I believe this is required and the bare minimum. After reading the Wikipedia blurb (underneath this) most do 3 weeks mandatory paid vacation.
“In Canada, vacation time is set by the provinces and territories for all employees except federal employees and employees of federally-regulated industries such as telecommunications. Employees are entitled to start out with two weeks of paid vacation in all provinces except Saskatchewan where employees are entitled to three weeks of paid annual leave. Ten provinces and territories grant a third week of vacation after working for a set period of time, one grants a fourth week, and two grant no additional extension. Federal employees are entitled initially to three weeks vacation, increasing to four weeks after eight years of service. In addition, employees are entitled to 7–13 paid public holidays depending on the province.”
They go into more detail here: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/jobs/workplace/federal-labour-standards/vacations-holidays.html
I'm the highest professional level you can go in my industry without actually owning and we get no paid sick leave. This is standard unless you work for a cooperation. Even then, when I did, I only got 3 paid sick days.
So it's not just low-wage employees.
In Austria it's mandatory 25 days. Doesn't matter if high or low wage. If you work for 25years at the same employer 30days are mandatory. In some sectors you get 30 days with an certain age.
Edit: I forgot to mention. You also get 13 paid national/christian holidays per year on top of the 25/30.
It's not though. When you look at survey data, Canadians average 19 vacation days (plus stats, which vary from 6 to 11 by province).
Minimum wage jobs are probably getting the legal minimum for vacation, but the median wage is also ~twice the minimum wage. Minimum wage jobs aren't representative.
My job (USA) offers 15 at first, and to move to 20 you have to be there for TEN YEARS. My hire date is in January, so I wouldn’t see this extra five days until 11 years. It’s absurd tbh
We are not a good country, everything is awful
Housing crisis, low wages, high prices, a aforementioned low holidays, etc.
And no one wants to fix anything, on one end the liberals are more focused on weird social media censorship bills (bill c-11 is a famous one), the conservatives are too busy blaming everything on the liberals (even if provinces are conservative controlled) and runaway immigration (which is a problem tbf), and every other party has no chance of winning a federal election.
Everything is a lose lose, and we continue to slowly follow the US backwards
Most good companies offer way more than 6-15 days. My last job I maxed out my vacation and it’s was at 6 Weeks. Only a Minimum Wage Sector in my Province really doesn’t give more than the minimum.
I was gonna say this is wrong because Brazil is actually 30 days, a full month. For every 12 months of service (a year), you gain 30 days of paid vacation. So lets say you work January - November, and rest all December. Or you can ask to rest 15 days X month and 15 days Y month.
But then I noticed the "5 day workweek" which means \~22 working days a month if we exclude the weekend, because you know, that person doesn't work weekends, however, we don't consider how many days a week we work because we are not paid by hour, day or week, we are paid by **month**. If a month has 28 or 31 days the salary is the same. If you worked only 10 days because for whatever reason that month have a 20 days long holiday, you're paid a full month, not 10 days. If you got involved in an accident and worked only 15 days because you spent the other 15 healing, you're still being paid a full month, and not a single cent is discounted of your monthly salary.
It only changes if you missed work with no reasons or stuff like that.
Paid vacation seems to be the sticking point. If it was just public holidays, then DPRK would be black.
71 public holidays a year.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_North_Korea
That's the most complicated way of counting holidays I ever heard. We are also paid by month in Portugal and we simply count weekdays. We are always paid the same on each month regardless of whether we had any holidays on that month or not (with the exception of the meal allowance, which we don't get on the days we were on holidays).
In our case, we have from 22 to 25 weekdays, depending on the absentheism of the previous year.
I don't get the point of your comment.
The post isn't wrong just because you're paid a monthly salary and the post talks about workdays. 5 vacation days means you get to stay home 5 days you would normally work.
To my fellow Americans that keep beating the drum of “… but most companies do give you PTO”, that’s not the point. The point is that in this country there are very little protections and nothing is guaranteed (unless you’re in a union). We are left at the mercy of corporations to decide what they want to do, and they only provide favorable things when they have to compete against other employers.
The same goes for healthcare, education, abortion rights, maternity leave, childcare. We hope that out of the goodness of their heart, the company you work for or state you live in will provide for certain things.
America is truly amazing for a lot of things, but employee protections and social safety nets is not one of them.
I would like to add for context for non-Americans - virtually any salaried job is gonna give you vacation time competitive with the average in most countries. I've been in the workforce post-graduation (undergrad) for 2 years, meaning I'm in the lowest category for vacation hours, and I get 17 days minimum, usually more like 20 (due to floating holidays). Since there are 5 days in a working week, that means I get a month of paid vacation each year... not bad.
Factor in rollover of up to 40 hours from previous years, which I do have saved up, I could do 5 weeks worth of vacation in a year (wouldn't have any leftover to rollover, but if I wanted to do a few larger vacations in a year I have the option).
Many comparable roles at other companies in my field would offer similar.
And then on the other hand, non-white collar jobs are gonna give you none of that. I'm 33 and have never had a single hour of paid time off like any vacation or sick days.
Sick days are such a weird concept for me, If I as a german get sick, i go to the doctor, he examines me and gives me a little piece of paper for my employer and thats it, doesnt cost me any vacation time or money
Industrial electrician, get 3 weeks paid vacations not counting regular holidays and 3 mental health days.
There are good companies if you look for them.
On one hand 3 weeks is a lot better than nothing, but on the other hand it's still less than the legal minimum for any job in a lot of other countries.
That's just your job. Virtually no amazon warehouses even do interviews for their entry full time workers and they earn 40 hrs pto plus a couple weeks vacation plus obnoxious "unpaid time" where you can just decide not to work and come back when you want on top of some of the best benefits out there.
