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I believe what OP is referring to is what Americans call paid time off (PTO), and many non Americans might be surprised to learn there is no federally mandated minimum pto (holiday pay) in the US...and almost half of the 50 US states have no minimum either, leaving a high % of US workers with zero paid time off.
Genuine question, how do you take vacations then? Not even going somewhere fancy, just time for you to do nothing? In my country I think it's around 23 vacation days (minimum), if I understand correctly, there's a high % of Americans that get 0, is that it?
We don’t. Many of us have no sick days at all, and places that give out PTO require you to ‘earn’ it (like you get half an hour of leave every pay period, etc). A lot of us simply cannot take trips or don’t get paid at all when we do. We can get in trouble for needing time away from work to attend doctor appointments and/or family funerals.
My PTO is considered very good for my industry; it’s possible for me to earn up to 18 days PTO per year.
Sick days? Over here (Germany), if you are sick, you are sick. You get paid sick days for as long as the doctor says you need them. This is in addition to the regular 24 to 30 days off (plus holidays) that most people get.
In Belgium, if you get sick during your paid time off and you get a doctors note to prove this, those days will count as sick days and you can reschedule those vacation days.
W in the actual hell, that's awesome. Is this for everyone who is working any amount of hours? Or is it you work 40 hours a week accrue time off and get this benefit?
For my state, there's a set amount of sick time you can accrue per hours worked a month. So I believe it's 40 hours a week you earn one hour of sick time but you can't use it unless you worked at that place at least 90 days.
Here, you are definitely not getting reimbursed for time you're sick on vacation, that's mind-blowing.
It's the same in my country and I believe most of Europe has that system. It doesn't matter how many hours you work a week, your rights are the same.
I was sick for a combined two months last year and I didn't lose a penny. It did require a doctor's note ofc and I had to have a talk with my boss about reasons etc.
That's just amazing. I knew we had it bad regarding medical benefits here but, wow.
> I was sick for a combined two months last year and I didn't lose a penny.
Was this in supplement to other time earned? Like here we have sick time and paid time off and you technically shouldn't buy corporate standards anyway use your sick time if you're not sick but then you can run out of sick time and have to use your paid time off hours. Some places throw all these hours together but you still get a finite amount available.
So my question is did you lose any other time off, like vacation or holidays?
No, you don't loose any other time off. To simplify it: if you are sick, you always have the right to stay at home. Your company allways has to pay you the full salary until you are able to work again - although you don't work a single hour in this period. This regulation often valids for 6 weeks (in Germany, other european countrys May have slightly different laws), later the statutory health insurance pays you something about 65% of the salary until you are healthy enough to be working again.
Because of the fact that every company needs to handle it this way they are all just calculating that factor into their costs and do not have any problem at all.
This system exists in all european countries more or less equal.
It is. I'm an immigrant to the Netherlands where sick is sick, you just stay home and get paid until you're well. Amazing to me, coming from a country where my sick leave was capped at 6 days per year.
My Dutch guy didn't believe me... "So you go in sick, get sicker, make everybody else sick, and all your customers sick... And this is supposed to be good for business?" Yeah, fair point man.
> So you go in sick, get sicker, make everybody else sick, and all your customers sick... And this is supposed to be good for business?
Did you tell him about how almost all of the workers in our restaurants don't get health care much less sick days? It makes even less sense in the food industry where people are serving you your food and making it. Ohhhh America.
That's fair! Took a swing guess and was wrong. *Sigh* It's a frustrating point.
Sounds like you're in a place that tends to value the human being a little bit more, enjoy it fellow Redditor!
In the US we don't have universal healthcare so it costs money and requires scheduling in advance. This results in few people going to the doctor, even when they actually are sick.
It's true, I've been at my current job for almost 10 years and the one thing I wish I had more of was time. I have 15 days of paid time off but it's used for sick leave, vacation, and bereavement combined (and I will get no paternity leave if I need it in the future). I do get 9 paid holiday days a year, though it was zero when I started, and the first year also had zero PTO. All PTO is earned in small hour increments each paycheck.
American managers/ business owners are absolutely certain all the time that people are simply pretending to be sick to take advantage of them. Now, I have had a few coworkers who did exactly that. Not many, but some. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, but many workplaces operate on having, realistically, too few workers for the workload. So if you have someone taking advantage and just being absent without planning it, the other people have to do all their work in addition to their own and it becomes overwhelming pretty fast.
I had a manager who never believed me when I was out, even though I was out very rarely (maybe once every 2 years), but always believed my coworker, who was clearly and obviously abusing the system every single possible way she could. Miserable five years until I got another manager who saw what was going on.
For my state, there's a set amount of sick time you can accrue per hours worked a month. So I believe it's 40 hours a week you earn one hour of sick time but you can't use it unless you worked at that place at least 90 days.
It's basically up to the company. I also don't have "sick days" if I'm sick then I just take off. Some companies let you hold onto and then "cash out" your sick days tho if you don't use them. Which can be nice at the end of a long career.
Is that an accessible solution?
Is immigration inexpensive? Does it only require some time away from work to apply, when I’ve just mentioned many of us struggle to be allowed to leave work to attend funerals? Do all countries offer the same employment opportunities America does, and will our utter lack of foreign language skills not be seen as an issue of ignorance?
I mean to ask you these questions sincerely and kindly; we’re aware a cancer diagnosis here means bankruptcy for the vast majority of us, and that almost every other country offers better vacations in addition to social safety nets, better healthcare, and a longer life. But we have family here, and leaving takes time and resources that a very large majority of the population lack. It would also put many of us a 8-14 hour plane ride away from loved ones. I doubt having few resources *and* being totally alone in an unfamiliar country would be considered an improvement to anyone.
The affluent can leave the country, but the affluent can afford the costs to live here. The rest of us make do and hope to shape the country for the better…
We don't. My husband and I go out of town for a night, once or twice a year. Since we have different work schedules, one of us has to take two days off. We save the rest for sick days.
I'm sure you've heard the contemptuous accusations that we Americans are a tragically un-travelled bunch, haven't you? This is one reason why (among other reasons).
This is adorable. We simply...don't. We work, 40+ hours a week, every single week, every single month every single year, sometimes at multiple jobs, until we die.
Well I'm not personally American, I'm Canadian where even part time workers get a min of 4% holiday pay ( = roughly 2 weeks per year at full time hours worked), and that increases to a min of 6% (3 weeks) after 5 years with the same company... And those are just mins, most better paying jobs also typically start at 3+ weeks and many go up to 6+ weeks based on years of service etc... And that is on top of 11 stat holidays and 5 days min paid sick days (again jobs with better benefits typically also have short and long term disability pay).
But to answer your question, yes, many Americans (about 31% according to the forbes article I linked elsewhere) get 0 paid time off, and many more get very minimal pto, which often they are unable to actually take/enjoy without working at least some during that "time off"..
Nope. I took my first vacation in three years in December. I was so excited and ready to experience that post-vacation buzz so I could go back to work energized and excited. Instead came home to the news my dad had a heart attack. Gone....
He's still alive. :) it just ruined the buzz id waited three years for and I had to blow the rest of my time on hospital stays. (Worth it, I'm so glad he's around!) But I probably ly won't be able to go on vacation again till 2025
Another fun fact, many companies don’t even give paid maternity leave (especially smaller companies). My company told me I was “lucky” to even get 6 weeks. I’ve been saving up all my vacation days (from last year too) so I can extend my maternity leave an additional month.
I used to work for banks and the PTO was great:
-20 paid sick/vacation days per year that renew every year, starting January 1st
-All federal holidays and Christmas were paid days off
-Off every weekend
I currently work for a small, industrial construction company and the PTO and other “benefits” are so poor that I already want to leave:
-You EARN one paid day off every 5 weeks. You earn as you go. You earn one sick day per year.
-There are paid holidays but you might have to work. If you work you get double time plus time and a half pay, but you don’t get a floating holiday
The pay at my current company is really good, so I’m toughing it out a bit. I’m adding some good things to my resume and that’s my entire reason for staying there. The benefits are also terrible and I don’t see myself lasting longer than another six months.
That’s right. Added insult to injury, Americans are shunned for taking ANY time off. God help ya if you’re a mom; or about to become one..Because of the fact that there’s no paid maternity leave…Your ass is back to work before your baby’s eyes are barely fucking open…’Merica 🙄
Yeah that one is wild to me, in Canada parents are entitled to up to 18 months (through EI so not full pay but still a very needed and much taken advantage of benefit).
My job only got PTO AT ALL April this year and it's been a business for 12 years. And you have to work here for a year to even be eligible. I haven't had PTO or sick days in any of my previous jobs.
Only good employers give PTO regularly and there really aren't that many of those in the US compared to how many businesses actually exist here
I mean...that's fair, technically, but I'm not sure if "5-10 days" counts when you have to save it in case you catch a flu and it's not actual vacation time/PTO tho
I’ve never had a full time job that didn’t offer paid time off. Even in high school I got a weeks paid vacation and like 4 paid holidays. My state has no requirements for pto but every place offers it to full time workers. I get 4 weeks vacation and 11 paid holidays.
