this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2023
606 points (99.0% liked)
Hacker News
2171 readers
1 users here now
A mirror of Hacker News' best submissions.
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
How many PTO days do European's get a year? I'd like to compare to where I'm at after starting a new job here in the US (US native).
UK.
28 days PTO plus bank holidays.
28 days full-pay self-certificate sick leave.
6 months full pay with Dr's cert, beyond that 50% pay for 24 months.
Do you have to do the accent the whole time ?
Unfortunately yes but at least you don't have to shoot up high schools anymore
What about pointed sticks?
Even in France ?
Oof, nevermind the accent, do we have to import your sense of "humor"?
20-30 paid days depending on country and factors like your seniority.
Add to that unlimited sick time (there are conditions though).
Oh right, yes. In Poland the employer pays 80% for your sick time up to a month and then the social security takes over.
At a new job (in the US) I get:
5 - 10 years at the employer or overall? In Poland it's 20 days that turns into 26 after seniority. University counts as 7 years regardless of the length of your studies, I went for three and started working during my second year. I got 26 days almost immediately. Of course I keep the 26 days after I change jobs.
At the employer, there's absolutely nothing that guarantees PTO on a legal basis. Most part-time employees don't even get PTO, at best they can ask for unpaid time off.
There's also federally mandated FML and disability, but neither are required to be paid.
Yeah, then that's awful. Here it depends on the type of agreement you have with the employer and the regulations you are under. For instance, the regular work agreement means 20 days minimum a year, 26 after a certain period - 10 years working overall. College counts for a lot, as does highschool. You can get 26 days a year after I think 2 years of work anywhere total after going to uni.
There are simpler agreements which are favoured by students. The regular work agreement requires you to pay for your social insurance for instance. Students already have that covered for free when enrolled at a uni, so they get a simpler agreement that doesn't make you do that. So they get more money. Time off there isn't mandated, but most employers give you the same amount as an employee that has the 10 years covered. They want to keep students enrolled so they stay at a company after training them up. There is also a limit for how long you can have the simpler working agreement, so you aren't exploited by an employer that doesn't want you to move to the regular agreement or something.
Some employers don't care about the time off as long as tasks are done. So you get unlimited paid time off. Obviously even if you don't have unlimited paid leave, you can go on unpaid whenever you want.
How do sick days work? In the US it varies by employer, but often sick days are limited, either counting as PTO or being separately tracked as another source of PTO.
Unlimited, as long as you have a doctors note. You can get one for every little thing you want. I have never been denied one when I needed one. 5 of the time off days are "on demand" which means employer can't say no to yoi getting them at any time you want without saying you want to go on leave earlier. Employer pays for the first month of you being on sick leave (accumulates over the year too in case the employee gets them often but for short periods of time) then the social insurance takes over and pays it for a very long time.
How could education count towards seniority - is this only for jobs that don't require education?
No, this is for all jobs. It matters for the time off you get over a year, not seniority at a company per se. You get more time off if you work for a certain amount of time anywhere. And uni counts as 7 yrs even if you go through 3 or 5.
30+1 (my company gives everyone an extra day in December for a "shopping day").
Plus, of course, paid sick leave, with no ridiculous limitations.
UK, working for a German company.
Netherlands hete
. Sick leave, unlimited (first 2 days are at your expense, the rest is payed in some degree).
. Pto (zorgverlof, care time) so you can take care of your kid, yourself, mom, whatever, unlimited but it's either unpayed or you use vacation days for that. Can not be refused by boss.
.Vacation days, minimum of 22 (some jobs get 37 by law) to be spent on pto, vacation, a day to the zoo, whatever.
.Overtime (if your boss agrees) is turned into either more vacation days or payed at 100% or more. Very subject to the type of job.
There is A LOT of information on this, and this barely scratches the surface, but this is what you can expect here
I'm so sad :(
Belgium: 20 days plus all legal holidays with extra days if they fall in the weekend. Sick days are practically unlimited, at this moment.
If first line relative dies it's 3 days off, but decent employers would give you a week.
Sick children you can't find care for, is a day off paid at a lower rate by the government.Though with WFH this seems to have changed to doing what you can with full pay from home, if you're an office worker.
Starting in 2024, if I get sick during a holiday, those days off are converted to sick days and I can take those holidays later.
The idea of having to spend holidays if you get ill makes me want to burn down a building. You should try it.
Minimum 4 weeks or 20 days, but employers and countries can decide to give more.
Poland.
26 days off, plus bank holidays; minimum two weeks consecutively off work during the year.
Unlimited sick leave for yourself or taking care of children, need doctor note, paid 80%.
9 months full pay or 12 months 80% pay maternity leave. Somehow this can be split with the father, but I'm not up to speed on it. Then up to 3 years unpaid leave if you want.
Extra days off by law: 2 days when you get married, have a child born, death of your spouse, child or parent; 1 say when your kid gets married and death of a sibling, grandparent or mother/father in law.
These are all by law, companies can and do go beyond (e.g. 100% paid sick leave).
I work the (for here) standard 36 hours per week, but I do 4 x 9 hours so I have a day off every week. You're free to create your own schedule (in my department anyway), so others work 8 hours for 4 days and 4 hours one day, or 8 per day and a day off every two weeks, or even 40 hours and they save up a day every two weeks to use at a later stage. A friend of mine does this and he takes a week off every two months and then goes on a longer holiday in the spring and autumn or something.
In terms of paid time off, I think I get about 25 days a year (plus some public holidays), but I also get a 16% "bonus" every month that I can spend on a variety of things. You can choose to receive it as extra salary, but you can also spend it on certain things like union dues, gym membership, a bicycle, etc with the benefit that you don't pay VAT (like sales tax I think) over those things.
But I often use it to "buy" leave. I think if I would always spend the full amount on leave I'd have about 10 weeks of vacation per year. You could definitely argue it's not really paid time off since I could work and earn more money. But you pay a relatively high amount of income tax over it and I consider it an extra anyway. So now I sometimes receive a bit more, but most of the time I get my normal salary, also when I'm on leave. I have a four day week and I can take two long vacations plus one or two short ones every year and I'm happy with that.
And as long as I perform normally I get a raise every year until I reach the highest step on the "ladder" for my position. And everyone's salary is raised slightly every year as well (though almost always, and especially now, less than inflation).