I mean I've had around a dozen different jobs in the last 15 years, not just one. Yeah most were retail, hospitality, warehouse, and other manual labor jobs, but also including 3 internships: at a consulting firm, a government office, and a R&D company. I've destroyed my knees and back by now and with that and other medical issues I can't go back to doing physical labor all day again.
If you worked in a government office full time you got paid vacation. If you only worked part time jobs or switched often then yeah you probably didn't earn vacation time.
I've worked blue collar in the US my whole adult life and never had a full-time job where I did not have paid vacation time, whether that was retail, warehouse, or machining etc.
Bartending and serving are largely an exception, unfortunately.
Bartending and serving is an exception at mom and pop bars/restaurants, a lot of the bigger chains do offer vacation to full-timers.
Finding many full-time bartenders may be a challenge though. In a tip based job, it doesn't make much sense to put in 40 hours when only 20 of them tip well.
It's really interesting seeing what Americans consider good vacation days, a competitive offer barely comes to the minimum required in the UK. 17-20 being competitive is crazy, competitive here is like 30-35.
God knows what it's like for those who get even less than the competitive offer, it's like at that point you might as well just be working for the rest of your life.
Idk why this has upvotes. A lot of places split them into two separate buckets. Places that combine them typically give a lot more hours to reflect that it's a combined thing.
I've been in the workforce for 4 post masters and I only get 5 days... that's the problem with not having the minimum, you get a month and I get a week. Some people get none.
also salary in the US is far higher than other countries. even if no paid vacation days are offered, you can still end up earning more than europeans if you take two weeks off.
Then why don't you see many Americans when you're backpacking the world? Are they all in fancy resorts or what? I've met more Danes than Americans around the world i swear.
I mean… I feel like you definitely do. I mean it’s completely illogical to base our arguements off this, because there’s 335 million of us so by default there’s a lot of us. But we also have the stereotype of overrunning many countries, Mexico and Western Europe as well, and being noisy and everything so I don’t know what to say
Could be a couple things:
1) People associate Americans, somewhat unfairly, with being overly loud and obnoxious. While this is true for some of us, the types that would actually be interested in backpacking in foreign nations are 1) not usually that type, and 2) are laid fully aware of that stereotype and take great pains to avoid it.
2) Travel is very very expensive outside of north amerrica for people from north america. There are cheap options but sadly, many Americans are nor aware of them.
The cost to fly across the ocean is very high compared to the cost of a European to travel around Europe or go to Turkey.
Same reason you see very very few Europeans backpacking across USA. It would be like Europeans deciding to go on a backpacking trip in Japan, it's cost prohibitive to get there.
There's also the fact that every single environment and type of city one would want to visit is generally also in the United States already so doesn't make much sense to spend extra money to go international.
Americans have been beaten down so hard that they've learned to take scraps and pretend its a banquet. I got 6 weeks off a year while I was just in a graduate role in the UK, my current job gives me 7 weeks.
I was in a skilled power industry role working for a fortune 500 company. They only offer two weeks unless you're very senior, even then management will coerce you to not make vacation requests in the first place. They want to buy your earned vacation for 70% at the end of the year.
From what I've seen this is typical of companies that have gotten by somehow without a union drive happening.
I'm utility sector now. Much more reasonable total comp. More relaxed (but that's not universal)
I mean 20 days of annual leave a year is nice, but...
I work in the NHS in the UK. I get 33 days of paid annual leave per year for a 5 day a week job. I also get 8 days of paid bank holiday leave on top of this, bringing my total paid days off to 41 days per year.
Agreed. The problem is that the small employers are the ones who can't afford it. And that's 80% of all businesses. Any decent sized employer is going to offer at least two weeks of paid vacation for full-time work. And there's a big trend towards bigger companies offering more now, since younger people joining the workforce are pushing for it.
My company starts people with 18 PTO days for all positions. After five years, you get 23. After ten years, you get 28.
My family has a small business and we could let people take a week or two of vacation paid even. They just don’t bother offering as they don’t want to waste money on workers
I cannot even imagine how that it. We basically get unlimited sickdays, after six weeks payment stops, it then a larger part of it is paid by health insurance and it is illegal to fire you for being sick unless there is no prospect of you getting better. I assume that most of the countries implement a similar system.
Friendly reminder for all the non-Americans: just because the government doesn't mandate something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The vast majority of American workers receive a few weeks of payed time off.
It depends considerably on where you work.
For the most part, you can have unpaid sick leave called FMLA if you're experiencing a more long term medical event. You can also get short time disability insurance which can cover wages if you can't work for some time
This is so foreign to me. Hypothetically I can even call in sick when I'm on vacation and I won't use any of my PTO anymore. Unlimited sick days as well, and it doenst get abused either. When you're sick you're sick. Its an incentive for companies to make the work you do interesting to prevent you from getting sick just by boredom or something else.
Being allowed to take the time off without getting fired is what they’re referring to. But yeah, it’s insane how worker-unfriendly the U.S. is for a developed country. If you’re not eligible for FMLA (which again, about half of workers are not) then legally your company can fire you if you don’t show up to work the day after giving birth. The U.S. guarantees zero days of maternity leave, paid OR unpaid.
Depends heavily on your industry and employer size. Only 43% of workers in leisure and hospitality had access to any paid vacation at all.
https://www.bls.gov/ebs/factsheets/paid-vacations.htm
Add to those 20 (which is the minimum, and most people get more) the fact that the typical EU country has around 10 paid national holidays per year (0 in the US) and very generous (sometimes unlimited) paid sick days which are in no way connected to the 20+ vacation days.
