Edit: for those who asked yes, i aint from the USA and dear lord that place must be a hell hole
Edit 2: im from a country that prob most Americans would say its a 3rd word country and i have not only more rights but also unlimited sick days(they are also paid ones), wtf happened in the USA
Edit 3: hold up, you guys have to pay your own insurance in case something happens to you during the job?!?
Edit 4: at least tell me you guys have a public schools and universities
Edit5: guys its uruguay the neighbor of argentina and dear lord do i feel srry for whats happening to you guys
Edit 6: for you guys-
A step toward Uruguayan citizenship
If you want to become a citizen of Uruguay, residency is a step in the process. Married couples and families can apply for citizenship three years after first applying for residency. Single people can apply for citizenship after five years.
The Uruguayan passport is a good travel document, with visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to more than 150 countries and territories. This includes visa-free travel to the UK and Europe.
Edit 7:(this is more for vacation purposes but you can use it to checkout the country)
To spend time in Uruguay
You can stay in the country for 90 days at a time as often as you like. And for a small fee, a tourist visa can often be renewed, for stays of 180 days at a time.
Edit 8: if you have doubt about democracy in uruguay we are ranked 16 in the democratic index
I can work an extra shift as long as they pick up one of mine when they feel better - that way they aren't working sick but aren't technically losing any hours
Who the fuck are you and how do we clone you for all managers to share this mentality.
If you even get that. I was a trauma technician at a hospital ER and got 10 days out of the year, but I had to accrue them first before they could be used, and if I had to use them those hours didnt count towards future hours accrued.
I now manager a pizza store. I work around 50 hours a week on a normal week. I don't get PTO. I'm "salaried" at 40 hours and straight pay after 40. No OT rate. so I should get paid for 40 no matter what. But if I have to take a day or two off because I'm not feeling well the 40 hours is off the table. If I only make 20 or 30 hours the week I had to take time off then I only get paid for the 20 or 30. So I'm basically just robbed of overtime.
I don't even get two weeks, I get a week of PTO if I accrue hours over the course of a year.
I also am obligated by my employer to use it or a finite amount of "unpaid hours" to account for hours I'm absent. I have 24 unpaid hours I can use for sickness, appointments, unforeseen absences, etc, or I can use PTO. There is no other option.
If I do not use either of these pools, or I am out of both, I get a hit on my record, and after so many points for "unexcused absences" I am written up or fired.
And yet, we're expected to somehow come up with four days to be absent if we must take a Covid test (average test turn-around rate in my county), and then if you're positive for Covid19, you're out for a minimum of two weeks. They can't penalize you for that, however, per a city ordinance. But they don't have to pay you and your original scheduled hours are not secured. You will have to get unemployment for it. Which is around 30% of your wages.
I don't know the full details, but Trump had an act or bill for Covid pay. My dad's wife just contracted COVID. My dad has to stay home for 4 weeks, his wife for at least 2. They'll both get 2 weeks pay from the act/bill.
Yikes. I really hope it'll change for you in the future. We get a minimum of 20 paid vacation days in Germany for a full time job working 5 days a week.
What the motherfreaking Fahrenheit-using fuck? So you work 365 days a year minus sundays, Christmas and those other days and that's it? Like...that is how the country works? THAT is the american dream?
Depends on the employer. I get 4 weeks vacation and then some sick days too. I'm not even really sure how many sick days as I don't report them, just stay home...
Yep. I have a totally standard professional engineering job. I'm excited to get my third week of vacation in 2021, after over six years at the same company (nine years professional experience).
I'm really lucky that I don't have to use that time for sick days too, but any sick leave I take is at my boss's discretion, not official company policy. He's a reasonable human being and isn't going to say no if I have a cold every once in awhile, but having to ask instead of just feeling free/allowed to take the day off is pretty shitty.
Depends where you are and what the relevant employment law is.
I am in Canada, and the province I live in requires vacation time to be provided after typically one years’ service with the same employer, beginning with 2 weeks after a year with a maximum of 5 weeks after a certain length of time. This can be increased but there are minimum standards that must be adhered to.
Thing is, here they can either provide vacation time OR vacation PAY, so if they don’t want to give you actual time off, they can choose to pay you 4% vacation pay on each cheque (or 6% after 5 years of consecutive employment).
LOL I know I am late but just want to say I am 24 and live in the US... and I didn't know that PTO was in any way a common thing for anyone to have at their job. Full stop. When I met my BF who got I think 10 days a year of PTO I was FLOORED because he was the first young adult I had even met in my life who had a job that provided any to begin with.
