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Rules on labour

How closely do the labour laws in each economy match the B-READY checklist of good practice?

100 of 100 shown in the list

B-READY score, 0 to 100

  1. Serbia91.3 2025
  2. Portugal91.2 2025
  3. Malta90.4 2025
  4. South Korea88.6 2025
  5. Slovenia85.4 2025
  6. Spain85.3 2025
  7. Angola85.0 2025
  8. Bosnia and Herzegovina84.8 2025
  9. Kazakhstan84.8 2025
  10. Belgium84.5 2025
  11. Poland84.2 2025
  12. Croatia83.4 2025
  13. Czechia83.4 2025
  14. Bangladesh83.2 2025
  15. Moldova83.0 2025
  16. Canada82.4 2025
  17. Greece82.3 2025
  18. North Macedonia81.9 2025
  19. Malaysia81.8 2025
  20. Romania81.8 2025
  21. Bulgaria81.4 2025
  22. Namibia81.4 2025
  23. Slovakia80.8 2025
  24. Türkiye80.8 2025
  25. Hungary80.2 2025

Source: World Bank, Business Ready (B-READY), B-READY: Labor Pillar 1: Quality of Labor Regulations, via the World Bank. Data for 2025. What it counts, how to cite it and the data

At a glance

  • 100 countries or territories have a figure.
  • The highest is Serbia at 91.3 (2025) and the lowest is Tonga at 38.3 (2025).
  • The middle value (the median) is 72.1.

What it counts

A score from 0 to 100 in the World Bank's B-READY study (the latest round) for the quality of labour regulations, covering matters such as contracts, working time, termination and workplace safety, as B-READY defines them.

What it leaves out, and how far to trust a comparison

The score compares an economy's rules with a checklist of features chosen by the World Bank, and the checklist reflects one view of good practice for businesses. It is built from expert answers and firm surveys, it covers a standard case and it says nothing about justice, fairness or what suits a particular country. Only the economies in the study are shown, and it is not a ranking of better and worse law.

Source

World Bank, Business Ready (B-READY): B-READY: Labor Pillar 1: Quality of Labor Regulations, via the World Bank, compiled in World Bank, World Development Indicators. Source licence: CC BY 4.0. Data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.

Cite this chart

Free to use in teaching, articles, reports and slides, with credit. Our compilation is licensed CC BY 4.0; the source publishes the underlying data under its own licence, shown below.

Reference (APA style)

TheLawToKnow. (2026). Rules on labour [Chart]. Law in Charts. https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/labour-regulation-score. Data: World Bank, Business Ready (B-READY), B-READY: Labor Pillar 1: Quality of Labor Regulations, via the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.BRE.LB.P1 (data retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25).

Short credit for slides and websites

Chart: TheLawToKnow, Law in Charts (https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/labour-regulation-score). Data: World Bank, Business Ready (B-READY), via World Bank, World Development Indicators.

BibTeX

@misc{labourregulationscore2026,
  author = {{TheLawToKnow}},
  title = {Rules on labour},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {Law in Charts},
  url = {https://tools.thelawtoknow.com/law-in-charts/labour-regulation-score},
  note = {Data: World Bank, Business Ready (B-READY), B-READY: Labor Pillar 1: Quality of Labor Regulations, via the World Bank, https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/IC.BRE.LB.P1. Retrieved 2026-10-23 to 2026-10-25.}
}

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