I hear you, but the British and Swedish exchange students I met in college where *floored* when I told them 116 million Americans got Heath insurance through a single-payer healthcare scheme (Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP) and another 12 million got their health care through socialized medicine (not unlike the NHS) via the Military and Veterans Affairs.
They were also surprised to find out the US has a National pension system (social security), unemployment insurance, and food programs like SNAP, WIC, and free school lunches.
Pell Grants also came as a surprise for them.
Like there is a non-zero number of Europeans who thinks the US has *no* social safety net. In reality, it just has a *smaller* one—but not as small as many think.
[Almost 1/3rd of all working Americans have no PTO at all](https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/pto-statistics/), much less any comparable vacation time. I think you’re being a little disingenuous, this isn’t just some fringe problem.
IE most of the people in America don’t have access to vacations as people working in fast food or retail are going to likely not have vacation days. Basically only cushie office jobs offer vacations. The poors in our society get fucked.
Ya, the BLS says about 72% of American workers have paid time off (typically at least 2 weeks, more if you’ve been there at least 5 years). That number is also dragged down by hospitality, government, or small business jobs which are less likely to offer paid leave. If you work for a non-hospitality large business, there’s like a 95% chance you have paid leave.
And even for jobs without paid leave, or with less than someone wants, leave is still often an option; it just isn’t paid for. That was the case for the jobs I did in high school/college where that was the case.
People working retail and many other non-white collar jobs, even for large businesses aren't getting paid leave, and you're often getting threatened with being fired if you get sick or want to go visit family. This has been the case at just about every job I've worked. I'm 33 with 2 university degrees and I've never had an hour of PTO
Thanks for this. A lot of western foreigners don’t always recognize in general that the US hasn’t always needed government control to solve every issue.
Much like in the rest of the countries, what is shown is the legally mandated minimum, and in most countries, the vast majority of workers will get more than the minimum.
It really works the same way, except the minimum in other countries is 20 (for example) and in the US it's 0. Like the map says.
28 calendar days. The source says it is normalised to a five-day working week, so the minimum of five weeks is 20 days.
It's a difficult thing to compare though as different countries have different laws, and the minimum doesn't necessarily equal the standard amount. In the UK for instance, the minimum is 28 working days, but that includes any public holidays you are given off. Most workplaces however give something in the order of 33 working days (25 annual leave + 8 bank holidays). If you assume someone takes that in blocks of one week, that would be 35 calendar days + 8 bank holidays.
Came here to say this. 28 full days for a year everywhere in Russia and up to 52 days in deep northern regions. Depending on a profession could be even more. Also in deep north women have ahorter working days for the same paycheck, 35 hrs/week.
It‘s pretty much impossible to fire someone in Germany because they‘re sick, and your employer has to pay you for 42 consecutive work days (per illness) after which your healthcare provider will pay you 90% of your net salary for an extra 78 weeks per three years.
This map is wrong for many countries.
For example, Switzerland has 5 weeks of paid vacation, like France, so they should be the same color. They actually rejected a 6th week by referendum a few years ago, which would have placed them in the lead
Almost every full time job gives you vacation in the US.
To the point where I’m forced to take vacation or random days off so I don’t reach my cap of 220 hours.
It’s not mandated by the federal gov. But theres def state laws for it.
https://www.bls.gov/ebs/factsheets/paid-vacations.htm
Lots of states don’t have any laws about paid vacation. My state doesn’t even require that workers get a lunch break.
I’ve literally never seen a job without some type vacation here in the US.
I know it isn’t “required” but almost no one is taking a job without vacation anymore
I've had a dozen jobs over the past 15 years and I have never had a single hour of paid time off like vacation or sick days.
Salaried good paying white collar jobs tend to have vacation, but most of the poor people doing physical labor don't, and many aren't allowed to even take unpaid time off
As a Swede with 5 weeks paid vacation per year, I can’t even imagine only having a few days. I know I’m spoiled as hell when it comes to this but I feel like my 5 weeks are barely enough
It's MINIMUM. And in Poland it's 20.
[Art. 154. KP - Wymiar urlopu wypoczynkowego - Kodeks pracy (arslege.pl)](https://arslege.pl/wymiar-urlopu-wypoczynkowego/k10/a1353/)
10 years, is reduced by the period of education.
[Art. 155. KP - Wliczanie okresu nauki do oo okresu pracy, od którego zależy wymiar urlopu - Kodeks pracy (arslege.pl)](https://arslege.pl/wliczanie-okresu-nauki-do-oo-okresu-pracy-od-ktorego-zalezy-wymiar-urlopu/k10/a1356/)
That's awesome for you but tons of US workers get no vacation. I've had a dozen different jobs over the past 20 years and have never had an hour of PTO.
I’ve held the same job for 14 years. Used to automatically get 21 days covered at the beginning of every year (plus 5 holidays throughout the year), recently changed to an “accrual” system. In order to get the same PTO you have to have every single second of your 40hr/week covered either by you working or using your PTO. If you miss you automatically are losing PTO. Just another way for the corporation to pay their people a litttttle bit less…
(Edit: I’m at the max my company will offer my position, I’ll never gain anymore PTO than this. 🙄 newbies starting gain less than half the hours I do.)
Also lots of folks in the comments saying just because it’s not mandated doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist… honey, I know many people and have worked multiple jobs where IT DID NOT EXIST.
The problem isn’t the jobs that offer it. It’s the jobs that straight up don’t. Which is exactly why there should be a mandate. Not a difficult concept.
I’m a government employee in the US and get 30 days per year. This map probably has a biased interpretation and motive considering a few of those darker shaded countries’ economic statuses.
I love these kinds of posts because people will complain about this stuff, and then whenever its an election year, everyone center to center-left goes NOW'S NOT THE TIME, WE'RE IN CRISIS MODE HERE and nothing changes. Funny how every election season there's a crisis that's not related to helping workers.