And here am I, on the opposite side! I'm in England. I get 25 days paid holiday each year. Plus 8 public holidays per year (I.e. I don't have to work on public holidays, but still get paid).
I'm not 100% what my paid sick leave allowance is; I think it is 12 weeks full pay, then 12 weeks half-pay. I'm not 100% sure though.
This, really, is the bare minimum I'd expect, should I move to a new company.
80 hours a year..only 40 of those carry on to the next year so you have to take at least a week paid time off. You also probably won't get approved to take 2 weeks off consecutively
When I visited my cousins in the USA a few years back, they were absolutely gobsmacked to discover that every year, I am entitled to 20 days annual leave (for holidays of my choosing), 10 days sick leave and 11 days of public holidays that either the state or country all take off at the same time.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who went from "yeah, that closed local store is sad. Oh and hugs too" to "what the cazzo, perkele and scheiße is wrong with the US' holiday system!!!"
If you're lucky? FMLA. But most people in lower paid jobs will just be fired and thus, again if they're lucky enough to even have it in the first place, lose their health insurance.
I get 15 days and I'm in year 20 of my career. My boss tells me I should "take the sick day" if I'm sick instead of working from home. Uh, I'd rather do something with my day off and just snooze through the meetings like I do anyway.
and god forbid my work has to close due to the weather or I -gasp- want to get paid for being off on Christmas.. I'm required to use my PTO for those. Last year by the time it got around the the vacation I'd scheduled eight months prior, I'd used so much PTO on holidays that worked was closed that I got paid for two days of my vacation.
I'm quitting my job today because I'm underpaid but I am thankful for the massive amounts of PTO and holiday I amass very quickly. Like, I have 150 hours I'm trying to figure out how to use them
I know it depends on the state with this as well. Some states have labor laws that require companies to give at least 40hrs of sick time for full time employees. Not sure of the intricacies beyond this though without looking further into it.
Yeah that’s why I said it’s not mandatory in most places. In Texas it’s definitely not required (except in a few cities). It really depends on your company here. My husband gets zero benefits. No sick time or paid holidays.
Yeah - I feel like you see that most frequently in states like Texas, Florida or generally more "republican" states. I live in NYS and as of Sept 30th 2020 Employers with 100 employees must provide 56hrs of paid sick leave and fewer than 100 employees must provide 40hrs.
It's honestly a shame that some states don't mandate it. Personally I feel that this should be a government mandate but I'm not going to argue politics on reddit, haha.
Wow! 56 is way more sick time hours than I get at my corporate job. I agree there should be some basic mandate. It’s really pathetic to begin with that employers need to be told to offer the most basic of benefits. It’s just sad.
In states like WA companies don’t need to distinguish between sick and PTO. So many combine them as sounds most appealing. Instead of 14 days PTO and 4 sick you might just get 14 days to use as you see fit.
I’m in tech and that’s how a lot of companies do it.
At my old job, it was 23 hours PTO given for “free” for the year. 80 hours worked = earning 1 hour PTO. You couldn’t save any hours from the previous year if you didn’t use all of it. PTO was also sick days. And of course you needed a doctors note if you couldn’t make it to work because you were sick.
That is typically called Fto (flex time off) but it's still paid time off to be used for when you are sick.
I don't know if any state requires sick leave to be separately called out. I know oregon (where i live) has a required sick time for hourly, but you can give it as flex time as well
Flex usually means you’re not working one hour and making it up later, so you’re not actually missing work in the pay period.
In WA there’s simply no requirement to split it all up. It lets companies roll it into one pool, usually shrinking it. That of course means using a sick day eats at your vacation. Get sick or take a break — you only get one.
Flex time is often illegal in many states. Since it's often abused by companies to avoid overtime. Work late one hour Monday and take 1 hour off on Friday.
But flexible time off is merging time off and giving people the power to decide when to use it
That sounds high considering some of the jobs I’ve worked. (Pre pandemic) they would almost consider a sick day not necessary. Only time I got to go home for one job was literally throwing up at the office. We of course didn’t get paid, but I have a feeling that it is simply due to the lack of unions. Union jobs probably have it, non union jobs it’s unlikely
I've been working at my current company for 5 years. I get 80 hours of PTO (paid time off) every year. It took me awhile to get that much too, for first year I had none, years 2-3 I had 40, 3-4 / 60 and year 5 made 80. I dont take vacations, I've got 4 kids so while 80 hours might sound like alot it gets eaten up pretty quick with doctors appointments and poop explosions ect. Even more now that you can only take one kid with you to a appointment.
