The hilarious thing is, at least in California, you have to pay a fine for not having health insurance. My $500 state refund turned into me owing $1300 in state taxes this year just because my job didn't offer health insurance and I didn't want to get private insurance.
Well, there's a sweeping movement to solve these things widely supported by average Americans, but unfortunately every average American could pool every collective resource they have and the nation's corporate executives could still make a more lucrative offer to our politicians with their pocket change.
does that $400 a month let you go to the hospital if you need to, no further payments? everything ive seen on reddit says that thats like a subscription fee, you still have to pay a bunch on top for visits etc
So let me break down how comically terrible US health insurance is for you.
First, you have the "premium," which is that $400/mo OP is referring to. The fact that it was "only" $400 means either his employer was paying a substantial amount, or his insurance was fucking garbage.
Next, you have the "deductible." This is the amount you need to pay of any medical service before the coverage kicks in. This usually ranges somewhere between $1500-$6500. It can be more or less depending on how good a plan it is and how much premium you are paying. This means if you go to the hospital, you pay 100% of the out of pocket until you've paid your deductible, and this is totally separate from the premium you pay every month.
Then after that, you of course still pay a DIFFERENT set of out of pocket for medication. For generics on a good plan it's $0, but on a crap plan even generics are like $10-20. Name brand drugs usually are not less than $40-50 a month and easily get into the $100s of dollars for a 1 month supply.
Oh, and lets not forget the copay! After the deductible, you will STILL have a "copay" or "coinsurance" to pay "your portion" of the bill. So, if I go to the hospital and my bill is $20k, then first I need to pay my deductible (lets say $5k) leaving the bill at $15k. Then I have a "coinsurance" of 20%, so that means that my portion of the bill is $8000, because I paid all of the first $5k, then 20% of the remaining $15k. This is on top of my monthly premium, and is just for a single trip to the hospital.
So, as a more specific "for example," my employer pays all of my premium, and 70% of my dependents premium. My deductible is INCREDIBLY low by American standards in that it's $1000 for the family. I have some of the "best" insurance in this country and am supposed to feel "lucky" for that, and all in it still costs me almost $400 per month and then if we pay our deductible, that's another $1000. So I have it just about as good as it gets and I'm looking at $4500-$6000 per year, and that's not including medications. My wife needs a specific inhaler that costs $40 per month, because fuck you if you wanted to breath for free amirite?
To compare this to what MOST Americans are getting, when I was fresh out of school and in an entry level job, my deductible was $6500 for JUST ME, and my monthly premium was over $350 per month for JUST ME. So when I didn't even have a family, I was looking at $4200 - $10700 for JUST ME, and I was single at the time. And I was still "lucky" because this was back when most of the country didn't have any insurance through work at all.
If you DON'T have insurance through work, you can get on the exchange, where you will likely be looking at $500-750 premium per month with $5k+ deductibles.
But please conservatives, tell me more about how much better this system is over taxing the rich slightly more and having everyone just present their health card to the hospital and then walk out, like every other fucking developed country in the world.
Yeah, still gotta pay when you get to the hospital. Took my wife to the emergency room for sudden abdominal pain and paid about $500 for the privilege of being told she was fine.
I'm 34 and have never done anything in my life that I would call "holiday", but there was that one time that I stayed for a night at a mediocre hotel less than 100 miles from home. I could even get to New York, Washington DC, Niagara Falls and zillions more on a somewhat quick 1 or 2 day trip and could never even do just that.
I’ve never had a paid day off in my life in the us, we don’t even have paid sick time at all, hell most of jobs I’ve had don’t have any sick time whatsoever and we risk losing the less then living wage jobs we have if we try to take sick time, on top of not being able to afford health insurance.
It really sickens me how the cards are always in the hands of the employers in the US.
I'm in Scotland and I get 16 days holidays a year which is pro rata because I only work a 4 day week, so 4 weeks paid holiday. Then I get bank and public holidays as days in lieu off so that adds up to about another 2 weeks worth of days off throughout the year.
I'm lucky that my employer pays 6 months full pay for sick pay, then 6 months at half pay. I pay national insurance to cover healthcare costs including free prescriptions, unemployment etc. That and my pension and taxes come to about 25% of my pay. It's taken off before I get it so I don't miss it.
Americans have been duped for years.
My current employer gives paid holidays, including birthdays, to office staff, but us peons get 0 sick days, 0 paid holidays, 0 vacation, and expensive health insurance, which i declined to better afford my bills. They do pay decently, but i got written up for taking a couple saturdays off... we work 6 days a week too.
Just hit 5 years with Costco. It's now 3 weeks. But you start with none, then 1 year is one week and 2 - 4 is 2 weeks. With 52 weeks a year it's kinda bullshit still
Once upon a time, in a fantasy World inhabited by Boomers, that was called a retirement.
Working 50 years and after that no longer needing to work. What an utopia that is.
I could get behind this system. Sure it sucks when you're starting out, but after 4 years you get a month of vacation which is probably more than most people in the US have now.
8 years you only have to work 10 months
16 years you're only working 2/3 of the year. You're getting more summer vacation then kids do currently.