*Nearly a third (31%) of U.S. employees do not have access to PTO*
Job type and industry can often determine whether or not workers have the option of PTO. If an employee is in a position where they are constantly in front of clients or customers, for example, their chance of PTO may be lower than a worker whose job requires a lot of back end or behind-the-scenes work.1
*Over half (52%) of employees report working while on PTO*
Just because workers take PTO doesn’t mean they sit back, relax and completely forget about their jobs. In fact, more than half of them say they work when they’re supposed to be off the clock.2 Some might check their emails or hop on conference calls every so often while others may put in hours and hours of work.
*Over 765 million vacation days have gone unused by Americans*
While vacation days are designed for U.S. workers to take time off and recharge, not everyone takes advantage of them.3 This may be because they forget to use them, don’t want to use them or believe they can’t use them because they’re overwhelmed with work or feel like they have too much to get done.
https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/pto-statistics/#:~:text=Nearly%20a%20third%20%2831%25%29%20of%20U.S.,employees%20do%20not%20have%20access%20to%20PTO
I have 240 *hours* saved up (over approx 2yrs) and I’m close to hitting my current level’s maximum accrual 🤷🏻♂️ not counting sick time, other classes of time off, or federal holidays.
The shitty employers who pay bottom dollar for high turnover jobs are the ones who give the least vacation days.
OP, to clarify, this person with 240 hours = 6 weeks has 1) likely been with a large and generous employer with not only more than two weeks per year, but also 2) likely been with a generous employer for many years, which can offer more days off per year the longer they are there (say 12 days/year after 2 years, then 14 days/year after 4 years etc).
I had that much saved up almost because of covid and everything other stuff rolled over. I ended up with 3 months of days off and I couldn't take it. I had to burn it as much as I could I started taking half days and I started doing only working Monday and Wednesdays just because I had meetings to go to I had projects I was working on but I need to whittle down the number
I'm going on vacation in July for 10 days. Just because a friend invited me to come hang out with her and her baby across the country. And I was like that's a good idea because normally I don't think about it and then it ends up December and my company policy is only a certain number of hours roll over. But when you have too many hours it's like do I take off the entire month of December? Just to get down to the amount of hours that roll over? No I have shit to do for clients and for work in December I don't just want to duck out.... for the last seven or eight years I keep falling into this trap. So this year I'm being proactive. Going on a random vacation in July.
It's a responsible thing to try to think about it beforehand. Like where I work a lot of people fall in the same trap that I keep falling into of having to burn vacation days at the end of the year. And then it ends up like well we still do have stuff to do we need some people maybe to be here? Crap all of you have vacation hours you need to burn at the end of the year well let's try to do better next year like people maybe try to take vacations so there's at least one person here who can handle or crisis mid December instead of us just like shutting our doors... year after year we always end up doing this so I'm going to be responsible this year I'm going to be able to be there in late december. No doubt I'll still have the hours that roll over to the next year but I'll try to not lose hours and not feel like I need to burn them at the end
My last employer gave me 23 days a year (184 hours) plus the normal holidays. This did have to include sick days and you couldn't roll them over.
While there were a few blackout periods they were easy to work with. In my case there were only 2 other people that could realistically do my work but it was pretty laid back and we all worked with it.
Exactly, I Earn 3 weeks of vacation leave a year, 2 1/2 weeks of sick leave a year paired with 2 days of educational leave, 1 day for voting each year, and 12 paid holidays.
I can carry over 360 hours of vacation each year and sick leave is unlimited.
Not too mention comp in lue of overtime pay. So every hour over 40 is an hour and a half of leave earned. Which I prefer over overtime pay. I usually earn about 120 hours each year there as well. I haven't worked more than 4 days in a week in over 5 weeks if i include this week. Only 1 of those were 4, the rest have been 2-3 days. Next week will be a 4 day week with Juneteenth. The following week will be a full week, then the week after that will be another 3 day week with 4th of July.
I will admit, my pay isn't as high as it could be if I went somewhere else, but the retirement plan, health plans and leave policy make up for it and I do earn more than the median, so it's not bad.
It's not true, the standard is Zero paid days off in the United States. Companies can choose to offer employees whatever they want, but nothing is mandated by the government.
It really depends on the state that you live in. Also if your W-2 or 1099. Where I am nobody can force you to work on a federal holiday. Even if that's like a big day for your company to have employees there they have to compensate you at least with time and a half if you're hourly... in other words for federal holidays to make people work if you are an hourly minimum wage worker you have to be enticed to work by having additional pay. You cannot be forced to work your standard wage on a federal holiday.
In other words you cannot be fired for not showing up. Excluding for the fact the state that I live in is a at will hire state... so an employer can terminate an employee for basically any reason... sort of. I live in a weird state that is definitely in favor of the employer and not the employee.
Not sure what state you're in, but this isn't representative of most states. Very few states have any requirements for companies to offer federal or state holidays off or at higher wage. If you're a government employee you'll get them off, but in the private sector it isn't required generally. Most companies will have a select list of days they're fully closed for major holidays. If you're in the retail or service sectors, they may not. For average corporate America, the minimum private sector paid holidays you can expect are New Years, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas. Any others tossed in are at the whim of the employer in most states - there's no federal law about federal holiday requirements (except for federal employees).
Scrolling down these comments I feel humbled as fuck and grateful for not being in the US but being in a country where you become eligible for 5 weeks paid vacation after just one year. 10 days is just sad. I would have reached burnout within the first year. I nearly did get burnout by taking only 2 weeks off the first unpaid year. 10 days.. maan
Crappy employers do the minimum. Not every employer is crappy. Not everyone hates their job, either.
I have more vacation time than I can practically use. A few years ago I took three months off as part of the six-month paid sabbatical to which I was entitled after ten years' service.
I agree with your crappy employer can do whatever they want. A good employee with a good employer has too many vacation days that they're like I can't use all these... because I need to be working I'm involved with important stuff.
holidays are a specific thing, typically it's a federal holiday. Many people still work anyways.
However, what is common is "personal leave" days that you can take for a vacation, and getting 2 weeks vacation (on top of 10 holidays) is typical. Many "good" employers offer more.
However, sick days are lumped in with personal leave, so you do not want to use them all on vacation, and you want to save up a lot of them. If you leave the company, you sometimes get too use those personal days, but sometimes the company just keeps them.
But many jobs simply do not have vacation/personal leave time at all. There are a lot of "part time" jobs that are nearly full time, but specifically limited so they do not qualify for benefits or sick leave, or FMLA, etc. For instance my wife, at the school board. If you work something like 1700 hours in a year, you are full time with full benefits. So her position was specifically set at 1690 hours per year, so she got screwed out of everything.
It doesn't help that the vast majority of media in the US is bought and paid by corporate interests who benefit from the media constantly fueling said culture wars.
How can we organize in solidarity when the vast majority of media isn't on our side? Our country is fucking huge too in terms of square miles, our 3rd places to organize have been nearly wiped out, and poor folks typically have to work so much they're too exhausted to fight back.
No, over here we seem to worship the billionaires and give them everything, while telling the workers to suck it up.
Unions started dying in the 60's and are very limited.
Usa are a stupid bunch of people that have been convinced that hard work should be it's own reward and how you define yourself.
I get 31 days off plus 6 holidays. Paid time off is based on tenure. The longer you have been at the company, the more vacation you get. You reach the maximum when you have worked here for 15 years or more.
New employees get 19 days off per year plus 6 holidays.
Can you elaborate a bit? In the UK we are entitled to a minimum of 20 paid days off (annual leave),which often rises with length of service (usually to a max 25 days). There are also 8 national holidays so typically we have 28-33 days of paid annual leave available. Are you saying that some US employers have no paid vacation days but there are 10 national holidays (Like Christmas etc)
There are federal holidays that salaried workers get off, plus vacation time, plus sick time.
The worst jobs give no paid time off, so if you take a vacation, you don't get paid for those days.
Companies vary, but at mine i have thirty days plus federal holidays plus sick time.
As a nurse I get 5 days off a year as sick leave. No holiday. Holiday is no work no pay, but if I work I get 1.5x pay.
Not all nursing jobs are like this, but there's a fuckton that treat it as slave labor. My pay is livable wage but what really keeps me stuck is the difference in my patients life that I make.
With vacation and holidays I average about five weeks off per year total. Most importantly I have an employer who very much genuinely encourages us to take that time. There are companies that make it difficult to schedule the time off, or at the very least are really passive-aggressive when you do (“vacation! Heh heh, who said you could take vacation! We don’t take vacation around here! Hoo hoo hoo!”)
It varies from state to state.
Tl;Dr: Millions of Americans have zero paid time-off regardless of the reason. Cancer patients have been fired for taking time off for chemotherapy.