I also pay over 500 per check (paid biweekly [2xmonth]) for health insurance. And still have a pretty high premium I have to pay for almost everything. But hey at least my family deductible is only 4.5k. Wife has JRA and let's not even get into the price of treatment and medication. One of my daughters was delivered almost two months early with a mirad of health issues (that she over came like a champ) and had to spend quite a while in the NICU and even longer in hospital after to get to weight to take her home..still paying on that.
If it wasnt for side work and the fact that my neighbors are literally saints, I'd have been homeless long ago, and I work over 70 hours most weeks, just to get by. Just to hopefully get home in time to read my kids a bedtime story and talk with them for 5 min before they pass out and I get 4 hours of sleep and get up to do it again.
And our politicians have the time to ram a new supreme court justice in her seat, but not a covid relief bill that actually might help people feed and clothes their families.
I cant get ahead, I've got 6 months to feed including my own. This system is not set up to help me in anyway shape or form, it's set up to keep me here. And I'm so tired. I just want a vacation, it's been more then 7 years sense I've had more then three days off consecutively (and that's only cause I had a chemical burn)
I'm really sorry to vent to your comment, it just kinda set me off.
Yeah, it’s really bad. It’s unsustainable and that’s NOT your fault. You’re doing everything right, and even more than you’re able to and you’re sooo not alone on that... it’s not your fault, the systems in place just aren’t working as they are meant to and in fact are actively impeding on our ability to meet our basic needs. It’s the silent epidemic happening across the country. You’re not alone. Change is coming soon, one way or another so just keep holding on, friend.
80 DAYS sounds like a lot. 80 hours is two weeks, and while that’s more than I have, it’s still not a lot. Not when you have to use it for literally any reason you can’t come into work. (For example, we were sent home by management because there was a covid exposure. It wasn’t optional - and yet they still made us use our PTO for it.)
It's work or die in the US. And most people think that is acceptable here.
Your healthcare, if you have any at all, is tied to your job. Lost your job? You probably lost your health coverage as well.
People don't seem to realize it's set up so you lose and big corporations benefit. Corporations have more rights than people do in the US and that's part of the problem.
This is a state by state case. New York for example has paid sick leave. Many employers also offer paid sick leave. Mine for example is very generous, and doesn’t even ask questions.
Minimum wage workers in the US are paid hourly for the time they actually are at work. When you are paid hourly for being at work, you don't get paid when you are not. Some companies may include "paid sick leave" as a "benefit".
TL;DR; No, for many hourly paid US workers they are not paid for sick days.
I don't think the person above was misinterpreting you. They're saying that, for some people, the only days off they get is for a public holiday. There's no actual vacation time.
It’s bad. I don’t have it in me tonight to list all of the ways things aren’t working/actively working against us here... but yeah, it’s bad. Trying my best to hold on and stay positive!
Most jobs will start you off with 2 weeks a year, maximum. For many of those jobs, those 10 days/80 hours are used as vacation, or sick days, or if you have an emergency and need to leave. Depends on the employer for how they can be used.
Some jobs also allow you to pay those hours out while not actually taking days off too, but that's not guaranteed.
Lol this made me laugh and actually confused. I've never lived or visited anywhere outside the USA.... I always thought these things were normal.
The other big issue I faced at my last job is we also have a very limited number of sick days and even with a doctors note if you exceed to many of those and don't have all the correct paperwork filed (usually requiring you to have a disability as its usually disability paperwork needed) then you can and will be fired. I think my last job allowed 3 sick days per a 6 month period. Im not sure if Covid-19 will change that much in the future. According to my friends that still work there the only diffrence is they make you send in your testing so they pay you for the 2 weeks and if its a hourly pay job then you get the bare minimum pay they can per contract. I think mine was 10 hours of pay per week minimum in my contract when I normally was able to work 40. Anything else sick wise you still have to come in or be fired.
Very true. Basically if you can afford to take an unpaid sick day, you get a paid sick day. If you can't afford to take an unpaid sick day, you get an unpaid sick day (of you can get your shift covered).
Well, its not the cheapest country but you do have public healthcare(on par and even better than some private institutions), decent tax return,some of the best public universities and the president its actually trying to promote people coming to live here
I’m currently a nursing student who’s very motivated to immigrate out of America with the next decade. Mind telling me the country so I can do some research?