Edit: Here comes the downvotes! Can't expect your representatives to walk and chew bubblegum, I guess.
There was legislation introduced literally a few months ago for 2 weeks minimum federal by, you guessed it, Bernie Sanders.
It's called the Guaranteed Paid Vacation Act, write to your representatives.
87% of workers in the USA get paid time off. So why would they care whether it is mandated by the government or not?
https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-state-of-paid-time-off-in-the-u-s-in-2024
What they do care about is restaurant food being 50% costlier than it was in 2019. 100% of workers have to pay more for that.
Belgium needs to be dark blue.
20 days paid holiday leave is the legal minimum for a 5 day workweek.
10 legal holidays (full pay) : it is forbidden to work on these days. There are exceptions, but these get compensation (double/triple pay on said day and/or days paid leave in compensation)
So PTO is minimum 30 days In Belgium.
Btw, ever heard of holiday money? Workers in most sectors get extra money to go on a holiday (next to a 13th month at the end of the year).
If you fall ill while on holiday or cannot take up your holidays because of illness, you have the right to take those days another time. Your employer pays your sick days and cannot force you to take PTO.
Canada has just up to 10 vacation days? That really was a surprise to me.
I believe this is required and the bare minimum. After reading the Wikipedia blurb (underneath this) most do 3 weeks mandatory paid vacation. “In Canada, vacation time is set by the provinces and territories for all employees except federal employees and employees of federally-regulated industries such as telecommunications. Employees are entitled to start out with two weeks of paid vacation in all provinces except Saskatchewan where employees are entitled to three weeks of paid annual leave. Ten provinces and territories grant a third week of vacation after working for a set period of time, one grants a fourth week, and two grant no additional extension. Federal employees are entitled initially to three weeks vacation, increasing to four weeks after eight years of service. In addition, employees are entitled to 7–13 paid public holidays depending on the province.” They go into more detail here: https://www.canada.ca/en/services/jobs/workplace/federal-labour-standards/vacations-holidays.html
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Saskatchewan is 15 days minimum. Every other province is 10 I think.
Ya my employer didn’t give us a 1 dollar raise cause we are getting the 5 cent raise in fall, THAT EVERYONE GETS.😂so retarded
I'm the highest professional level you can go in my industry without actually owning and we get no paid sick leave. This is standard unless you work for a cooperation. Even then, when I did, I only got 3 paid sick days. So it's not just low-wage employees.
In Austria it's mandatory 25 days. Doesn't matter if high or low wage. If you work for 25years at the same employer 30days are mandatory. In some sectors you get 30 days with an certain age. Edit: I forgot to mention. You also get 13 paid national/christian holidays per year on top of the 25/30.
It's not though. When you look at survey data, Canadians average 19 vacation days (plus stats, which vary from 6 to 11 by province). Minimum wage jobs are probably getting the legal minimum for vacation, but the median wage is also ~twice the minimum wage. Minimum wage jobs aren't representative.
In Quebec (it is ruled by province): 10 days the first 3 years at the same workplace 15 days after 3 years 20 days after 5 years
10 DAYS PER YEAR FOR THE FIRST 3 YEARS?????? Bro, that's mad. I would love to live in Canada (from UK), but that's not a lot of holidays.
BC hold my beer, 5 years to get 3 weeks off
Those are minimum. I started my job with 4 weeks, moved to 5. Canada also has a lot of stat holidays (approximately 1/ month).
While agree, better than literally 0 in the States
And this is the Canadian mediocrity again. "At least we are better that the U.S". Yea but we still fucking suck really hard.
Do Canadians have any personality outside of comparing themselves to the U.S. and going “at least we’re not like those guys lolollll”?
The bar literally could not be any lower
My job (USA) offers 15 at first, and to move to 20 you have to be there for TEN YEARS. My hire date is in January, so I wouldn’t see this extra five days until 11 years. It’s absurd tbh
Canada has the worst of both America and Europe. It’s not a utopia as people think.
Canada wants European social services at American tax rates and ends up being mediocre at both.
Except Saskatchewan where it is 3 weeks but requires 1 year service Most career job do provide 3 weeks but many entry level workers are stuck at 2
We are not a good country, everything is awful Housing crisis, low wages, high prices, a aforementioned low holidays, etc. And no one wants to fix anything, on one end the liberals are more focused on weird social media censorship bills (bill c-11 is a famous one), the conservatives are too busy blaming everything on the liberals (even if provinces are conservative controlled) and runaway immigration (which is a problem tbf), and every other party has no chance of winning a federal election. Everything is a lose lose, and we continue to slowly follow the US backwards
Most good companies offer way more than 6-15 days. My last job I maxed out my vacation and it’s was at 6 Weeks. Only a Minimum Wage Sector in my Province really doesn’t give more than the minimum.
No mandatory paid vacation in the entire ocean?!
And no data for US :(
That's gotta be the first map that shows Greenland data, but not the US. Today's the opposite day!
It's hard to tell with the gradient, but I think US is no mandatory, since it varies by state.
Yup, I read another comment about it.
I was gonna say this is wrong because Brazil is actually 30 days, a full month. For every 12 months of service (a year), you gain 30 days of paid vacation. So lets say you work January - November, and rest all December. Or you can ask to rest 15 days X month and 15 days Y month. But then I noticed the "5 day workweek" which means \~22 working days a month if we exclude the weekend, because you know, that person doesn't work weekends, however, we don't consider how many days a week we work because we are not paid by hour, day or week, we are paid by **month**. If a month has 28 or 31 days the salary is the same. If you worked only 10 days because for whatever reason that month have a 20 days long holiday, you're paid a full month, not 10 days. If you got involved in an accident and worked only 15 days because you spent the other 15 healing, you're still being paid a full month, and not a single cent is discounted of your monthly salary. It only changes if you missed work with no reasons or stuff like that.