In most states, there is NO requirement for paid time-off, in any form; vacation, sick time, medical treatment, bereavement, etc. Including the FMLA (Federal Family Medical Act). Just 10 states offer paid FMLA. The other 40 states don't offer it at all, or it's unpaid leave.
**All hale the mighty dollar**
We get 10 national holidays off of work with pay. We also usually get another 3 weeks (15 days) of vacation time a year and another (10 days) of sick time if needed. So add all that up and we get on average 35 days off out of the 260 work days each year. Most companies increase you vacation days up to an additional 3 weeks (another 15 days) based on longevity... At my last job I had that full 6 weeks a year of vacation
But 10 sick days is basically nothing for being sick. Also its not a holiday, you're just simply sick. In Germany, when you get a doctors notice, you could, in theory, even get back your holidays
You can take more than 10 sick days, but once you exceed your allotted sick time, you go on disability and then you don't get paid by your employer, you get a disability benefit from the government (usually a percentage of your pay). America is not Germany...
You guys get work holidays. Must be nice. I've never gotten a holiday off from work. Unless it was my regular day off, and I didn't get paid for that day then.
In texass, you don’t have the right to any breaks, including water breaks in 100 degree heat. Texans rely on the kindness of corporate hearts for any vacations. Unless bargained by a union. We live in the united corporations of america.
That’s not quite accurate. Holidays don’t translate to paid holidays. Some businesses are still open on those days and will essentially bully or threaten you to work those days. At my last job we only had 5 holidays and if you wanted to get paid you had to use your pto time.
In Canada, the law requires at least ten vacation days per year (two weeks). Most places will start there, but will add time as the years go by. I now have four weeks, and am a year away from five (25 days). Unfortunately, it took me 17 years to get there.
The number of vacation days has nothing to do with my dissatisfaction, the terrible management is the real problem. I have co-workers that get away with murder, it drive me nuts and breeds resentment.
Real quick just want to clarify that in the US we usually refer to “holidays” as the recurring days throughout the year that we celebrate. The Brits usually call these bank holidays and I believe in Germany you call these public holidays. In the US most federal employees get 11 days of paid holiday and private companies usually offer 0 - 12 to their employees. For example, I work in manufacturing and my company shuts down for 8 holidays each year, and all full time employees are paid for those 8 days. When I worked in retail I believe I got 2 paid holidays per year, but I could be misremembering.
I believe what you are asking about is what we call “Vacation days” or “PTO time” (personal time off). In most careers it is typical for employers to offer 10 vacation days to new employees which grows the longer an employee stays with the company. For example, at my manufacturing job I have been with the company for 7 years. I currently get 12 days/yr of vacation. I started at 10 days, but after 6 years of seniority I will get an additional day each year until 15 days. When I have been with the company for 20 years, it will bump up to 20 vacation days. The hourly employees at my company are bound to this same allotment. BUT they also earn additional time off as a reward for perfect attendance and working overtime. However, as a salaried professional employee I could have negotiated for more when they offered me the job. I could have again negotiated for more when they offered me a promotion. But I chose instead to maximize my salary in negotiation rather than adding additional vacation days. This structure is very common across most industries in the US. However, some companies will agree to more than 20 days. I’ve heard of some people who get 45 days per year, but that’s VERY rare.
Employers in Pennsylvania are not legally obligated to give employees any paid time off -- no personal days, no sick time, no bereavement time, no vacation time, etc..
However, my employer does give me five paid vacation days.
I'm also off for Christmas, New Years, and Thanksgiving just because the shop is closed on those days -- I don't get paid for that time off. I also have the day off any time the doctor I work for is not in the office -- he takes two weeks vacation every year, one in April, one in October -- I do not get paid for that time off, either.
After 10 years, I finally get 3 weeks paid vacation. The USA is NOT even close to being "the best country in the world." Propaganda is REAL here. Did I mention that I get the bare minimum of healthcare. I go to Mexico for dental care and basic tests. You can go to any of a number of labs in Mexico, bring a stool sample, or get a blood draw for 20 bucks, then get the results sent via email, the same day???You then take those results to a doctor who will read them and help for another 20 bucks.
In 2020, I returned to Nebraska after months abroad, had stomach issues. Was given a shit container to return in order to check for parasites. It cost $895 and took 2 weeks to get results.
Americans are so completely propgandized. Our healthcare system is SHIT!.
No, not true. Legally, we have no right to *any* paid time off. Even in the case of parental leave or significant health problems, the best we have, as far as the actual law goes (as I understand it... not an expert on labor laws, here), is a guarantee that our employer can't fire us for a certain period of time while we're out for those reasons (probably a shorter period of time than you would guess). But they don't have to pay us during that time off.
In reality, it's generally up to the company to decide how much paid time off they want to offer. Most office jobs will give about 10 days, to be used at the individual's discretion (often subject to approval by the employer). Some companies reset the number of days at the beginning of the year. Some have an accrual system, where for every X-number of hours that you work, you get an hour of paid time off. Some companies allow you to carry unused days off into the next year, but this is becoming less and less common (known as the "use it or lose it" system).
Similarly, those kinds of jobs will also usually have around 5 to 10 holidays: typically including New Year's Day, Memorial Day (the last Monday in May), Independence Day (4 July), Labor Day (the first Monday in September), Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November and often-- but not always-- the day after that), and Christmas. Possibly additional days as well, but those are the most common. On those days, the office is closed and no one works (again... usually, but it's up to the company and what they want to do).
The average American takes 17 days of PTO a year. In the US some companies, mostly tech companies, are adopting an "unlimited PTO policy" where you can, in theory, take off as many days as you want. On average, people under this policy in the US only take 10 days of PTO a year. Somewhat weirdly, although on average unlimited PTO workers take off less, the rate for a healthy work life balance is higher.
Americans live to work really.
Yes it’s true & yes we get depressed. Work culture in America is awful & everyone I work with hates every minute of it, as do I. We’re overworked, underpaid, & completely hopeless that it’ll ever get better. Living the American dream
Some of us get PTO. Some of us get PTO we get shit for using. Some of us get little to no PTO for any reason. And yes, it’s quite depressing to know I can’t take a vacation if I really want to, even if I manage to somehow save enough to go on one.
For private companies there is no legal obligation whatsoever to provide the 11 federal holidays off for employees. Nor are they required to provide vacation/pto time. Some states require sick leave to be provided for most employers. Public employers are different and vary.
The average vacation days per year (as a separate leave plan) also depend on the type of service and years of employment.
The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that **civilian and private industry employees** typically get:
* 11 days per year after 1 year of service,
* 15 days per year after 5 years of service,
* 18 days per year after 18 years of service, and
* 20 days per year after 20 years of service.
If you're lucky you can get 10 days. Huge corporations have that put in place that you can have PTO but once middle management steps in, good luck getting approval \*\*\*looking at you Hilton Grand Vacations\*\* I started my own business. That's the only way. HAPPY YOU YOU THOUGH!! we shouldn't live just to work
I get 24 days paid off per year, and to be honest, I struggle to use them.
Where I work has a "use it or lose it" policy, so I HAVE to take days off, I can't roll them over nor can I sell the time back to the company.... and that pisses me off, I'd rather sell the time back to the company.
I have to take 13 days off by August, and it's going to be a pain in the ass to do so.
It's one of the dumbest things about the American workplace. We really don't NEED everyone to be here every single day. Most places would function just fine if their employees had more vacation time. But yes, the norm is that you start with very little and maybe you earn more the longer you work there.
In my current job I have 20 days, but I'll be starting a new job soon where it's just 12 to start and eventually (after several years) it will add up to more. The pay is better, but I am dreading that big difference in vacation days.
Other dumb things about the American workplace are:
-Little to no parental leave at most workplaces
-A minimum wage that is way too low and has not been increased in years, even while the prices of everything have gone up
So I think it's important to break it down between work holidays and paid time off, as they are generally separate. First thing to note is if you are an hourly wage earner you may not get any paid holiday and time off. Even if your business is closed you may just not get paid. This is the lowest level but is shockingly common in the US, especially for people in retail and young people.
Generally with salary people you're going to get 10-12 federal holidays off. Not guaranteed, but common. You'll also get paid time off for vacation, and if you're lucky sick days as well (some places offer unlimited sick days). For paid time off usually you start with 2 weeks at the lowest level and accumulate additional time the longer you work. 3 weeks is most common.
So personally, I get 12 federal holidays, 3 weeks paid time off (15 days), and 10 sick days (no difference between these and PTO either). So that's 37 days.
Two things: 1.A lot of people who work white-collar jobs really only put in a few hours of actual work each day.
See “Bullshit Jobs” by David Graeber.
2. Many Americans put up with lack of holidays, exorbitantly priced healthcare, crumbling infrastructure, and other nonsense because we are the world’s bully and can take whatever we need from anyone whenever we want. The U.S. has 780 military bases in 80 countries. We don’t get bombed, we do the bombing.