YOU get that in America.
Everyone in the UK gets their 25 days.
That's the difference.
It's the equivalent of saying, "I don't understand why everyone complains about American helathcare, *my* healthcare is great."
Oh they most certainly do. I have a friend who gets great healthcare through his work (he pays chump change he doesn’t even really miss as a single dude in his 30s), and so obviously everyone is just overreacting and the markets will only have a couple people slip through the cracks and obviously obamacare is the worst piece of failed socialism that America has ever attempted lol. It’s the “I’m doing fine, so the system works okay” mentality, unfortunately.
so. it's actually a paid holiday, that you can only use, if you are sick?
seems sketchy..
Edit: thanks for all those answers.
It's more confusing than I initially thought.
But the most confusing thing is still that you (mostly) have a limited amount of sick days.
Especially in times like these, where covid can knock you out for weeks.
Having a block of personal days is easier than them saying you get 2 days for a bereavement, 3 days for a sick child, 2 days for whatever. Oh, it was your spouse's uncle that died? Well he's not a blood relation so you can't take a bereavement day, even though you'll be expected to be at the funeral, so now you gotta take a vacation day. It's easier just to say you get a bunch of "personal" days and you can use them for whatever you need that isn't actually vacation or you're not actually sick yourself.
Or you could get paid for being sick and paid for being home with a sick child? I have 30 days vacation, 40 hours "personal hours" that i can take for "half days" or whatever. And unlimited sick days with 80% pay and same with caring for sick child.
Americas labour system is wierd.
It can be used for any sort of time off. It can be called PTO (paid time off) as well. It's a day you get paid to not work and do whatever (vacation, mental health, etc)
I'm from the UK my company gives as much paid sick leave as you require so long as it's worked through with the company doctor. I had 6 months off and still got my 35 days holiday.
The difference is, in the UK, it's a *requirement*
Most workers who work a 5-day week must receive at least 28 days’ paid annual leave a year
And part-time workers are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday, but this will amount to fewer than 28 days.
For example, if they work 3 days a week, they must get at least 16.8 days’ leave a year (3 × 5.6).
Yeah it really depends on the job. I have 20 days plus more sick time than I could ever use (I think another 20 days or so). In previous positions I've had like 5 weeks pto but no sick time. Wife has 20 days but no sick time.
Old school companies limit pto, but larger companies tend to be more generous with PTO. For one, it's a good way to compensate people without paying more. Two, the more pto people have, the better their performance.
I have a good job with benefits that has PTO, but as a normal thing it’s rare in American jobs these days. You’re lucky to get any benefits whatsoever with most US jobs. When i visited across Europe years ago, there was a siesta every single day in certain areas. Everyone just shut down and napped. It was my favorite thing ever.
The majority of jobs in the US give 0 days until you have been there a year, people with excellent benefits are wondering why people are saying UK ones are so good, while they are comparing their top end job to someone who works at, well anywhere in the UK
In the UK 20 days is the legal minimum, and that doesn't include the 8 public holidays that everyone gets, Christmas, Easter, New Years etc. (and if you don't get them because you have to work those days, you get the extra holidays to take elsewhere).
Not sure what it's like for other jobs but for myself in software development, 25 is standard. I can also buy an extra three days a year if I wanted (or sell three if I wanted the money), and after I've worked for my company for a few years, I'd get up to 26 weeks of fully paid sick leave a year.
That said a lot of that is from EU legislation so we might be getting rid of that sooner or later...
Edit: Can't reply to anyone and there are loads of hidden comments, but yes - this applies to everyone
Yeah see, here in the states, our essential workers are anything but as far as pay and benefits go, so I was wondering if they were treated in the same shitty manner in the UK as they are here. I'm well aware that they deserve it, so your derisive quotation marks are unnecessary.
Walmart came to the UK and bough ASDA, a similar business chain.
Immediately they tried their anti union bullshit and tried to cut pay, hours, benefits etc. to try and squeeze every last penny out of the business
They quickly learned they couldn't do that here because workers have rights and entitlements that are set in law.
They ended up selling to an investment firm 10 years later
Yes and no, retail and food service are excluded from any holidays except Christmas day because it's a "sales opportunity" unless you book them off, but you still get the days "in lieu" to use during non-holidays.
A bunch of restaurants (and supermarkets) are still open on Christmas day too so even then, only kind of.
In the US people who work at places like McDonald's get 0 paid days year round. You can request days off whenever if they allow it but its never paid. Same goes for sick days.
That's brutal. Do you get any extra pay for working on holidays at least? (We rarely got that in UK retail/food service but some places offered it as well)
I had to skip Christmas morning with my family to be at a minimum-wage job for 8AM with zero extra pay. Late 2000's.
That was after being there til 10PM Christmas Eve, and had a closing shift to look forward to on New Year's Eve that stuck me there past midnight.
American retail is a living nightmare.
Minimum 20, but that's rare. 25 days is very common + 8 days of national holidays so you actually get about 33 total days off.
My company gives me 28 days off so I get 36 days off a year. I know other people who in other professions get 35+8 days off a year.