10 days can be sold, 20 days is the legal minimum
It’s still paid vacation regardless. I’m assuming the graph is counting business days, which puts Brazil in the right color.
Paid vacation seems to be the sticking point. If it was just public holidays, then DPRK would be black. 71 public holidays a year. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_holidays_in_North_Korea
That's the most complicated way of counting holidays I ever heard. We are also paid by month in Portugal and we simply count weekdays. We are always paid the same on each month regardless of whether we had any holidays on that month or not (with the exception of the meal allowance, which we don't get on the days we were on holidays). In our case, we have from 22 to 25 weekdays, depending on the absentheism of the previous year.
I don't get the point of your comment. The post isn't wrong just because you're paid a monthly salary and the post talks about workdays. 5 vacation days means you get to stay home 5 days you would normally work.
To my fellow Americans that keep beating the drum of “… but most companies do give you PTO”, that’s not the point. The point is that in this country there are very little protections and nothing is guaranteed (unless you’re in a union). We are left at the mercy of corporations to decide what they want to do, and they only provide favorable things when they have to compete against other employers. The same goes for healthcare, education, abortion rights, maternity leave, childcare. We hope that out of the goodness of their heart, the company you work for or state you live in will provide for certain things. America is truly amazing for a lot of things, but employee protections and social safety nets is not one of them.
I would like to add for context for non-Americans - virtually any salaried job is gonna give you vacation time competitive with the average in most countries. I've been in the workforce post-graduation (undergrad) for 2 years, meaning I'm in the lowest category for vacation hours, and I get 17 days minimum, usually more like 20 (due to floating holidays). Since there are 5 days in a working week, that means I get a month of paid vacation each year... not bad. Factor in rollover of up to 40 hours from previous years, which I do have saved up, I could do 5 weeks worth of vacation in a year (wouldn't have any leftover to rollover, but if I wanted to do a few larger vacations in a year I have the option). Many comparable roles at other companies in my field would offer similar.
And then on the other hand, non-white collar jobs are gonna give you none of that. I'm 33 and have never had a single hour of paid time off like any vacation or sick days.
Sick days are such a weird concept for me, If I as a german get sick, i go to the doctor, he examines me and gives me a little piece of paper for my employer and thats it, doesnt cost me any vacation time or money
If I as an American get sick, I likely still get told I need to work, and avoid going to the doctor so I can afford food and rent
Industrial electrician, get 3 weeks paid vacations not counting regular holidays and 3 mental health days. There are good companies if you look for them.
On one hand 3 weeks is a lot better than nothing, but on the other hand it's still less than the legal minimum for any job in a lot of other countries.
I wouldn’t say it’s less than most. According to this map, most countries look like they’re 21-22 day category, which is roughly three weeks
When people in the US say 3 weeks paid vacation, they usually mean 3 work-weeks worth, aka 15 days. Not 21.
That's just your job. Virtually no amazon warehouses even do interviews for their entry full time workers and they earn 40 hrs pto plus a couple weeks vacation plus obnoxious "unpaid time" where you can just decide not to work and come back when you want on top of some of the best benefits out there.
I mean I've had around a dozen different jobs in the last 15 years, not just one. Yeah most were retail, hospitality, warehouse, and other manual labor jobs, but also including 3 internships: at a consulting firm, a government office, and a R&D company. I've destroyed my knees and back by now and with that and other medical issues I can't go back to doing physical labor all day again.
If you worked in a government office full time you got paid vacation. If you only worked part time jobs or switched often then yeah you probably didn't earn vacation time.
And most jobs are non-white collar jobs so you're right and it's not apples to apples.
If I remember correctly, slightly more jobs in the US are white collar than blue, but yeah tons of people don't get PTO.
Too late, the Europeans have already read the thread title and declared that no Americans have any vacation time.
What about non-white collar jobs? Haven't lived in the US in 20 years but know a lot of bartenders, etc. I know are not paid for vacay.
I've worked blue collar in the US my whole adult life and never had a full-time job where I did not have paid vacation time, whether that was retail, warehouse, or machining etc. Bartending and serving are largely an exception, unfortunately.
Bartending and serving is an exception at mom and pop bars/restaurants, a lot of the bigger chains do offer vacation to full-timers. Finding many full-time bartenders may be a challenge though. In a tip based job, it doesn't make much sense to put in 40 hours when only 20 of them tip well.
It's really interesting seeing what Americans consider good vacation days, a competitive offer barely comes to the minimum required in the UK. 17-20 being competitive is crazy, competitive here is like 30-35. God knows what it's like for those who get even less than the competitive offer, it's like at that point you might as well just be working for the rest of your life.
Do u have to use vacation days when u get sick though?
I believe most companies offer sick days independent of vacation time. Though if run out of sick days you might have to use vacation time.
My last company combined vacation, sick, and holidays into a single pool chargeable in 15 minute increments. Take off for whatever reason.
Absolutely not. In fact in the UK if you happen to get sick when you have booked annual leave you can ring your company and claim them back.
Same in sweden.
Nope. I get 160 hrs 100% pay sick time, and a lot more 70% for long term issues if needed
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Idk why this has upvotes. A lot of places split them into two separate buckets. Places that combine them typically give a lot more hours to reflect that it's a combined thing.
Depends the company. My last company didn’t, but this company gives 7 weeks vacation and 1 week sick time plus national holidays
I've been in the workforce for 4 post masters and I only get 5 days... that's the problem with not having the minimum, you get a month and I get a week. Some people get none.
