Mumbai: Indian employees take fewer annual leaves than their peers in Asia-Pacific markets despite having relatively generous leave entitlements, emphasising a gap between leave allocation and usage, a report said on Monday.
While leave is available, Indian workers appear more cautious in how they use it, with time off often taken in smaller increments rather than as extended vacations, revealed a report by HR and payroll company Deel.
The report is based on inputs from over 4,500 full-time workers on Deel APAC platform in 2025.
It further revealed that the median leave taken by Indian workers in 2025 was 12 days.
Only 17.2 per cent of Indian workers used 100 per cent of their leave, compared with 57.2 per cent in Singapore, 53.3 per cent in South Korea, 50.8 per cent in Malaysia, 42.9 per cent in Hong Kong, and 35.9 per cent in Japan, added the report.
Just 29.9 per cent of Indian workers used at least 80 per cent of their leave entitlement, the lowest rate across major APAC markets analysed, the report stated.
Meanwhile, data showed India recorded the highest share of short-duration leaves, reflecting a more measured approach to time off, with employees spreading leave across the year instead of using it in longer stretches.
Among multi-day vacation leave requests (2 days or longer), 48.4 per cent were exactly 2-day breaks, said the report.
"India's leave data suggests employees are not stepping away from work less often, they are more selective about how they use time off. That cautious approach may reflect workload pressures, cultural habits, or a tendency to save leave for important periods like festivals or family events. The bigger question for employers is whether underused leave reflects productivity, or signals burnout, pressure, and workplace cultures where employees don't feel comfortable fully switching off," Rakesh Gaur, Head of Sales for India at Deel, said.
Further, the report found that flexible leave policies were associated with higher time-off usage in India.
Employees on flexible leave arrangements took more time off than those on fixed leave policies, suggesting that policy structure may influence behaviour as much as workplace culture, it added.