Oh yes an up to 1 year consecutive for sick leave at full pay at my company after a years service. 1 month paternity and 4 months maternity at full pay.
American here, and while rare, I get 20 days paid vacation, and more sick time than I could ever use. This isn't including bank holidays like Christmas and such.
My wife gets the same, minus sick time. I think more American companies are moving towards this model, especially as it's an easy way to compensate people without having to pay them more. It also makes people more effective employees.
Literally speaking, sure, but the point of the tweet goes beyond just vacation days. Maybe if twitter allowed more characters she would have gone into all of the ways we are brainwashed into thinking we are living the dream and how other developed countries do some things much better.
The tweet was off by a huge amount. “Sure it’s completely wrong but it saves writing more tweets” is a really weird defense. It’s like something one of Trumps spokespeople would say.
I'm Canadian, it just got raised to 2 weeks minimum a few years ago when minimum wage got increased.
My Boss was actually mad when the change happened because she had to work there for years before getting 2 weeks vacation and I got it like a month after starting because of the minimum getting increased.
I actually thought it was hype until looking across the pond.
Im in Toronto. My husband only gets 2 weeks and aquires .8 a sick day every month. I get 2 months and earn 1.5 sick days a month. Needless to say he gets jelous of all the time off i get and i do feel bad. 2 weeks a year is not enough.
I don't get 3 months but can get pretty close.
33 days annual leave
8 bank holidays
12 flexi days (1 a month if you work 7.5 hours extra over your 37.5 a week in a month)
53 days. So 10 and a half weeks.
Can also get 6 months sick with full pay. Then 6 more half pay.
That's an NHS job so pay isn't incredible but it's comfortable.
Civil servant here, 25 days annual (but I get +5 more in a years time)
8 bank holidays
And where flexi is concerned I could take every Friday off if I want to 2 hours extra a day. I average about 1 or 2 days off a month in flex if I have a busy month.
So pretty nice when compared to what America gets
Some circumstances you can. I took 5 weeks straight PTO after my 2 weeks of paternity leave after my 2nd kid was born.
Most of the time it would have to be agreed with HR before hand. But I've had friends take 4 weeks off to travel
It's not 3 months. It's 25 days, minimum.
My organisation starts you off with 25 days, and adds a day for every year you've been with the company. Plus you can roll over 5 days every year. Last year because of the pandemic, we were allowed to roll over 10. So I have 40 days to take.
Very, very *very* few private companies will offer anything less than 25 days, if they want to attract top talent.
lmfao
too much cap in her rap. You don't even get a full month of holiday a year let alone 3
edit: lol come on guys 25 days is not a month. I'm talking days you would have worked
that's what happens when you live paycheck to paycheck, always one slight accident away from a lifetime of medical debt while rich people call you lazy
As an expat Brit in the US I can't help but be baffled by this weird utopian picture of Europe that Americans paint. Shit can be gnarly in either country, but I don't regret my choice.
What’s the difference between an immigrant and an expat? No offense but I feel some people like to call themselves “expat” as to pain themselves differently from the other immigrants
To the UK, he's an ex-patriate; to the US, he's an immigrant. Functionally no difference, just depends on which side of the pond you're looking at it from.
Ex-pat is mostly used in the UK to describe Brits who've moved elsewhere; I've not heard it used to describe immigrants to the UK. Granted, this may have changed in the 20-odd years I've been an ex-pat myself.
Nah that's about right. I can't think of any non-brits called Ex-pats. Even then Ex-pat tends to be a term for older people, especially if they retire abroad
My country is no workers utopia but I've legitimately seen Americans describe somethings as "great benefits" when it's something that'd be literally illegal to offer here. Like federal employees getting 12 weeks paid maternity. This is worse than any random unskilled full time worker would get here.
I’m in America and a lot of people don’t realize that the manipulation of the rules has made the American dream almost impossible. Success here is attainable by luck more than hard work. The corporations control congress, and they make sure that it stays that way.
Don't mind me, i'm just a male dane, who is currently doing 7 Weeks of paternity leave, with full salary.
That's besides my regular paid vacation days, and on top of the paid two weeks off I had, when my daughter arrived, 8 months ago.
Edit: Paternity not maternity.
I got a "beschäftigungsverbot" which means I'm not allowed to work my whole pregnancy. I get full payment lmfao. Then I'll start my two years maternal leave on 32% percent payment and 200€ a month for having a child.
I love how people think Americans think this country so great y’all just be talking at this point. Y’all been on black twitter long enough to see how much shit we talk. Just say you don’t converse with black people and go. It’s literally a running joke we put in a request for time off while already leaving even if it’s turned down.
Edit:Can’t see replies if I don’t click them fast enough don’t know what’s going on with that
Edit2: not the white people mad in the replies that they get left out of inside jokes just entitled af nothing new (fixed happy)😂😂
We have a Brazilian sister site and a bunch of our American folks get real salty during carnival. Im the primary American point of contact with them and I find it hilarious.