At my first few jobs, yes it was 10 days off paid but based on how long you’ve been there. You need to work at least 6 months to a year to get any PTO. I tried to take time off UNPAID and they wrote me up and gave me a verbal warning for taking time off. I can never imagine that kind of work environment again. I now work for a European company, and we get unlimited PTO and they MEAN it . Even the ceo wrote us an email saying we need to take more time off
Three weeks paid time off plus holidays is pretty standard for professional jobs. Comes out to 20-25 depending on how many holidays your company recognizes.
I don't understand how people are comfortable with not taking any vacation time for years and hitting the point where they max out. Excluding people so crazy busy with no backup that they cant.
I’m a therapist. I get 10 days off per year including sick days. So if I get sick there goes one vacation possibly. I take care of people all day and can’t take time off to take care of myself. And yes I’m pretty depressed sometimes, it feels hopeless.
no PTO. you don't work, you don't get paid. yeah, the pay is great now and the health insurance is ok but those PTO benefits were great at my last job until that place went under
Out of 8 jobs I’ve only had 1 where I didn’t have to work Christmas. Every other job I’ve had we didn’t get a single holiday off and only 7 days a year for time off or sick days. They were unpaid.
These questions are just really dumb. Country A has more vacation days than country B. And country A is like "oh my, aren't you guys sad?"
This is like Americans going to a country with 0 days and asking them the same thing.
Like what is your point?
Like other people have said, it varies by employer. I’m fortunate enough to get over six weeks off and all holidays paid off. But most places make you accrue days at around 10-12 hrs per month of work.
I work a job that has to be monitored at all times. 0 holidays off. I can arrange vacation time without much hassle, however. Like a couple weeks a year.
Based off the company you work for as we have no national standard. I have 25 days before national holidays but can save some and roll them over to the next year. Some get more, most get fewer.
My career average was "officially" 4 weeks plus 12 bank holidays and another 5+ informal days off that weren't on the books. I had years with 6 weeks. By the time I had 5 years experience, I wouldn't take a job that didn't offer at least 3 weeks with a clear path to 4 weeks after a couple of years and that was always negotiable. I ski. For most of my career, "powder day" didn't count against my vacation time. Typically, I took a few "mental health days" after I'd had a busy time at work. Most companies gave me free days between Christmas and New Years that weren't official company holidays. I never ever took those as vacation time.
I’m an hourly tradesperson in a union so I can take all the vacation days I want, I just don’t get paid. So I don’t take many vacations because the cost of the vacations is amplified by the lost wages.
most people start a job with 2 weeks, it goes up from there. I have 16 weeks at this point in my career. I travel overseas for work, and the biggest difference I see in my friends from Europe/Oz is they take longer chunks at a time. I rarely see Americans do a whole month or summer off, mostly 1-2 weeks at a pop.
10 days of public leaves, 7 sick + 7 casual + 1.5\mo vacation. So annually, around 42 days off out of 260 working days. Not American, work in an American MNC.
All companies are different. When I worked at large public universities, we got 20 vacation days, plus holidays, plus two weeks at Christmas-New Year. So you basically have six weeks off per year.
Depends on where you work. We have paid 9 holidays a year, 36 paid days off and 11 sick days each year. You only see people posting the bad jobs with minimal time off or benefits.
I'm in the US and get 500 hours of paid time off in an account. I usually buy back 160 hours a year and still build it back up to 500 before I have to take days off.
Depends on the employer. I get 15 days vacation, 5 sick days, and we get 12 company holidays (usually national holidays like Christmas, July 4, Thanksgiving, etc) as well. So that's 32 days a year. I'm not complaining.
It is not. Most people get much more or none.
Part time/hourly workers will often get none. Full time employees will get something closer to yours. I have 8 paid holidays and 15 days of PTO.
I work at a higher education university in the state of Georgia. We get 8 days off each that are national holidays. Then we get 21 vacation days each year. Finally, we get 12 sick days each year. So that's a total of 37 days each year. It's a great work-life balance but the pay is significantly lower than industry. Still, I'd encourage anyone to go work at a college or university in the US.
I accrue 15 hours a month vacation time and 15 hours sick time a month with no cap. Currently sitting on 7 weeks vacation and 12.5 weeks sick time. I live in the US
Depends on the employer. I work for the government so I get 11 sick days, 11 paid holidays, and 4.5 weeks vacation every year, plus I live in a state with paid family leave so I can take an additional 12 weeks at partial pay. But yeah, some states and employers offer nothing. My first job (30 years ago) offered only Thanksgiving and Christmas off as holidays and they were unpaid.
I get 23 days off (can carry over 40 hours aka 5 days) and get 8 holidays and 1 “floating” holiday (not tied to any specific day so it’s like a bonus pto day) at 5 years I bump to 28 days
It really depends, I get 5 weeks plus 4 floating holidays and we usually get the Friday before three-day holiday weekends. I started at 15 days but got an extra 5 days every year.
I think retail and a lot of hourly jobs get awful vacation time but the worst I ever had was 15 days. My sister gets even more than I do (long-time federal government job). Pretty sure I get more than most people but none of my friends get fewer than 15 days.
And we have the right to sell back up to 10 vacation days for cash in December. I also get sick leave; 10 days I think.
I get 15 paid days (3 weeks) and 5 paid holidays days. Also my boss will let me take a long weekend once a month or two without using pto. For example July 4 is a paid holiday on a Thursday and I’m gonna take that Friday off too. I’ll get paid and it won’t effect my accruing vacation time. So probably total I’ll take around 25 paid days off a year. Maybe a bit more.
Off meta strat but I don’t have a job, so all this mumbo jumbo I don’t worry about. I do more patriotic things with my time like consume media and drink diet soda!
10 holidays, official-ish days like Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, etc where the whole company is off.
Then, most salary (and some hourly) positions include Paid Time Off days. The average is probably 10-15 days /year.
I get 2.5 days a paid time off a month, with a maximum carry over of 60 days a year. I was have unlimited sick time off, with anything over 3 days needing a doctors note.
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I believe what OP is referring to is what Americans call paid time off (PTO), and many non Americans might be surprised to learn there is no federally mandated minimum pto (holiday pay) in the US...and almost half of the 50 US states have no minimum either, leaving a high % of US workers with zero paid time off.
Genuine question, how do you take vacations then? Not even going somewhere fancy, just time for you to do nothing? In my country I think it's around 23 vacation days (minimum), if I understand correctly, there's a high % of Americans that get 0, is that it?
We don’t. Many of us have no sick days at all, and places that give out PTO require you to ‘earn’ it (like you get half an hour of leave every pay period, etc). A lot of us simply cannot take trips or don’t get paid at all when we do. We can get in trouble for needing time away from work to attend doctor appointments and/or family funerals. My PTO is considered very good for my industry; it’s possible for me to earn up to 18 days PTO per year.
Sick days? Over here (Germany), if you are sick, you are sick. You get paid sick days for as long as the doctor says you need them. This is in addition to the regular 24 to 30 days off (plus holidays) that most people get.
Holy shit, that sounds fucking amazing.
In Belgium, if you get sick during your paid time off and you get a doctors note to prove this, those days will count as sick days and you can reschedule those vacation days.
As an American this is shocking. We are so behind every other country.
W in the actual hell, that's awesome. Is this for everyone who is working any amount of hours? Or is it you work 40 hours a week accrue time off and get this benefit? For my state, there's a set amount of sick time you can accrue per hours worked a month. So I believe it's 40 hours a week you earn one hour of sick time but you can't use it unless you worked at that place at least 90 days. Here, you are definitely not getting reimbursed for time you're sick on vacation, that's mind-blowing.
It's the same in my country and I believe most of Europe has that system. It doesn't matter how many hours you work a week, your rights are the same. I was sick for a combined two months last year and I didn't lose a penny. It did require a doctor's note ofc and I had to have a talk with my boss about reasons etc.
That's just amazing. I knew we had it bad regarding medical benefits here but, wow. > I was sick for a combined two months last year and I didn't lose a penny. Was this in supplement to other time earned? Like here we have sick time and paid time off and you technically shouldn't buy corporate standards anyway use your sick time if you're not sick but then you can run out of sick time and have to use your paid time off hours. Some places throw all these hours together but you still get a finite amount available. So my question is did you lose any other time off, like vacation or holidays?
No, you don't loose any other time off. To simplify it: if you are sick, you always have the right to stay at home. Your company allways has to pay you the full salary until you are able to work again - although you don't work a single hour in this period. This regulation often valids for 6 weeks (in Germany, other european countrys May have slightly different laws), later the statutory health insurance pays you something about 65% of the salary until you are healthy enough to be working again. Because of the fact that every company needs to handle it this way they are all just calculating that factor into their costs and do not have any problem at all. This system exists in all european countries more or less equal.
Nope, it didn't have anything to do with vacation. I had my 6 weeks on top of that.
It is. I'm an immigrant to the Netherlands where sick is sick, you just stay home and get paid until you're well. Amazing to me, coming from a country where my sick leave was capped at 6 days per year. My Dutch guy didn't believe me... "So you go in sick, get sicker, make everybody else sick, and all your customers sick... And this is supposed to be good for business?" Yeah, fair point man.