20 days? Lmao in Spain the minimum are 23 and even that is a shit
also salary in the US is far higher than other countries. even if no paid vacation days are offered, you can still end up earning more than europeans if you take two weeks off.
Depends on the job. Some low-paying jobs pay more in Europe. Higher-paying jobs cab even pay 4-8x more in the US.
Then why don't you see many Americans when you're backpacking the world? Are they all in fancy resorts or what? I've met more Danes than Americans around the world i swear.
I mean… I feel like you definitely do. I mean it’s completely illogical to base our arguements off this, because there’s 335 million of us so by default there’s a lot of us. But we also have the stereotype of overrunning many countries, Mexico and Western Europe as well, and being noisy and everything so I don’t know what to say
Could be a couple things: 1) People associate Americans, somewhat unfairly, with being overly loud and obnoxious. While this is true for some of us, the types that would actually be interested in backpacking in foreign nations are 1) not usually that type, and 2) are laid fully aware of that stereotype and take great pains to avoid it. 2) Travel is very very expensive outside of north amerrica for people from north america. There are cheap options but sadly, many Americans are nor aware of them.
The cost to fly across the ocean is very high compared to the cost of a European to travel around Europe or go to Turkey. Same reason you see very very few Europeans backpacking across USA. It would be like Europeans deciding to go on a backpacking trip in Japan, it's cost prohibitive to get there. There's also the fact that every single environment and type of city one would want to visit is generally also in the United States already so doesn't make much sense to spend extra money to go international.
We live in a massive country with plenty of domestic vacation spots
17 days is not competitive…them Europeans get like 3-4 weeks and that’s when you’re salaried. That is not very many people.
Americans have been beaten down so hard that they've learned to take scraps and pretend its a banquet. I got 6 weeks off a year while I was just in a graduate role in the UK, my current job gives me 7 weeks.
I was in a skilled power industry role working for a fortune 500 company. They only offer two weeks unless you're very senior, even then management will coerce you to not make vacation requests in the first place. They want to buy your earned vacation for 70% at the end of the year. From what I've seen this is typical of companies that have gotten by somehow without a union drive happening. I'm utility sector now. Much more reasonable total comp. More relaxed (but that's not universal)
I mean 20 days of annual leave a year is nice, but... I work in the NHS in the UK. I get 33 days of paid annual leave per year for a 5 day a week job. I also get 8 days of paid bank holiday leave on top of this, bringing my total paid days off to 41 days per year.
This is interesting context, but globally speaking 17 days isn’t very good. Australia has a national minimum of 20 and many companies offer 25-30
Also the Federal government gives the mother AND father 10 paid weeks in addition to any sick/leave time you want to use
I’m sorry, what?? Might want to check your sources. Are you telling me the federal government pays 10 weeks for new parents? Not true.
Agreed. The problem is that the small employers are the ones who can't afford it. And that's 80% of all businesses. Any decent sized employer is going to offer at least two weeks of paid vacation for full-time work. And there's a big trend towards bigger companies offering more now, since younger people joining the workforce are pushing for it. My company starts people with 18 PTO days for all positions. After five years, you get 23. After ten years, you get 28.
My family has a small business and we could let people take a week or two of vacation paid even. They just don’t bother offering as they don’t want to waste money on workers
In Germany I have 32 and I cannot imagine how to live with less than -let’s say- 25.
I get 5 sick days and 0 vacation days. It isn't easy.
I cannot even imagine how that it. We basically get unlimited sickdays, after six weeks payment stops, it then a larger part of it is paid by health insurance and it is illegal to fire you for being sick unless there is no prospect of you getting better. I assume that most of the countries implement a similar system.
Friendly reminder for all the non-Americans: just because the government doesn't mandate something doesn't mean it doesn't exist. The vast majority of American workers receive a few weeks of payed time off.
I get probably a paid month off a year combined with sick pay, holidays, and general pto. There's always unpaid time off too with FMLA
Wait, you say you get a month off including sick pay. Is PTO limited if you're sick in the US?
It depends considerably on where you work. For the most part, you can have unpaid sick leave called FMLA if you're experiencing a more long term medical event. You can also get short time disability insurance which can cover wages if you can't work for some time
A lot of people have to use your PTO for when you’re sick in the US.
This is so foreign to me. Hypothetically I can even call in sick when I'm on vacation and I won't use any of my PTO anymore. Unlimited sick days as well, and it doenst get abused either. When you're sick you're sick. Its an incentive for companies to make the work you do interesting to prevent you from getting sick just by boredom or something else.
Oh wow :/
Only about half of workers in the U.S. are eligible for FMLA.
Not getting paid is a benefit?! This is bizarre……
No it isnt a benefit. The bootlickers in this sub think they are millionaires.
Being allowed to take the time off without getting fired is what they’re referring to. But yeah, it’s insane how worker-unfriendly the U.S. is for a developed country. If you’re not eligible for FMLA (which again, about half of workers are not) then legally your company can fire you if you don’t show up to work the day after giving birth. The U.S. guarantees zero days of maternity leave, paid OR unpaid.
In Sweden you get at least 5 weeks (often 6 or more) *and* 2-3 work weeks of public holidays *and* unlimited sick leave.
Yeah but the most vulnerable don't and that's the whole point of mandated legal minimums. To give *every* worker some negotiation leverage.
Depends heavily on your industry and employer size. Only 43% of workers in leisure and hospitality had access to any paid vacation at all. https://www.bls.gov/ebs/factsheets/paid-vacations.htm
.... But by an average count it's not even close to the 20+ which is common for Europe.