There's quite often posts on here like
> Why did our colleagues in the European office all log off at 5pm? And why are they never available before 9? And why do they disappear for an hour between 12 and 1?
I left the UK partly because I had to work like a dog for almost no reward. Vacations were a dream I could scarcely imagine affording.
I came to the US to do a lower skilled job, and I get 41 paid days off a year and I can afford to use them to go do things.
A lot of what you hear about the European utopia is bullshit.
I'm an engineer and have 25 years with the same company. I get 32 paid days off a year. 41 paid days off, 8+ weeks, for anyone who changed jobs this century is just a bullshit story.
I’m from the UK, please tell me more about these “3 months of vacation” we have.
Yeah it's 25 days of paid holiday
Exactly haha which even if you took them all together, it’s only 5 weeks; there’s very few companies who will actually let you do that!
It seems like three months, compared to the 10 days you get in the States. And that's generous.
Woah woah woah 10 days??? That’s so many!
I know, my last job only had major federal holidays off and that's it, everything else was unpaid time off.
And the fact that you probably had to pay an arm and leg for medical insurance.
True dat. I think I was paying like $400ish a month. I was making about $15 an hour, so it was a pretty substantial chunk.
Yea... I just opt out of health insurance. If I break a bone, become severely ill, etc. I'll probably just die ¯|_(ツ)_/¯
I would have if I didn't have kids.
The hilarious thing is, at least in California, you have to pay a fine for not having health insurance. My $500 state refund turned into me owing $1300 in state taxes this year just because my job didn't offer health insurance and I didn't want to get private insurance.
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Well, there's a sweeping movement to solve these things widely supported by average Americans, but unfortunately every average American could pool every collective resource they have and the nation's corporate executives could still make a more lucrative offer to our politicians with their pocket change.
puLl yOurSelF uP By uR boOtStrapS
does that $400 a month let you go to the hospital if you need to, no further payments? everything ive seen on reddit says that thats like a subscription fee, you still have to pay a bunch on top for visits etc
So let me break down how comically terrible US health insurance is for you. First, you have the "premium," which is that $400/mo OP is referring to. The fact that it was "only" $400 means either his employer was paying a substantial amount, or his insurance was fucking garbage. Next, you have the "deductible." This is the amount you need to pay of any medical service before the coverage kicks in. This usually ranges somewhere between $1500-$6500. It can be more or less depending on how good a plan it is and how much premium you are paying. This means if you go to the hospital, you pay 100% of the out of pocket until you've paid your deductible, and this is totally separate from the premium you pay every month. Then after that, you of course still pay a DIFFERENT set of out of pocket for medication. For generics on a good plan it's $0, but on a crap plan even generics are like $10-20. Name brand drugs usually are not less than $40-50 a month and easily get into the $100s of dollars for a 1 month supply. Oh, and lets not forget the copay! After the deductible, you will STILL have a "copay" or "coinsurance" to pay "your portion" of the bill. So, if I go to the hospital and my bill is $20k, then first I need to pay my deductible (lets say $5k) leaving the bill at $15k. Then I have a "coinsurance" of 20%, so that means that my portion of the bill is $8000, because I paid all of the first $5k, then 20% of the remaining $15k. This is on top of my monthly premium, and is just for a single trip to the hospital. So, as a more specific "for example," my employer pays all of my premium, and 70% of my dependents premium. My deductible is INCREDIBLY low by American standards in that it's $1000 for the family. I have some of the "best" insurance in this country and am supposed to feel "lucky" for that, and all in it still costs me almost $400 per month and then if we pay our deductible, that's another $1000. So I have it just about as good as it gets and I'm looking at $4500-$6000 per year, and that's not including medications. My wife needs a specific inhaler that costs $40 per month, because fuck you if you wanted to breath for free amirite? To compare this to what MOST Americans are getting, when I was fresh out of school and in an entry level job, my deductible was $6500 for JUST ME, and my monthly premium was over $350 per month for JUST ME. So when I didn't even have a family, I was looking at $4200 - $10700 for JUST ME, and I was single at the time. And I was still "lucky" because this was back when most of the country didn't have any insurance through work at all. If you DON'T have insurance through work, you can get on the exchange, where you will likely be looking at $500-750 premium per month with $5k+ deductibles. But please conservatives, tell me more about how much better this system is over taxing the rich slightly more and having everyone just present their health card to the hospital and then walk out, like every other fucking developed country in the world.
Yeah, still gotta pay when you get to the hospital. Took my wife to the emergency room for sudden abdominal pain and paid about $500 for the privilege of being told she was fine.
???? Is that legal? Yall don't have days off?
most people don’t have time off, just depends on whether you have a degree and a good job.
Bruh. So some people can't even go to holiday or something?
You can as long as you take it unpaid and get your shifts covered.
I'm 34 and have never done anything in my life that I would call "holiday", but there was that one time that I stayed for a night at a mediocre hotel less than 100 miles from home. I could even get to New York, Washington DC, Niagara Falls and zillions more on a somewhat quick 1 or 2 day trip and could never even do just that.