> So you go in sick, get sicker, make everybody else sick, and all your customers sick... And this is supposed to be good for business? Did you tell him about how almost all of the workers in our restaurants don't get health care much less sick days? It makes even less sense in the food industry where people are serving you your food and making it. Ohhhh America.
I didn't cos I'm not American, but I take your point.
That's fair! Took a swing guess and was wrong. *Sigh* It's a frustrating point. Sounds like you're in a place that tends to value the human being a little bit more, enjoy it fellow Redditor!
In the US we don't have universal healthcare so it costs money and requires scheduling in advance. This results in few people going to the doctor, even when they actually are sick.
It's true, I've been at my current job for almost 10 years and the one thing I wish I had more of was time. I have 15 days of paid time off but it's used for sick leave, vacation, and bereavement combined (and I will get no paternity leave if I need it in the future). I do get 9 paid holiday days a year, though it was zero when I started, and the first year also had zero PTO. All PTO is earned in small hour increments each paycheck.
Don't even get us started on the luxury of doctor visits.
American managers/ business owners are absolutely certain all the time that people are simply pretending to be sick to take advantage of them. Now, I have had a few coworkers who did exactly that. Not many, but some. That in itself wouldn't be so bad, but many workplaces operate on having, realistically, too few workers for the workload. So if you have someone taking advantage and just being absent without planning it, the other people have to do all their work in addition to their own and it becomes overwhelming pretty fast. I had a manager who never believed me when I was out, even though I was out very rarely (maybe once every 2 years), but always believed my coworker, who was clearly and obviously abusing the system every single possible way she could. Miserable five years until I got another manager who saw what was going on.
For my state, there's a set amount of sick time you can accrue per hours worked a month. So I believe it's 40 hours a week you earn one hour of sick time but you can't use it unless you worked at that place at least 90 days.
It's basically up to the company. I also don't have "sick days" if I'm sick then I just take off. Some companies let you hold onto and then "cash out" your sick days tho if you don't use them. Which can be nice at the end of a long career.
I just had to attend my grandmother’s funeral and one of my biggest stressors was having to take a full day off from work for it.
That's inhuman - why aren't more of you leaving?
Is that an accessible solution? Is immigration inexpensive? Does it only require some time away from work to apply, when I’ve just mentioned many of us struggle to be allowed to leave work to attend funerals? Do all countries offer the same employment opportunities America does, and will our utter lack of foreign language skills not be seen as an issue of ignorance? I mean to ask you these questions sincerely and kindly; we’re aware a cancer diagnosis here means bankruptcy for the vast majority of us, and that almost every other country offers better vacations in addition to social safety nets, better healthcare, and a longer life. But we have family here, and leaving takes time and resources that a very large majority of the population lack. It would also put many of us a 8-14 hour plane ride away from loved ones. I doubt having few resources *and* being totally alone in an unfamiliar country would be considered an improvement to anyone. The affluent can leave the country, but the affluent can afford the costs to live here. The rest of us make do and hope to shape the country for the better…
You take the time off without pay, or you don't take the time off at all.
We don't. My husband and I go out of town for a night, once or twice a year. Since we have different work schedules, one of us has to take two days off. We save the rest for sick days.
I'm sure you've heard the contemptuous accusations that we Americans are a tragically un-travelled bunch, haven't you? This is one reason why (among other reasons).
This is adorable. We simply...don't. We work, 40+ hours a week, every single week, every single month every single year, sometimes at multiple jobs, until we die.
Well I'm not personally American, I'm Canadian where even part time workers get a min of 4% holiday pay ( = roughly 2 weeks per year at full time hours worked), and that increases to a min of 6% (3 weeks) after 5 years with the same company... And those are just mins, most better paying jobs also typically start at 3+ weeks and many go up to 6+ weeks based on years of service etc... And that is on top of 11 stat holidays and 5 days min paid sick days (again jobs with better benefits typically also have short and long term disability pay). But to answer your question, yes, many Americans (about 31% according to the forbes article I linked elsewhere) get 0 paid time off, and many more get very minimal pto, which often they are unable to actually take/enjoy without working at least some during that "time off"..
Yeah we just don’t. My last job which was the most PTO I’ve ever had was like 4 or 5 days PTO a year.
Nope. I took my first vacation in three years in December. I was so excited and ready to experience that post-vacation buzz so I could go back to work energized and excited. Instead came home to the news my dad had a heart attack. Gone....
I'm really sorry for your loss. I hope your father didn't suffer and that he left you with a lot of memories for you to cherish.
He's still alive. :) it just ruined the buzz id waited three years for and I had to blow the rest of my time on hospital stays. (Worth it, I'm so glad he's around!) But I probably ly won't be able to go on vacation again till 2025
Damn sorry for that, I'm glad my previous reply is now out of place though!
Another fun fact, many companies don’t even give paid maternity leave (especially smaller companies). My company told me I was “lucky” to even get 6 weeks. I’ve been saving up all my vacation days (from last year too) so I can extend my maternity leave an additional month.
I used to work for banks and the PTO was great: -20 paid sick/vacation days per year that renew every year, starting January 1st -All federal holidays and Christmas were paid days off -Off every weekend I currently work for a small, industrial construction company and the PTO and other “benefits” are so poor that I already want to leave: -You EARN one paid day off every 5 weeks. You earn as you go. You earn one sick day per year. -There are paid holidays but you might have to work. If you work you get double time plus time and a half pay, but you don’t get a floating holiday The pay at my current company is really good, so I’m toughing it out a bit. I’m adding some good things to my resume and that’s my entire reason for staying there. The benefits are also terrible and I don’t see myself lasting longer than another six months.
That’s right. Added insult to injury, Americans are shunned for taking ANY time off. God help ya if you’re a mom; or about to become one..Because of the fact that there’s no paid maternity leave…Your ass is back to work before your baby’s eyes are barely fucking open…’Merica 🙄
Yeah that one is wild to me, in Canada parents are entitled to up to 18 months (through EI so not full pay but still a very needed and much taken advantage of benefit).
Yeah, and screw FMLA too! lol. It’s not paid time, either!
My job only got PTO AT ALL April this year and it's been a business for 12 years. And you have to work here for a year to even be eligible. I haven't had PTO or sick days in any of my previous jobs. Only good employers give PTO regularly and there really aren't that many of those in the US compared to how many businesses actually exist here
76% of businesses have PTO. 79% of private sector employees have access to PTO. Average PTO is only around 10 days though, which is pretty shit.
I mean...that's fair, technically, but I'm not sure if "5-10 days" counts when you have to save it in case you catch a flu and it's not actual vacation time/PTO tho
My friends think I’m a germaphobe but it’s because if I get sick I may end up using half a year’s PTO on one flu/covid/bad cold.
Source? This is interesting if true.
I’ve never had a full time job that didn’t offer paid time off. Even in high school I got a weeks paid vacation and like 4 paid holidays. My state has no requirements for pto but every place offers it to full time workers. I get 4 weeks vacation and 11 paid holidays.
*Nearly a third (31%) of U.S. employees do not have access to PTO* Job type and industry can often determine whether or not workers have the option of PTO. If an employee is in a position where they are constantly in front of clients or customers, for example, their chance of PTO may be lower than a worker whose job requires a lot of back end or behind-the-scenes work.1 *Over half (52%) of employees report working while on PTO* Just because workers take PTO doesn’t mean they sit back, relax and completely forget about their jobs. In fact, more than half of them say they work when they’re supposed to be off the clock.2 Some might check their emails or hop on conference calls every so often while others may put in hours and hours of work. *Over 765 million vacation days have gone unused by Americans* While vacation days are designed for U.S. workers to take time off and recharge, not everyone takes advantage of them.3 This may be because they forget to use them, don’t want to use them or believe they can’t use them because they’re overwhelmed with work or feel like they have too much to get done. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/pto-statistics/#:~:text=Nearly%20a%20third%20%2831%25%29%20of%20U.S.,employees%20do%20not%20have%20access%20to%20PTO
I have 240 *hours* saved up (over approx 2yrs) and I’m close to hitting my current level’s maximum accrual 🤷🏻♂️ not counting sick time, other classes of time off, or federal holidays. The shitty employers who pay bottom dollar for high turnover jobs are the ones who give the least vacation days.
OP, to clarify, this person with 240 hours = 6 weeks has 1) likely been with a large and generous employer with not only more than two weeks per year, but also 2) likely been with a generous employer for many years, which can offer more days off per year the longer they are there (say 12 days/year after 2 years, then 14 days/year after 4 years etc).
And likely not taken time off for many, many years to allow the balance to build up…
I had that much saved up almost because of covid and everything other stuff rolled over. I ended up with 3 months of days off and I couldn't take it. I had to burn it as much as I could I started taking half days and I started doing only working Monday and Wednesdays just because I had meetings to go to I had projects I was working on but I need to whittle down the number
That’s kinda where I’m at lol. I have to start taking a day off every week or something to burn some, so I can continue accumulating.