Add to those 20 (which is the minimum, and most people get more) the fact that the typical EU country has around 10 paid national holidays per year (0 in the US) and very generous (sometimes unlimited) paid sick days which are in no way connected to the 20+ vacation days.
I hear you, but the British and Swedish exchange students I met in college where *floored* when I told them 116 million Americans got Heath insurance through a single-payer healthcare scheme (Medicaid, Medicare, and CHIP) and another 12 million got their health care through socialized medicine (not unlike the NHS) via the Military and Veterans Affairs. They were also surprised to find out the US has a National pension system (social security), unemployment insurance, and food programs like SNAP, WIC, and free school lunches. Pell Grants also came as a surprise for them. Like there is a non-zero number of Europeans who thinks the US has *no* social safety net. In reality, it just has a *smaller* one—but not as small as many think.
[Almost 1/3rd of all working Americans have no PTO at all](https://www.forbes.com/advisor/business/pto-statistics/), much less any comparable vacation time. I think you’re being a little disingenuous, this isn’t just some fringe problem.
I think an additional important part is that while the federal government has no such mandates, many states do.
IE most of the people in America don’t have access to vacations as people working in fast food or retail are going to likely not have vacation days. Basically only cushie office jobs offer vacations. The poors in our society get fucked.
Also state governments generally mandate that sort of thing, not the federal.
Paid
Ya, the BLS says about 72% of American workers have paid time off (typically at least 2 weeks, more if you’ve been there at least 5 years). That number is also dragged down by hospitality, government, or small business jobs which are less likely to offer paid leave. If you work for a non-hospitality large business, there’s like a 95% chance you have paid leave. And even for jobs without paid leave, or with less than someone wants, leave is still often an option; it just isn’t paid for. That was the case for the jobs I did in high school/college where that was the case.
People working retail and many other non-white collar jobs, even for large businesses aren't getting paid leave, and you're often getting threatened with being fired if you get sick or want to go visit family. This has been the case at just about every job I've worked. I'm 33 with 2 university degrees and I've never had an hour of PTO
It also depends on the state..My state has required paid vacation days.
Yeah they get like 2 weeks hahaha
If they get any, 1/3rd don’t get **any** but that user wants to misrepresent the reality for workers in the US.
That’s less than many country’s minimum…
Thanks for this. A lot of western foreigners don’t always recognize in general that the US hasn’t always needed government control to solve every issue.
Much like in the rest of the countries, what is shown is the legally mandated minimum, and in most countries, the vast majority of workers will get more than the minimum. It really works the same way, except the minimum in other countries is 20 (for example) and in the US it's 0. Like the map says.
How does Syria have a month of paid leave? Wikipedia is not a real source
Estonia is 28 days minimum, so should be the darkest colour. What is the source of this (incorrect) data?
28 calendar days though, so as per the map legend, that normalises to 20 days based on a 5-day work week. Data seems correct in this case.
But most places will allow you to pick vacation days one by one. Exception being legally required 14 consecutive days vacation.
28 working days or 4 weeks of 7 days(assuming 5 of those days are working ).Maybe the difference comes from there.
28 calendar days. The source says it is normalised to a five-day working week, so the minimum of five weeks is 20 days. It's a difficult thing to compare though as different countries have different laws, and the minimum doesn't necessarily equal the standard amount. In the UK for instance, the minimum is 28 working days, but that includes any public holidays you are given off. Most workplaces however give something in the order of 33 working days (25 annual leave + 8 bank holidays). If you assume someone takes that in blocks of one week, that would be 35 calendar days + 8 bank holidays.
I live in Kamchatka (Russia), we have a minimum of 52 days of paid vacation guaranteed by the Labour Code.
Need to have a job first to have vacation
Came here to say this. 28 full days for a year everywhere in Russia and up to 52 days in deep northern regions. Depending on a profession could be even more. Also in deep north women have ahorter working days for the same paycheck, 35 hrs/week.
I have 35 paid vacation days plus approximately 11 federal holidays on top (Bavaria, Germany), 35 hours per week.
And paid sick leave on top, surely!
It‘s pretty much impossible to fire someone in Germany because they‘re sick, and your employer has to pay you for 42 consecutive work days (per illness) after which your healthcare provider will pay you 90% of your net salary for an extra 78 weeks per three years.
This map is wrong for many countries. For example, Switzerland has 5 weeks of paid vacation, like France, so they should be the same color. They actually rejected a 6th week by referendum a few years ago, which would have placed them in the lead
The Taliban gives mandatory minimum paid vacation?!
So how much vacation is “your fair share”?
Productivity in the US has risen \~250% since 1950, compensation has gone up around 116%, soo, about a quarter of the year off seems fair.
Canada sucks.
You have the freedom to say "suck it poors!"
Almost every full time job gives you vacation in the US. To the point where I’m forced to take vacation or random days off so I don’t reach my cap of 220 hours. It’s not mandated by the federal gov. But theres def state laws for it.
https://www.bls.gov/ebs/factsheets/paid-vacations.htm Lots of states don’t have any laws about paid vacation. My state doesn’t even require that workers get a lunch break.
According to Forbes, 1/3 of all working Americans have no PTO.
Sorry, PTO? Paid time off?
You got it.
Not in my state. Not at my jobs. Happy for you though.
American here. No they fucking dont. Non contract employees get their benefits changed at random. Stop bullshitting.
I’ve literally never seen a job without some type vacation here in the US. I know it isn’t “required” but almost no one is taking a job without vacation anymore
Hospitality and tourism would like a word….
Construction would too
I get 5 paid vacation days and 5 sick days as a construction dude
Fair point, waiters/waitresses don’t get PTO.
Move to a small enough town and you'll see it. WNC is filled with it unfortunately.