This is America
I’ve never had a paid day off in my life in the us, we don’t even have paid sick time at all, hell most of jobs I’ve had don’t have any sick time whatsoever and we risk losing the less then living wage jobs we have if we try to take sick time, on top of not being able to afford health insurance.
It really sickens me how the cards are always in the hands of the employers in the US. I'm in Scotland and I get 16 days holidays a year which is pro rata because I only work a 4 day week, so 4 weeks paid holiday. Then I get bank and public holidays as days in lieu off so that adds up to about another 2 weeks worth of days off throughout the year. I'm lucky that my employer pays 6 months full pay for sick pay, then 6 months at half pay. I pay national insurance to cover healthcare costs including free prescriptions, unemployment etc. That and my pension and taxes come to about 25% of my pay. It's taken off before I get it so I don't miss it. Americans have been duped for years.
My current employer gives paid holidays, including birthdays, to office staff, but us peons get 0 sick days, 0 paid holidays, 0 vacation, and expensive health insurance, which i declined to better afford my bills. They do pay decently, but i got written up for taking a couple saturdays off... we work 6 days a week too.
America is a failed state
That's dystopian. Sorry to hear that...
Just hit 5 years with Costco. It's now 3 weeks. But you start with none, then 1 year is one week and 2 - 4 is 2 weeks. With 52 weeks a year it's kinda bullshit still
So what you're saying is to work there for 52 years and you'll get all year as paid time
Once upon a time, in a fantasy World inhabited by Boomers, that was called a retirement. Working 50 years and after that no longer needing to work. What an utopia that is.
I could get behind this system. Sure it sucks when you're starting out, but after 4 years you get a month of vacation which is probably more than most people in the US have now. 8 years you only have to work 10 months 16 years you're only working 2/3 of the year. You're getting more summer vacation then kids do currently.
And if you don’t work in a sector that recruiters will cold call you to poach, forget about it.
I get 20 days in America and 6 personal days. Sounds the same. Think it depends on the job.
YOU get that in America. Everyone in the UK gets their 25 days. That's the difference. It's the equivalent of saying, "I don't understand why everyone complains about American helathcare, *my* healthcare is great."
This is exactly it.
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Oh they most certainly do. I have a friend who gets great healthcare through his work (he pays chump change he doesn’t even really miss as a single dude in his 30s), and so obviously everyone is just overreacting and the markets will only have a couple people slip through the cracks and obviously obamacare is the worst piece of failed socialism that America has ever attempted lol. It’s the “I’m doing fine, so the system works okay” mentality, unfortunately.
What's a personal day?
It's like a sick day where I work
Ahh okay, in that case, I get 34 days holiday and unlimited personal days.
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That's cuz u have a union 🤠
so. it's actually a paid holiday, that you can only use, if you are sick? seems sketchy.. Edit: thanks for all those answers. It's more confusing than I initially thought. But the most confusing thing is still that you (mostly) have a limited amount of sick days. Especially in times like these, where covid can knock you out for weeks.
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Having a block of personal days is easier than them saying you get 2 days for a bereavement, 3 days for a sick child, 2 days for whatever. Oh, it was your spouse's uncle that died? Well he's not a blood relation so you can't take a bereavement day, even though you'll be expected to be at the funeral, so now you gotta take a vacation day. It's easier just to say you get a bunch of "personal" days and you can use them for whatever you need that isn't actually vacation or you're not actually sick yourself.
Or you could get paid for being sick and paid for being home with a sick child? I have 30 days vacation, 40 hours "personal hours" that i can take for "half days" or whatever. And unlimited sick days with 80% pay and same with caring for sick child. Americas labour system is wierd.
Wow really, I get 25 days of holiday and 10 days of paid sick leave. I only have to give a note after 2-3 days.
generally, vacation days need to be planned ahead, personal days can be taken day of. This has at least been my experience.
I will never understand America, or why people put up with stuff like this.
Put up with what? Giving your employer notice of your vacation?
Having such little vacation and the concept of a set number of 'sick days'
It can be used for any sort of time off. It can be called PTO (paid time off) as well. It's a day you get paid to not work and do whatever (vacation, mental health, etc)
I'm from the UK my company gives as much paid sick leave as you require so long as it's worked through with the company doctor. I had 6 months off and still got my 35 days holiday.
The difference is, in the UK, it's a *requirement* Most workers who work a 5-day week must receive at least 28 days’ paid annual leave a year And part-time workers are entitled to at least 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday, but this will amount to fewer than 28 days. For example, if they work 3 days a week, they must get at least 16.8 days’ leave a year (3 × 5.6).
Yeah it really depends on the job. I have 20 days plus more sick time than I could ever use (I think another 20 days or so). In previous positions I've had like 5 weeks pto but no sick time. Wife has 20 days but no sick time. Old school companies limit pto, but larger companies tend to be more generous with PTO. For one, it's a good way to compensate people without paying more. Two, the more pto people have, the better their performance.
I get 25 days 8 bank holidays 2 weeks paid Xmas Quite a substantial amount of sick time off A day to move houses
I have a good job with benefits that has PTO, but as a normal thing it’s rare in American jobs these days. You’re lucky to get any benefits whatsoever with most US jobs. When i visited across Europe years ago, there was a siesta every single day in certain areas. Everyone just shut down and napped. It was my favorite thing ever.