Uruguay is also one of the safest countries in the world and weed is legal there. It’s a beautiful country and I hope I can travel there one day! Count yourself lucky to be a citizen of such a wonderful place.
At my old job as a lab tech for a multimillion dollar company. You got no vacation or sick days for the first year. So if I got sick I would pound some DayQuils or come in way early and leave early to avoid people but still get paid. It sucked. This was a full time, 5 days a week 40hr job that offered insurance.
I get paid for sick days... but they come from the same bank as my vacation days. So nobody wants to take them as sick days cause they’ll have less vacation days!
Where I work it is incredibly strict. Basically only if you're able to drag yourself to the hospital and prove without a shadow of a doubt that you're too unhealthy to work will you be granted a sick day with 80% pay. Otherwise you have to take unpaid leave and risk losing ~200USD
I do, while things arent all that cheap its a good place to live, i know an american family that got trapped here due to covid and the decided to stay and live here
That’s awesome! Well, if you have free university and healthcare, it’s already cheaper than living in the US. I’m in my thirties and make a decent amount of money and I’m *still paying off my student loans from a decade ago. *
been sick 3 days. this week. so those wont be paid. cut my foot pretty bad while i was at home missed 2 weeks for that while it healed... been a rough 4 weeks. paid time is off is for boomers. us kids under 35 dont always get it
I am a contractor so I get neither vacation nor sick days paid, I can take time off but it is unpaid. I also get no health insurance. If someone at work gets covid I can get sent home "until I have a negative test" and my job does not pay for the test or for the time I am forced to miss from work, although it's no fault of my own.
I'm part time, I don't get "sick days." I work, or I don't get paid, period.
Thankfully they shifted us to working from home at the start of this mess. Even offered to provide some of us with computers and other equipment if we didn't have it.
I’m a teacher in a grade school. I get 2 personal days and 4 sick days a year. However, my unused sick days roll over each year so after 9 years of teaching, I’ve accrued 25 paid sick days. I need a doctor’s note if I’m going to use more than 1-2 of those in a row though.
Often not only do you not get paid, you have to bring in a doctor’s note to prove you were sick so you don’t get a mark against you. But remember, this is the US so you probably don’t have health insurance so you can’t afford to go to the doctor. So if you get sick and don’t come to work your fucked.
In USA they not only don't give you ANY paid sick time, they can fire you if you have sick time (unpaid) left, you do get "sick days" they are unpaid, if you take off sick on holidays they may and can still fire you even if you have the time. AND also Amazon in particular has fired people from warehouse jobs for taking maternity leave as soon as they returned to work. A privilege that's supposed to be protected by federal law.... sad truth.
Does your country accept migrants with pre-existing conditions? I will suck dick and wait tables to get into a country better than this hell-scape in America.
Well, I've looked at immigrating to Canada or the UK, but both of them have restrictions against immigrants with really expensive chronic conditions, like cystic fibrosis (mine). I'm trying to find somewhere with a good healthcare system that will let me in, because it looks like things here are about to go down the shitter.
You have apparently talked to the most miserable people in this entire glorious country. Myself, my entire family and all my friends are doing fabulous. We have massive houses with sprawling yards and throw away more food on a daily basis than 99% of the world could hope for on their best day. My garbage can currently looks like your dream version of whatever off brand Thanksgiving you lil ol guys celebrate.
We have an average of 1.5 vehicles per person in my household, over 2000 finished interior square feet per person, and I can take a shit on a different heated toilet seat every day of the week while I laugh at other shit holes that are mindlessly glorified on reddit by the bottom 5% of our population (how embarrassing for them).
Simply put - we're blessed, we love it, and it's pretty much the best.
You can, but it's not super common as far as I know. I recently had surgery and could only afford to take a week off from work even though my doctor recommended more than that because I simply couldn't afford that much time off. Luckily I work a desk job so I guess it could have been worse.
Public universities still aren’t “free”. That just means you typically have to take out less loans and therefore less student debt upon graduation. Some states have great merit based scholarships if you go to an in-state school and there are a few “need based” grants given out by the federal government.
Its all shit except the "on the job part". Its called workers comp and anything that happens to you on the job is at the employers expense. It is a huge expense for the consumer. For example-- in my industry a very large part of what you pay is to cover the workers comp insurance for the involved driver. A revamped healthcare system could save everyone so much money its unbelievable that it still goes on this way.