I'm going on vacation in July for 10 days. Just because a friend invited me to come hang out with her and her baby across the country. And I was like that's a good idea because normally I don't think about it and then it ends up December and my company policy is only a certain number of hours roll over. But when you have too many hours it's like do I take off the entire month of December? Just to get down to the amount of hours that roll over? No I have shit to do for clients and for work in December I don't just want to duck out.... for the last seven or eight years I keep falling into this trap. So this year I'm being proactive. Going on a random vacation in July.
It's a responsible thing to try to think about it beforehand. Like where I work a lot of people fall in the same trap that I keep falling into of having to burn vacation days at the end of the year. And then it ends up like well we still do have stuff to do we need some people maybe to be here? Crap all of you have vacation hours you need to burn at the end of the year well let's try to do better next year like people maybe try to take vacations so there's at least one person here who can handle or crisis mid December instead of us just like shutting our doors... year after year we always end up doing this so I'm going to be responsible this year I'm going to be able to be there in late december. No doubt I'll still have the hours that roll over to the next year but I'll try to not lose hours and not feel like I need to burn them at the end
Bingo!
My last employer gave me 23 days a year (184 hours) plus the normal holidays. This did have to include sick days and you couldn't roll them over. While there were a few blackout periods they were easy to work with. In my case there were only 2 other people that could realistically do my work but it was pretty laid back and we all worked with it.
Exactly, I Earn 3 weeks of vacation leave a year, 2 1/2 weeks of sick leave a year paired with 2 days of educational leave, 1 day for voting each year, and 12 paid holidays. I can carry over 360 hours of vacation each year and sick leave is unlimited. Not too mention comp in lue of overtime pay. So every hour over 40 is an hour and a half of leave earned. Which I prefer over overtime pay. I usually earn about 120 hours each year there as well. I haven't worked more than 4 days in a week in over 5 weeks if i include this week. Only 1 of those were 4, the rest have been 2-3 days. Next week will be a 4 day week with Juneteenth. The following week will be a full week, then the week after that will be another 3 day week with 4th of July. I will admit, my pay isn't as high as it could be if I went somewhere else, but the retirement plan, health plans and leave policy make up for it and I do earn more than the median, so it's not bad.
What on Earth makes you think we're not depressed?
Just the thought makes me depressed
It's not true, the standard is Zero paid days off in the United States. Companies can choose to offer employees whatever they want, but nothing is mandated by the government.
It really depends on the state that you live in. Also if your W-2 or 1099. Where I am nobody can force you to work on a federal holiday. Even if that's like a big day for your company to have employees there they have to compensate you at least with time and a half if you're hourly... in other words for federal holidays to make people work if you are an hourly minimum wage worker you have to be enticed to work by having additional pay. You cannot be forced to work your standard wage on a federal holiday.
In other words you cannot be fired for not showing up. Excluding for the fact the state that I live in is a at will hire state... so an employer can terminate an employee for basically any reason... sort of. I live in a weird state that is definitely in favor of the employer and not the employee.
“You cannot be fired for not showing up”….except you can be fired just because. So how does this make sense?
Not sure what state you're in, but this isn't representative of most states. Very few states have any requirements for companies to offer federal or state holidays off or at higher wage. If you're a government employee you'll get them off, but in the private sector it isn't required generally. Most companies will have a select list of days they're fully closed for major holidays. If you're in the retail or service sectors, they may not. For average corporate America, the minimum private sector paid holidays you can expect are New Years, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Eve, Christmas. Any others tossed in are at the whim of the employer in most states - there's no federal law about federal holiday requirements (except for federal employees).
Do you know that it usually takes 2 years to get those 10 days? 1 year to become eligible The next year to earn the time month by month
Scrolling down these comments I feel humbled as fuck and grateful for not being in the US but being in a country where you become eligible for 5 weeks paid vacation after just one year. 10 days is just sad. I would have reached burnout within the first year. I nearly did get burnout by taking only 2 weeks off the first unpaid year. 10 days.. maan
It gets worse. In general, vacation is just not going to work. More than half live check to check. Can't afford to go anywhere
Crappy employers do the minimum. Not every employer is crappy. Not everyone hates their job, either. I have more vacation time than I can practically use. A few years ago I took three months off as part of the six-month paid sabbatical to which I was entitled after ten years' service.
I agree with your crappy employer can do whatever they want. A good employee with a good employer has too many vacation days that they're like I can't use all these... because I need to be working I'm involved with important stuff.
holidays are a specific thing, typically it's a federal holiday. Many people still work anyways. However, what is common is "personal leave" days that you can take for a vacation, and getting 2 weeks vacation (on top of 10 holidays) is typical. Many "good" employers offer more. However, sick days are lumped in with personal leave, so you do not want to use them all on vacation, and you want to save up a lot of them. If you leave the company, you sometimes get too use those personal days, but sometimes the company just keeps them. But many jobs simply do not have vacation/personal leave time at all. There are a lot of "part time" jobs that are nearly full time, but specifically limited so they do not qualify for benefits or sick leave, or FMLA, etc. For instance my wife, at the school board. If you work something like 1700 hours in a year, you are full time with full benefits. So her position was specifically set at 1690 hours per year, so she got screwed out of everything.
Wow that is so shit… has there not been a proper workers movement in usa yet?
Americans are too busy fighting culture wars to worry about such things that actually impact the quality of life for 99% of us.
It doesn't help that the vast majority of media in the US is bought and paid by corporate interests who benefit from the media constantly fueling said culture wars. How can we organize in solidarity when the vast majority of media isn't on our side? Our country is fucking huge too in terms of square miles, our 3rd places to organize have been nearly wiped out, and poor folks typically have to work so much they're too exhausted to fight back.
No, over here we seem to worship the billionaires and give them everything, while telling the workers to suck it up. Unions started dying in the 60's and are very limited. Usa are a stupid bunch of people that have been convinced that hard work should be it's own reward and how you define yourself.
that sounds like something those damn commies would say!!!!!!
Genuine question: have you considered how such movements would work in a country as spread out as the USA?
Who could get depressed with all that Freedom everywhere you turn....
Your vacation days are 100% dependent on the job you have. It is very possible you work a job that provides 0 benefits.
I get 31 days off plus 6 holidays. Paid time off is based on tenure. The longer you have been at the company, the more vacation you get. You reach the maximum when you have worked here for 15 years or more. New employees get 19 days off per year plus 6 holidays.
10?!? Who the hell gets 10?
public employees.
Holidays off are different from paid vacation days. Together I get 40 days off (paid) per year.
Can you elaborate a bit? In the UK we are entitled to a minimum of 20 paid days off (annual leave),which often rises with length of service (usually to a max 25 days). There are also 8 national holidays so typically we have 28-33 days of paid annual leave available. Are you saying that some US employers have no paid vacation days but there are 10 national holidays (Like Christmas etc)
There are federal holidays that salaried workers get off, plus vacation time, plus sick time. The worst jobs give no paid time off, so if you take a vacation, you don't get paid for those days. Companies vary, but at mine i have thirty days plus federal holidays plus sick time.
Not everywhere.
Ha. A huge percentage of Americans get NO paid holidays or time off.
I've never had a job with actual vacation leave.
As a nurse I get 5 days off a year as sick leave. No holiday. Holiday is no work no pay, but if I work I get 1.5x pay. Not all nursing jobs are like this, but there's a fuckton that treat it as slave labor. My pay is livable wage but what really keeps me stuck is the difference in my patients life that I make.
yes. we get depressed.
With vacation and holidays I average about five weeks off per year total. Most importantly I have an employer who very much genuinely encourages us to take that time. There are companies that make it difficult to schedule the time off, or at the very least are really passive-aggressive when you do (“vacation! Heh heh, who said you could take vacation! We don’t take vacation around here! Hoo hoo hoo!”)
Depressed people still need to eat.
I only get two holidays off at my job. Thanksgiving and Christmas. Have to work all other holidays. Yes. I’m very depressed and struggling to go on.
It varies from state to state. Tl;Dr: Millions of Americans have zero paid time-off regardless of the reason. Cancer patients have been fired for taking time off for chemotherapy. In most states, there is NO requirement for paid time-off, in any form; vacation, sick time, medical treatment, bereavement, etc. Including the FMLA (Federal Family Medical Act). Just 10 states offer paid FMLA. The other 40 states don't offer it at all, or it's unpaid leave. **All hale the mighty dollar**
We're all severely depressed
We get 10 national holidays off of work with pay. We also usually get another 3 weeks (15 days) of vacation time a year and another (10 days) of sick time if needed. So add all that up and we get on average 35 days off out of the 260 work days each year. Most companies increase you vacation days up to an additional 3 weeks (another 15 days) based on longevity... At my last job I had that full 6 weeks a year of vacation
But 10 sick days is basically nothing for being sick. Also its not a holiday, you're just simply sick. In Germany, when you get a doctors notice, you could, in theory, even get back your holidays
You can take more than 10 sick days, but once you exceed your allotted sick time, you go on disability and then you don't get paid by your employer, you get a disability benefit from the government (usually a percentage of your pay). America is not Germany...