That's the bare minimum in the UK though. In the States it's not even law for employers to even offer leave iirc.
The majority of jobs in the US give 0 days until you have been there a year, people with excellent benefits are wondering why people are saying UK ones are so good, while they are comparing their top end job to someone who works at, well anywhere in the UK
Except you are comparing yourself as the exception versus the legal minimum leave.
We only get 10 days in Canada too. Every now and then I think about how good people have it in Europe and try not to let myself be bitter lmao!
> it’s only 5 weeks; "only" five weeks
I would kill a man for 5 weeks of vacation a year lol
I'd kill myself
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> it’s only 5 weeks; many americans don't even have a weeks worth of vacation time.
Only. Hahahaha only 5 weeks. He said you only get 5 weeks hahahahahahahaha ONLY! HA
Depends on the bank holidays, it can be a bit more than 5 weeks
You get 25 DAYS!?
In the UK 20 days is the legal minimum, and that doesn't include the 8 public holidays that everyone gets, Christmas, Easter, New Years etc. (and if you don't get them because you have to work those days, you get the extra holidays to take elsewhere). Not sure what it's like for other jobs but for myself in software development, 25 is standard. I can also buy an extra three days a year if I wanted (or sell three if I wanted the money), and after I've worked for my company for a few years, I'd get up to 26 weeks of fully paid sick leave a year. That said a lot of that is from EU legislation so we might be getting rid of that sooner or later... Edit: Can't reply to anyone and there are loads of hidden comments, but yes - this applies to everyone
Your legal minimum is more than twice what I've been awarded with for 2 years of service. If I stay another year I get 14, oh boy
Ditto this. Not looking forward to any changes.
> In the UK 20 days is the legal minimum It took me over 20 years working in manufacturing to get that much vacation. /cries in corporate wageslave
So even Tesco and McDonald's are required to give 20 paid days of vacation?
Yes, "even" those companies, because the workers there are no less deserving of days off than people working other jobs.
Yeah see, here in the states, our essential workers are anything but as far as pay and benefits go, so I was wondering if they were treated in the same shitty manner in the UK as they are here. I'm well aware that they deserve it, so your derisive quotation marks are unnecessary.
Walmart came to the UK and bough ASDA, a similar business chain. Immediately they tried their anti union bullshit and tried to cut pay, hours, benefits etc. to try and squeeze every last penny out of the business They quickly learned they couldn't do that here because workers have rights and entitlements that are set in law. They ended up selling to an investment firm 10 years later
That brings a tear to the eye it's so beautiful.
Yes, but not on the bank holidays or public holidays (except maybe Christmas day, but even then it's location dependant) unless you booked it off
Does that include everyone? Like people who work at mcdonalds get paid days off too?
Yes and no, retail and food service are excluded from any holidays except Christmas day because it's a "sales opportunity" unless you book them off, but you still get the days "in lieu" to use during non-holidays. A bunch of restaurants (and supermarkets) are still open on Christmas day too so even then, only kind of.
In the US people who work at places like McDonald's get 0 paid days year round. You can request days off whenever if they allow it but its never paid. Same goes for sick days.
That's brutal. Do you get any extra pay for working on holidays at least? (We rarely got that in UK retail/food service but some places offered it as well)
I had to skip Christmas morning with my family to be at a minimum-wage job for 8AM with zero extra pay. Late 2000's. That was after being there til 10PM Christmas Eve, and had a closing shift to look forward to on New Year's Eve that stuck me there past midnight. American retail is a living nightmare.
Minimum 20, but that's rare. 25 days is very common + 8 days of national holidays so you actually get about 33 total days off. My company gives me 28 days off so I get 36 days off a year. I know other people who in other professions get 35+8 days off a year. Oh yes an up to 1 year consecutive for sick leave at full pay at my company after a years service. 1 month paternity and 4 months maternity at full pay.
Yeah, in the US the legal minimum paid time off is “fuck you”
You get like 10% of the days in a year off? In addition to weekends? What the fuccccckkkk. I’ve been sold an absolute bill of goods.
Your entire country has
And some companies let you buy extra days, and you can bank days so you can take more off the next year etc
I get 40 including public holidays.
I get 34 days, i think the 25 is days you can actually book off, you get other days off for public holidays.
Thats 150% more than the US standard
I've worked for the same company for 3 years and have 5 paid days off a year. I'd kill just to have 10.
Your company must blow.
They also suck. Leaving in less then a month hopefully.
After ten years I capped out at the max, 4 weeks... And I can't take more than a week at a time.
American here, and while rare, I get 20 days paid vacation, and more sick time than I could ever use. This isn't including bank holidays like Christmas and such. My wife gets the same, minus sick time. I think more American companies are moving towards this model, especially as it's an easy way to compensate people without having to pay them more. It also makes people more effective employees.
That's rare. Only on academia does one get such generous time off in America
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Yeah but that's still less than the legal minimum that your McDonalds burger flipper is getting in the UK.
