I know why the US Government did that during the war. With the economy geared towards total war, and with so many men off fighting, women were needed to work in munitions factories and there was no payment for women to substitute their husband's wages. Yes, the only other country outside the USA that I know of off the top of my head that has two weeks annual vacation is Japan, but there again, things are changing. Since the 1990s, the idea of the corporate family that was work has been changing and divorce rates in Japan are highest amongst retirees, for the reason being that a Japanese salaryman's wife would make him his breakfast, and he'd go off in the morning, he'd spend all day at work and then socialize with colleagues and, in some cases, he'd stay in a capsule motel and go to work the next day. So, when the man retired, he'd be thinking, is this who I really married? As his wife was more of a servant than a lover.