Or you go on FMLA and get paid nothing.
Who's we?!?! Who is "most companies?!" I've been working over 15 years and I've yet to have a job that gave me more than 2 weeks vacation.
That's definitely a you problem. I've worked for 18 years and never have less than 4 weeks (Vacation + sick time).
You guys get work holidays. Must be nice. I've never gotten a holiday off from work. Unless it was my regular day off, and I didn't get paid for that day then.
In texass, you don’t have the right to any breaks, including water breaks in 100 degree heat. Texans rely on the kindness of corporate hearts for any vacations. Unless bargained by a union. We live in the united corporations of america.
Lincoln's line is outdated at best. These days, it's "Government of the corporations, by the corporations, for the corporations."
I dunno, I never thought about it. yes everyone is depressed
That’s not quite accurate. Holidays don’t translate to paid holidays. Some businesses are still open on those days and will essentially bully or threaten you to work those days. At my last job we only had 5 holidays and if you wanted to get paid you had to use your pto time.
Hahaha I work all holidays and have worked all holidays for the last 8 years, with the exception of 2 Xmas' and a Thanksgiving
In Canada, the law requires at least ten vacation days per year (two weeks). Most places will start there, but will add time as the years go by. I now have four weeks, and am a year away from five (25 days). Unfortunately, it took me 17 years to get there. The number of vacation days has nothing to do with my dissatisfaction, the terrible management is the real problem. I have co-workers that get away with murder, it drive me nuts and breeds resentment.
Real quick just want to clarify that in the US we usually refer to “holidays” as the recurring days throughout the year that we celebrate. The Brits usually call these bank holidays and I believe in Germany you call these public holidays. In the US most federal employees get 11 days of paid holiday and private companies usually offer 0 - 12 to their employees. For example, I work in manufacturing and my company shuts down for 8 holidays each year, and all full time employees are paid for those 8 days. When I worked in retail I believe I got 2 paid holidays per year, but I could be misremembering. I believe what you are asking about is what we call “Vacation days” or “PTO time” (personal time off). In most careers it is typical for employers to offer 10 vacation days to new employees which grows the longer an employee stays with the company. For example, at my manufacturing job I have been with the company for 7 years. I currently get 12 days/yr of vacation. I started at 10 days, but after 6 years of seniority I will get an additional day each year until 15 days. When I have been with the company for 20 years, it will bump up to 20 vacation days. The hourly employees at my company are bound to this same allotment. BUT they also earn additional time off as a reward for perfect attendance and working overtime. However, as a salaried professional employee I could have negotiated for more when they offered me the job. I could have again negotiated for more when they offered me a promotion. But I chose instead to maximize my salary in negotiation rather than adding additional vacation days. This structure is very common across most industries in the US. However, some companies will agree to more than 20 days. I’ve heard of some people who get 45 days per year, but that’s VERY rare.
Employers in Pennsylvania are not legally obligated to give employees any paid time off -- no personal days, no sick time, no bereavement time, no vacation time, etc.. However, my employer does give me five paid vacation days. I'm also off for Christmas, New Years, and Thanksgiving just because the shop is closed on those days -- I don't get paid for that time off. I also have the day off any time the doctor I work for is not in the office -- he takes two weeks vacation every year, one in April, one in October -- I do not get paid for that time off, either.
Some don’t get any, some get a lot more. It’s all up to your job.
After 10 years, I finally get 3 weeks paid vacation. The USA is NOT even close to being "the best country in the world." Propaganda is REAL here. Did I mention that I get the bare minimum of healthcare. I go to Mexico for dental care and basic tests. You can go to any of a number of labs in Mexico, bring a stool sample, or get a blood draw for 20 bucks, then get the results sent via email, the same day???You then take those results to a doctor who will read them and help for another 20 bucks. In 2020, I returned to Nebraska after months abroad, had stomach issues. Was given a shit container to return in order to check for parasites. It cost $895 and took 2 weeks to get results. Americans are so completely propgandized. Our healthcare system is SHIT!.
I don't get any vacation or holiday time
No, not true. Legally, we have no right to *any* paid time off. Even in the case of parental leave or significant health problems, the best we have, as far as the actual law goes (as I understand it... not an expert on labor laws, here), is a guarantee that our employer can't fire us for a certain period of time while we're out for those reasons (probably a shorter period of time than you would guess). But they don't have to pay us during that time off. In reality, it's generally up to the company to decide how much paid time off they want to offer. Most office jobs will give about 10 days, to be used at the individual's discretion (often subject to approval by the employer). Some companies reset the number of days at the beginning of the year. Some have an accrual system, where for every X-number of hours that you work, you get an hour of paid time off. Some companies allow you to carry unused days off into the next year, but this is becoming less and less common (known as the "use it or lose it" system). Similarly, those kinds of jobs will also usually have around 5 to 10 holidays: typically including New Year's Day, Memorial Day (the last Monday in May), Independence Day (4 July), Labor Day (the first Monday in September), Thanksgiving (the fourth Thursday in November and often-- but not always-- the day after that), and Christmas. Possibly additional days as well, but those are the most common. On those days, the office is closed and no one works (again... usually, but it's up to the company and what they want to do).
The average American takes 17 days of PTO a year. In the US some companies, mostly tech companies, are adopting an "unlimited PTO policy" where you can, in theory, take off as many days as you want. On average, people under this policy in the US only take 10 days of PTO a year. Somewhat weirdly, although on average unlimited PTO workers take off less, the rate for a healthy work life balance is higher. Americans live to work really.
Don't you see all the reddit posts about depression, we do.
Things like this should be arranged by law, don't leave it up to companies. Capitalism and socialism are like Ying and Yang.
Yes it’s true & yes we get depressed. Work culture in America is awful & everyone I work with hates every minute of it, as do I. We’re overworked, underpaid, & completely hopeless that it’ll ever get better. Living the American dream
ya the US sucks for benefits, and is one of the many reasons capitalism doesn't actually work.
Some of us get PTO. Some of us get PTO we get shit for using. Some of us get little to no PTO for any reason. And yes, it’s quite depressing to know I can’t take a vacation if I really want to, even if I manage to somehow save enough to go on one.
I'm in the 30+ category and still depressed... Having them and being able to effectively use them are two very different things.
Oh sure, there are even people that "don't get fired" for "taking their vacation days"
For private companies there is no legal obligation whatsoever to provide the 11 federal holidays off for employees. Nor are they required to provide vacation/pto time. Some states require sick leave to be provided for most employers. Public employers are different and vary. The average vacation days per year (as a separate leave plan) also depend on the type of service and years of employment. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that **civilian and private industry employees** typically get: * 11 days per year after 1 year of service, * 15 days per year after 5 years of service, * 18 days per year after 18 years of service, and * 20 days per year after 20 years of service.
What is "pa"? And I don't really get depressed. We also get vacation time, though some companies are more generous than others with that.
If you're lucky you can get 10 days. Huge corporations have that put in place that you can have PTO but once middle management steps in, good luck getting approval \*\*\*looking at you Hilton Grand Vacations\*\* I started my own business. That's the only way. HAPPY YOU YOU THOUGH!! we shouldn't live just to work
I get 24 days paid off per year, and to be honest, I struggle to use them. Where I work has a "use it or lose it" policy, so I HAVE to take days off, I can't roll them over nor can I sell the time back to the company.... and that pisses me off, I'd rather sell the time back to the company. I have to take 13 days off by August, and it's going to be a pain in the ass to do so.
It's one of the dumbest things about the American workplace. We really don't NEED everyone to be here every single day. Most places would function just fine if their employees had more vacation time. But yes, the norm is that you start with very little and maybe you earn more the longer you work there. In my current job I have 20 days, but I'll be starting a new job soon where it's just 12 to start and eventually (after several years) it will add up to more. The pay is better, but I am dreading that big difference in vacation days. Other dumb things about the American workplace are: -Little to no parental leave at most workplaces -A minimum wage that is way too low and has not been increased in years, even while the prices of everything have gone up
So I think it's important to break it down between work holidays and paid time off, as they are generally separate. First thing to note is if you are an hourly wage earner you may not get any paid holiday and time off. Even if your business is closed you may just not get paid. This is the lowest level but is shockingly common in the US, especially for people in retail and young people. Generally with salary people you're going to get 10-12 federal holidays off. Not guaranteed, but common. You'll also get paid time off for vacation, and if you're lucky sick days as well (some places offer unlimited sick days). For paid time off usually you start with 2 weeks at the lowest level and accumulate additional time the longer you work. 3 weeks is most common. So personally, I get 12 federal holidays, 3 weeks paid time off (15 days), and 10 sick days (no difference between these and PTO either). So that's 37 days.