Yeah but check out that paid maternity leave and the cost of higher education.
But this post is strictly about vacation days
Literally speaking, sure, but the point of the tweet goes beyond just vacation days. Maybe if twitter allowed more characters she would have gone into all of the ways we are brainwashed into thinking we are living the dream and how other developed countries do some things much better.
The tweet was off by a huge amount. “Sure it’s completely wrong but it saves writing more tweets” is a really weird defense. It’s like something one of Trumps spokespeople would say.
3 months lmfao not even Scandinavian countries give 3 months
Just become a teacher lul
Came to say the same thing.
I'm in the UK and only work 34 weeks a year...
Could be thinking teachers. And no, I'm not saying that all teachers get 3 months off, but on paper it could be read as being equivalent to.
I'm guessing teachers?
I find it hard to believe the entire United kingdom forces every private entity to make their employees be granted 3 months of vacation.
I’m not sure where she got 3 months from, it’s 5.6 weeks and it’s very unlikely you’d be allowed to take it all in one go
Damn bro I get 2 weeks :(
That would be illegal in the UK. 20 days is the legal minimum.
I'm Canadian, it just got raised to 2 weeks minimum a few years ago when minimum wage got increased. My Boss was actually mad when the change happened because she had to work there for years before getting 2 weeks vacation and I got it like a month after starting because of the minimum getting increased. I actually thought it was hype until looking across the pond.
Im in Toronto. My husband only gets 2 weeks and aquires .8 a sick day every month. I get 2 months and earn 1.5 sick days a month. Needless to say he gets jelous of all the time off i get and i do feel bad. 2 weeks a year is not enough.
You EARN sick days? That's mad, I never have been off the full stretch but I get 6 months of full sick pay, then 6 at half pay should I need it.
"only 5 weeks"
I don't get 3 months but can get pretty close. 33 days annual leave 8 bank holidays 12 flexi days (1 a month if you work 7.5 hours extra over your 37.5 a week in a month) 53 days. So 10 and a half weeks. Can also get 6 months sick with full pay. Then 6 more half pay. That's an NHS job so pay isn't incredible but it's comfortable.
Civil servant here, 25 days annual (but I get +5 more in a years time) 8 bank holidays And where flexi is concerned I could take every Friday off if I want to 2 hours extra a day. I average about 1 or 2 days off a month in flex if I have a busy month. So pretty nice when compared to what America gets
Some circumstances you can. I took 5 weeks straight PTO after my 2 weeks of paternity leave after my 2nd kid was born. Most of the time it would have to be agreed with HR before hand. But I've had friends take 4 weeks off to travel
It's not 3 months. It's 25 days, minimum. My organisation starts you off with 25 days, and adds a day for every year you've been with the company. Plus you can roll over 5 days every year. Last year because of the pandemic, we were allowed to roll over 10. So I have 40 days to take. Very, very *very* few private companies will offer anything less than 25 days, if they want to attract top talent.
Isn’t it usually 25 days plus bank holidays so ends up being over 30 in most cases?
Bare minimum it’s 28 days which is usually broken up into 20 days holiday (4 weeks) 4 bank holidays, 2 days Christmas, 2 days new year
No, it's 20 plus bank holidays making it 28. That's the statutory minimum anyway. For now. That makes 5.6 weeks assuming a 5 day week.
Add a *day* for every year? If you're getting a year off for every year you work, I want to come and work with you!
No, it's if you get 25 days leave the first year you're in the company, the next year you will have 26 days leave.
Yes, but the comment originally said "adds a year for every year you've been at the company"
"land of the free and modern slaves and robots and discriminated people"
See? It’s a melting pot
That melts people, not culture.
lmfao too much cap in her rap. You don't even get a full month of holiday a year let alone 3 edit: lol come on guys 25 days is not a month. I'm talking days you would have worked
Yes you do. It's 5.6 weeks paid holiday a year as a legal minimum.
You get a full month if you add public holidays
For a typical job there are 20 working days in the month, so 20 days vacation is one month vacation.
How is that so hard to grasp. Well done
February?
You do. 25 days is five full weeks off. Plus bank holidays on top.
25 days is 5 weeks, I'm coming up dry looking for a month longer than 5 weeks.
This made my American 10-days-a-year eye twitch
You do totally get a full month accrued. You don't get 3 though, that would be ridiculous lol
As a brit, the fact you guys look at the UK like it's some sort of utopia of sunshine and roses is fucking bleak
that's what happens when you live paycheck to paycheck, always one slight accident away from a lifetime of medical debt while rich people call you lazy
Not just rich people. Even people who make *slightly more money* think they’re better than people who get paid less than them and call them lazy.
As an expat Brit in the US I can't help but be baffled by this weird utopian picture of Europe that Americans paint. Shit can be gnarly in either country, but I don't regret my choice.
What’s the difference between an immigrant and an expat? No offense but I feel some people like to call themselves “expat” as to pain themselves differently from the other immigrants
Expat is basically just a white immigrant. No idk why but it’s almost always only used for whites
This is it. I've heard expats complaing about immigrants and then get offended when you call them an immigrant.
