeted programs and policies, and national constitutions. Among these tools, constitutions fulfill several unique and important functions:

Constitutions are fundamental building blocks of a nation’s government and laws. As such, they can play an important role in establishing values and rights.

Constitutions are particularly difficult to repeal or amend. Their commitments remain relatively stable and permanent even as different political parties assume power.

Constitutions are typically the highest laws of a country and so can be used to shape legislation and policies.

Constitutions often contain mechanisms for the legal enforcement of citizens’ rights. In countries around the world, such provisions have been used successfully to combat discrimination and hold governments accountable to their commitments.

Constitutions often outline broad rights that require complementary legislation or policies to be fully effective. For example, legislation that guarantees free secondary school helps realize the constitutional right to education. Nevertheless, constitutions’ critical role in formally establishing countries’ fundamental values makes them an important unit of analysis on their own.

For details on the variables included in this category, please see global maps on Labor.For more information about our approach to building globally comparative databases on policies affecting education, health, working conditions, poverty and income security, constitutional rights, discrimination, child marriage, gender, caregiving, aging, climate, and disability, please visit our Methodology page.