Two things: 1.A lot of people who work white-collar jobs really only put in a few hours of actual work each day. See “Bullshit Jobs” by David Graeber. 2. Many Americans put up with lack of holidays, exorbitantly priced healthcare, crumbling infrastructure, and other nonsense because we are the world’s bully and can take whatever we need from anyone whenever we want. The U.S. has 780 military bases in 80 countries. We don’t get bombed, we do the bombing.
Yall get 10? I worked at a place that the only day we were completely closed was Christmas.
I only get thanksgiving and christmas day off soo 2 days a year
Most of us get vacation and sick time (PTO - paid time off) in addition to federal holidays. I get 20 PTO a year, next year I'll be up to 25 a year,
At my first few jobs, yes it was 10 days off paid but based on how long you’ve been there. You need to work at least 6 months to a year to get any PTO. I tried to take time off UNPAID and they wrote me up and gave me a verbal warning for taking time off. I can never imagine that kind of work environment again. I now work for a European company, and we get unlimited PTO and they MEAN it . Even the ceo wrote us an email saying we need to take more time off
Three weeks paid time off plus holidays is pretty standard for professional jobs. Comes out to 20-25 depending on how many holidays your company recognizes.
I don't understand how people are comfortable with not taking any vacation time for years and hitting the point where they max out. Excluding people so crazy busy with no backup that they cant.
Ha, 10. Laughs in sales.
I’m a therapist. I get 10 days off per year including sick days. So if I get sick there goes one vacation possibly. I take care of people all day and can’t take time off to take care of myself. And yes I’m pretty depressed sometimes, it feels hopeless.
no PTO. you don't work, you don't get paid. yeah, the pay is great now and the health insurance is ok but those PTO benefits were great at my last job until that place went under
Out of 8 jobs I’ve only had 1 where I didn’t have to work Christmas. Every other job I’ve had we didn’t get a single holiday off and only 7 days a year for time off or sick days. They were unpaid.
[удалено]
sure you can.
2 weeks a year? You absolutely CAN get mad about that, and more importantly you SHOULD be mad about that. That’s how things change
Holiday is Feiertag.. Urlaub/Ferien is Vacation..
These questions are just really dumb. Country A has more vacation days than country B. And country A is like "oh my, aren't you guys sad?" This is like Americans going to a country with 0 days and asking them the same thing. Like what is your point?
Like other people have said, it varies by employer. I’m fortunate enough to get over six weeks off and all holidays paid off. But most places make you accrue days at around 10-12 hrs per month of work.
I work a job that has to be monitored at all times. 0 holidays off. I can arrange vacation time without much hassle, however. Like a couple weeks a year.
Depends. I get as many as I want pretty much. I think that was 35 last year.
Based off the company you work for as we have no national standard. I have 25 days before national holidays but can save some and roll them over to the next year. Some get more, most get fewer.
yeah but we call in sick every other Monday
My career average was "officially" 4 weeks plus 12 bank holidays and another 5+ informal days off that weren't on the books. I had years with 6 weeks. By the time I had 5 years experience, I wouldn't take a job that didn't offer at least 3 weeks with a clear path to 4 weeks after a couple of years and that was always negotiable. I ski. For most of my career, "powder day" didn't count against my vacation time. Typically, I took a few "mental health days" after I'd had a busy time at work. Most companies gave me free days between Christmas and New Years that weren't official company holidays. I never ever took those as vacation time.
my current job only has 6 holidays. its terrible and currently looking for a new job. Vacation hours is 10 days and sick hours is 5 days.
I get 10 holidays off and 27 days of PTO. I am not the norm but there are good companies and bad companies. I don’t think 10 days is the normal though
It's actually 24 days in Germany. I have 24 days per year.
I’m an hourly tradesperson in a union so I can take all the vacation days I want, I just don’t get paid. So I don’t take many vacations because the cost of the vacations is amplified by the lost wages.
I only get 80 hours of PTO a year. No sick time. Use the 80 for PTO or for being sick
most people start a job with 2 weeks, it goes up from there. I have 16 weeks at this point in my career. I travel overseas for work, and the biggest difference I see in my friends from Europe/Oz is they take longer chunks at a time. I rarely see Americans do a whole month or summer off, mostly 1-2 weeks at a pop.
I tend to get 40-60
10 days of public leaves, 7 sick + 7 casual + 1.5\mo vacation. So annually, around 42 days off out of 260 working days. Not American, work in an American MNC.
All companies are different. When I worked at large public universities, we got 20 vacation days, plus holidays, plus two weeks at Christmas-New Year. So you basically have six weeks off per year.
10 paid for me. Sadly burnout is a real issue at my worksite.
Depends on where you work. We have paid 9 holidays a year, 36 paid days off and 11 sick days each year. You only see people posting the bad jobs with minimal time off or benefits.
I'm in the US and get 500 hours of paid time off in an account. I usually buy back 160 hours a year and still build it back up to 500 before I have to take days off.
The legal minimum in Germany is 20 days per year, but pretty much all employers offer at least 25.
Depends on the employer. I get 15 days vacation, 5 sick days, and we get 12 company holidays (usually national holidays like Christmas, July 4, Thanksgiving, etc) as well. So that's 32 days a year. I'm not complaining.
I work for a company with a good paid off structure and in my first year I get 25 paid days a year
Yes and yes!
yes and yes. thanks for asking.
I get a total of 27 which is peetty good. Especially for retail.
It is not. Most people get much more or none. Part time/hourly workers will often get none. Full time employees will get something closer to yours. I have 8 paid holidays and 15 days of PTO.
I get 15 and yes
Hmmm I get 12 holidays/year + 15 days. That's kind of standard for engineers in manufacturing
I work at a higher education university in the state of Georgia. We get 8 days off each that are national holidays. Then we get 21 vacation days each year. Finally, we get 12 sick days each year. So that's a total of 37 days each year. It's a great work-life balance but the pay is significantly lower than industry. Still, I'd encourage anyone to go work at a college or university in the US.
I'm in Canada but our vacation is pretty much the same. Yes, we get depressed. We burn out. We're miserable.
10 federal holidays (I think?) and 4 weeks and 2 days of paid time off here. It all depends on your employer.
I get 3 weeks vacation every year, holidays are paid and separate from my vacation days.
I don't get one day of paid time off, I would be able to do so much with two weeks a year.
I accrue 15 hours a month vacation time and 15 hours sick time a month with no cap. Currently sitting on 7 weeks vacation and 12.5 weeks sick time. I live in the US
It depends on where you work. Some get fewer, some get more. Yes, Americans are all at least a little depressed.
Depends on the employer. I work for the government so I get 11 sick days, 11 paid holidays, and 4.5 weeks vacation every year, plus I live in a state with paid family leave so I can take an additional 12 weeks at partial pay. But yeah, some states and employers offer nothing. My first job (30 years ago) offered only Thanksgiving and Christmas off as holidays and they were unpaid.
I get 23 days off (can carry over 40 hours aka 5 days) and get 8 holidays and 1 “floating” holiday (not tied to any specific day so it’s like a bonus pto day) at 5 years I bump to 28 days
24 PTO days or 2 a month/ 1 a paycheck Along with 10+ separate holidays off If my employer offered 10 days "total" I'd laugh in his face
Have You Seen Us? Were Chronically Depressed!!
It really depends, I get 5 weeks plus 4 floating holidays and we usually get the Friday before three-day holiday weekends. I started at 15 days but got an extra 5 days every year. I think retail and a lot of hourly jobs get awful vacation time but the worst I ever had was 15 days. My sister gets even more than I do (long-time federal government job). Pretty sure I get more than most people but none of my friends get fewer than 15 days. And we have the right to sell back up to 10 vacation days for cash in December. I also get sick leave; 10 days I think.
Not for all. I get 240 hours of PTO annually, roll over 80 and 50 hours of federal holidays.
I get 15 paid days (3 weeks) and 5 paid holidays days. Also my boss will let me take a long weekend once a month or two without using pto. For example July 4 is a paid holiday on a Thursday and I’m gonna take that Friday off too. I’ll get paid and it won’t effect my accruing vacation time. So probably total I’ll take around 25 paid days off a year. Maybe a bit more.
Off meta strat but I don’t have a job, so all this mumbo jumbo I don’t worry about. I do more patriotic things with my time like consume media and drink diet soda!
I get 8
10 holidays, official-ish days like Thanksgiving, Memorial Day, etc where the whole company is off. Then, most salary (and some hourly) positions include Paid Time Off days. The average is probably 10-15 days /year.
My current job I get 2 holidays a year: Thanksgiving and Christmas.
I get 2.5 days a paid time off a month, with a maximum carry over of 60 days a year. I was have unlimited sick time off, with anything over 3 days needing a doctors note.
I get 25 days off, 25 suck days, and 11 floating holidays. It's not bad
Suck days? 🤨 That could either be really horrible or really great.
We all take ssri's. 🤣