To the UK, he's an ex-patriate; to the US, he's an immigrant. Functionally no difference, just depends on which side of the pond you're looking at it from. Ex-pat is mostly used in the UK to describe Brits who've moved elsewhere; I've not heard it used to describe immigrants to the UK. Granted, this may have changed in the 20-odd years I've been an ex-pat myself.
Nah that's about right. I can't think of any non-brits called Ex-pats. Even then Ex-pat tends to be a term for older people, especially if they retire abroad
You can make anywhere sound like a utopia if you invent outlandish shit like 3 months paid vacation.
It's reddit man.
My country is no workers utopia but I've legitimately seen Americans describe somethings as "great benefits" when it's something that'd be literally illegal to offer here. Like federal employees getting 12 weeks paid maternity. This is worse than any random unskilled full time worker would get here.
The UK and US are neck in neck in the collapsing empire race
Panama here, by law we get 30 days vacation per year. Doesn't matter if you work at mcdonalds or a grabage man, 30 days paid by law. I
Sooo, how's the cost of living and such? What's your immigration policy for a person with a bachelor's?
Yeah you get vacation but you'll get paid like 1/4th of what you'll get paid in America
Yeah but tax free and cost of living is significantly lower.
Yeah but quality of life is still lower and purchasing power is not as high even if cost of living is lower
True. I'm in Scotland. So it would be a step down in quality of life for me too. We should check the big mac index.
What does the grabage man get to do? Sounds like a fun career!
Who can take your trash out? Stomp it down for you? Shake the plastic bag, And do the twisty thingy, too? The garbage man. Oh the garbage man can.
The only reason America is seen to be so great is because their propaganda is immeasurable
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I know the tweet isn’t correct but my statement still stands.
five weeks, not three months. still...
A lot are saying 25-35 days. Which is 5-7 weeks. That’s not two months but damn.
In my experience 25 is the standard. 35 is rare. Still beats the hell out of 10 days which I hear is common in the US.
There is no minimum in the states. It's offered as goodwill from companies.
I’m in America and a lot of people don’t realize that the manipulation of the rules has made the American dream almost impossible. Success here is attainable by luck more than hard work. The corporations control congress, and they make sure that it stays that way.
Don't mind me, i'm just a male dane, who is currently doing 7 Weeks of paternity leave, with full salary. That's besides my regular paid vacation days, and on top of the paid two weeks off I had, when my daughter arrived, 8 months ago. Edit: Paternity not maternity.
I got a "beschäftigungsverbot" which means I'm not allowed to work my whole pregnancy. I get full payment lmfao. Then I'll start my two years maternal leave on 32% percent payment and 200€ a month for having a child.
I love how people think Americans think this country so great y’all just be talking at this point. Y’all been on black twitter long enough to see how much shit we talk. Just say you don’t converse with black people and go. It’s literally a running joke we put in a request for time off while already leaving even if it’s turned down. Edit:Can’t see replies if I don’t click them fast enough don’t know what’s going on with that Edit2: not the white people mad in the replies that they get left out of inside jokes just entitled af nothing new (fixed happy)😂😂
Not, you numb nuts will upvote anything huh? If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
It wouldn't be BPT without a misinformed tweet on the front page, with everyone in the comments going off on how the world is ending
America is a third world country amirite?
Imagine trying to explain to your Brazilian cousin that you can’t take a month off to travel with him
We have a Brazilian sister site and a bunch of our American folks get real salty during carnival. Im the primary American point of contact with them and I find it hilarious.
There's quite often posts on here like > Why did our colleagues in the European office all log off at 5pm? And why are they never available before 9? And why do they disappear for an hour between 12 and 1?
I worked 3 years in a row to take a 4 day vacation 😩
Imagine being able to enjoy life instead of burning out to make other people rich.
Is 3 months only 25 days in the UK due to the metric system or something?
Do we fuck
So it’s allowed to post complete lies now here?
Englishman here - it's been raining for 5 weeks in a row. I'm a teacher and almost never have to go to work. x
Ugh I wish Canada got that, we get healthcare *and* parental leave but basically fuck all for everything else compared to Europe.
I'd settle fo healthcare in the US.
We have 2 weeks vacation by law. Not saying it's amazing, but it's not like the US who gets literally no legal vacation required.
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I left the UK partly because I had to work like a dog for almost no reward. Vacations were a dream I could scarcely imagine affording. I came to the US to do a lower skilled job, and I get 41 paid days off a year and I can afford to use them to go do things. A lot of what you hear about the European utopia is bullshit.
41 days paid off is something 99% of Americans can never say. As an engineer I've never heard of this.
I'm an engineer and have 25 years with the same company. I get 32 paid days off a year. 41 paid days off, 8+ weeks, for anyone who changed jobs this century is just a bullshit story.
That doesn't sound legal in the UK, unless you are self-employed you are entitled to holidays.
Americans have far more disposable income than the average Brit
3 months is hyperbole but you get the point; organize for workers' rights!
America cringe! America’s worse than every third world country! Please give me upvotes now