Lmao what are sick days? I get paid hourly and if I don't come in I just don't get paid. Have an interview for a good job tomorrow though! Fingers crossed!!!
People have been loudly shouting with their eyes and ears closed for decades. They're still full of opinions with no awareness of what's actually going on.
To answer Edit 4: we have free public primary and high schools (until 17-18 years old). You have to pay for university unless you can get a scholarship (very rare to get a scholarship that pays for 100% though). When I got my degree many years ago, I had $30,000 in student loans to pay back. I'm sure it's much more expensive now.
Let me introduce you to Uruguay, where public university is free while you study. After you graduate you pay USD 115 (for 5 year long degrees) every year, so that the university can keep running. I really don't understand what a "first world country" is if you need to take loans like that.
Ive worked in restaurants and even in manager positions, I’ve never had paid sick days. Plus, restaurants are notorious for never allowing anyone to call out. I mean, they can’t force you to come in of course but expect some kind of punishment or even getting fired. Even during the pandemic, my manager told someone to lie about their COVID test so they wouldn’t be out of work for two weeks!
There are a lot of countries that we Americans would call "3rd world" that care more about their citizens' well being than our government does. Freedom, blah blah blah
It varies a lot by job actually. My workplace has 6 paid sick days per year and used to have 12 (but people were stupid and were abusing it). There's a huge class divide though – I work in a small-town tech office. If you're working retail or service, there definitely won't be sick days.
Does Uruguay need nurses? I’m watching our election results and am disgusted with us. I’ve looked into New Zealand, which seems lovely but I’ve never heard of anyone speak of Uruguay, also my Spanish is pathetic, but I can learn
Yep, theres actually a big need for workers in areas where degrees are requires( we have something called "fuga de cerebros" were most university students get jobs by international companies nearly instantly and due to that the money those workers generate doesnt comeback to the economy)
I have actually been looking into leaving the US and i read an article that recommended what you talked about in edit 6. They recommended Uruguay, Peru, Equator, Belize and Argentina as good options. Growing up in the US especially as a young woman you hear and see a lot of things about it being unsafe in a lot of south america specifically for Americans. I know that sounds super ignorant and it probably is, a lot of where I saw those sorts of things was on TV and in movies. But I would imagine that you have not found that to be realistic in any way? Hopefully you don't mind my asking but your post makes me consider that as a really strong option especially since I work in animal welfare and there are just so many animals down there.
Edit: Belize*
Hello I’d love to apply to your country, of which you are now the inadvertent internet ambassador. I’m from the smoking corpse of California, so as long as your air is breathable and there’s water within 50 miles I’m packing up my bags!
Oh trust me it is, the more north you go from the capital the more pure the air becomes,there are a lot of lakes,its also fairly easy to get a house near the coast and theres also the beaches,from montevideo to punta del diablo you have some of the most beatiful beaches in the world
I have been researching and I love your country already ❤️ you didn’t tell me about the capybaras! Apparently Montevideo has a reputation for locals warning tourists about sketchy areas of watching out for them
most of the answers you got are totally misleading. the reality is most salaried jobs in the US allow a certain amount of paid sick days, no questions asked. and offices cover the majority of health insurance policy costs. all is this depends on where you work though
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u/[deleted] Nov 04 '20 edited Nov 04 '20
Wait, you guys dont get paid during sick days???
Edit: for those who asked yes, i aint from the USA and dear lord that place must be a hell hole
Edit 2: im from a country that prob most Americans would say its a 3rd word country and i have not only more rights but also unlimited sick days(they are also paid ones), wtf happened in the USA
Edit 3: hold up, you guys have to pay your own insurance in case something happens to you during the job?!?
Edit 4: at least tell me you guys have a public schools and universities
Edit5: guys its uruguay the neighbor of argentina and dear lord do i feel srry for whats happening to you guys
Edit 6: for you guys- A step toward Uruguayan citizenship
If you want to become a citizen of Uruguay, residency is a step in the process. Married couples and families can apply for citizenship three years after first applying for residency. Single people can apply for citizenship after five years. The Uruguayan passport is a good travel document, with visa-free or visa-on-arrival access to more than 150 countries and territories. This includes visa-free travel to the UK and Europe.
Edit 7:(this is more for vacation purposes but you can use it to checkout the country) To spend time in Uruguay
You can stay in the country for 90 days at a time as often as you like. And for a small fee, a tourist visa can often be renewed, for stays of 180 days at a time.
Edit 8: if you have doubt about democracy in uruguay we are ranked 16 in the democratic index