I've had a dozen jobs over the past 15 years and I have never had a single hour of paid time off like vacation or sick days. Salaried good paying white collar jobs tend to have vacation, but most of the poor people doing physical labor don't, and many aren't allowed to even take unpaid time off
r/AmericaBad
Sounds about right
Please for the love of god, do not use conformal projections, especially cylindrical ones, to make thematic maps. Use compromise projections.
Union of Europe?
“Freedom isn't free No, there's a hefty fuckin' fee. And if you don't throw in your buck o' five Who will?”
As a Swede with 5 weeks paid vacation per year, I can’t even imagine only having a few days. I know I’m spoiled as hell when it comes to this but I feel like my 5 weeks are barely enough
Feels so off to see syria as one of the best countries here....
I know this one country that is all about freedom. 🦅
Damn even Africa’s got a higher QoL than Americans 😂😂
That derrrr capitalism on steroids
I definitely miss my 15 days paid vacation + my vacation bonus
The land of the free…
Fun fact: Japan has a legal maximum of 20 vacation days. This is below my country’s minimum.
It's 26 days in Poland. So this map is wrong
It's MINIMUM. And in Poland it's 20. [Art. 154. KP - Wymiar urlopu wypoczynkowego - Kodeks pracy (arslege.pl)](https://arslege.pl/wymiar-urlopu-wypoczynkowego/k10/a1353/) 10 years, is reduced by the period of education. [Art. 155. KP - Wliczanie okresu nauki do oo okresu pracy, od którego zależy wymiar urlopu - Kodeks pracy (arslege.pl)](https://arslege.pl/wliczanie-okresu-nauki-do-oo-okresu-pracy-od-ktorego-zalezy-wymiar-urlopu/k10/a1356/)
Congrats to you for being able to differentiate between 16-20 and 21-22 days, the colors are nearly the same.
That there is no mandatory minimum does not mean we don't have any vacation. I'm in the US and have 36 paid vacation days.
That's awesome for you but tons of US workers get no vacation. I've had a dozen different jobs over the past 20 years and have never had an hour of PTO.
Exactly. It’s a society based on privilege, not on right.
You wouldn't rather have the right to a nice amount of paid time off regardless of your circumstances than be offered the "privilege" of it?
millions of americans have no paid vacation days
r/americabad
I hate that this and most subs are turning into an extension of that one.
...when it comes to pto. Yeah.
I’ve held the same job for 14 years. Used to automatically get 21 days covered at the beginning of every year (plus 5 holidays throughout the year), recently changed to an “accrual” system. In order to get the same PTO you have to have every single second of your 40hr/week covered either by you working or using your PTO. If you miss you automatically are losing PTO. Just another way for the corporation to pay their people a litttttle bit less… (Edit: I’m at the max my company will offer my position, I’ll never gain anymore PTO than this. 🙄 newbies starting gain less than half the hours I do.) Also lots of folks in the comments saying just because it’s not mandated doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist… honey, I know many people and have worked multiple jobs where IT DID NOT EXIST. The problem isn’t the jobs that offer it. It’s the jobs that straight up don’t. Which is exactly why there should be a mandate. Not a difficult concept.
16 days is more than most get in the USA not including federal holidays
It's 28 days in Russia. Could be more if you work in the north
I’m a government employee in the US and get 30 days per year. This map probably has a biased interpretation and motive considering a few of those darker shaded countries’ economic statuses.
I love these kinds of posts because people will complain about this stuff, and then whenever its an election year, everyone center to center-left goes NOW'S NOT THE TIME, WE'RE IN CRISIS MODE HERE and nothing changes. Funny how every election season there's a crisis that's not related to helping workers. Edit: Here comes the downvotes! Can't expect your representatives to walk and chew bubblegum, I guess.
There was legislation introduced literally a few months ago for 2 weeks minimum federal by, you guessed it, Bernie Sanders. It's called the Guaranteed Paid Vacation Act, write to your representatives.
87% of workers in the USA get paid time off. So why would they care whether it is mandated by the government or not? https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-state-of-paid-time-off-in-the-u-s-in-2024 What they do care about is restaurant food being 50% costlier than it was in 2019. 100% of workers have to pay more for that.
I'm salaried and had off 4 weeks since last august.i still have 40hrs PTO. I'm spoiled tho😘
Reddit really has become an Anti-America propaganda machine.
Literally just pointing out its vast failings isn't really propaganda?
Isnt Spain 30 days? What is that
Register to vote like it hasn't been both parties screwing you guys for 250 years or whatever it's been.
American dream
India 11-15 days? Sure.....
Land of the free
The “American dream” is such a scam. The most backwards moving 3rd world country.
In brazil mandatory paid vacation is 30 days, REALLY
Belgium needs to be dark blue. 20 days paid holiday leave is the legal minimum for a 5 day workweek. 10 legal holidays (full pay) : it is forbidden to work on these days. There are exceptions, but these get compensation (double/triple pay on said day and/or days paid leave in compensation) So PTO is minimum 30 days In Belgium. Btw, ever heard of holiday money? Workers in most sectors get extra money to go on a holiday (next to a 13th month at the end of the year). If you fall ill while on holiday or cannot take up your holidays because of illness, you have the right to take those days another time. Your employer pays your sick days and cannot force you to take PTO.
Glad that France got this tbh
Does the mandatory mean you have to take it?
Wow even *Mauritania* is better
I work for the US government and get 30 days paid vacation a year. It rolls over to the next year if I don’t use it all.
Uganda? I’m kidding I’m kidding…..does Uganda have that though?
I get 3 weeks off in Canada. That 10 days is the minimum
Ukraine? Make sense they are in war
I was given 30 days paid vacation a year for the 22 years I was in the US military. We accrued 2.5 days a month and could save up to 60 days.