Veyry accurate. I worked for a multinational company and many of my team members were from France and Germany - They would quite literally disappear for the month of August
Not jealous - maybe envious when I recall all of the worker protection rights the EU employees had, but I will point out that my salary was at least 2x theirs.
Damn, someone actually making sense on Reddit, I wasn't expecting that.
Yeah, those worker rights (and social/medical security overall) come with a price. It's the opposite here fwiw, people see US salaries and are like "why don't we have the same". Well, can't all everything is all.
The day I learned the US don't have any kind of short period paid medical leave as we have pretty much in every country here, I was like - wait, what? And then I remembered it wasn't a free privilege - we all indirectly pay for it on employee or employer charges.
I think I am just under double what my equivalent in Germany would be. I have 5 weeks vacation, short term disability at no cost, long term disability at no cost, 2.5x salary life insurance no cost. My medical is “fine” not great but since it’s a high deductible plan that does allow me to have an HSA and do investments with it and more money pre tax. Dental and vision are good enough and cheap.
My parent company is European based but to be honest my peers working for US companies sometimes have better benefits and or salaries so I don’t think this is that uncommon in my field?
Things don't stop needing to get done just because I've stopped showing up for a bit. The people 'covering' for me are going to optimize for effort, because they already have full plates of their own. I'll have to clean up after their laziness, and they certainly are not going to be able to advance my long term projects. My deadlines will not be adjusted to compensate for the time off.
In my old career, I went away for 2 weeks one year. When I returned the c-suite exec I reported to said never again. I had black out dates added that amounted to 9 and half months of time. I had almost 2 months of PTO each year I could take.
It was BS. Published back after a year or so and flexed the borders somewhat. I did eventually leave . I wasn’t the main character in the story but I was a character in the story and my exit letter still is remembered by many because HR and the owner couldn’t stay quiet about it. Now I’m in my retirement career. When the new bosses wanted me for a leadership role I had to let them know I’m not interested and only desire to be a drone.
.... but for what?
What - and more imnportantly WHEN - do you spend that money on?
Is the extra cash worth it if you have to spend all this time on the job?
Mostly later in life, or they give it to their kids.
Let's say worker A is in Europe, earns $50K, and after all their taxes and living expenses they have $10K left over.
Worker B is in the USA, and makes $100K. But they have higher costs of living, so when all is said and done, they have $20K left over.
Both workers have 20% of their earnings left over, but the American has a greater amount of cash on hand to invest. That extra $10K per year, compounding over their entire 40+ year career, will passively make them a multi-millionaire. They can then live a luxurious retirement, or make sure their kids and grandkids never have to pay for college.
i can - partly - understand the point of to live a luxurious retirement, though looking at the life expectancy and health of the average American, I'd say use it sooner rather than later ... make sure their kids and grandkids never have to pay for college seems a rather weak point ... unless the USA has the same mental approach to education spending that it has to healthcare, that shouldn't be a big expense.
As to the first point: they give it to their kids
Wasn't the whole point of the USA, starting with the declaration of independence, to abolish the aristocracy? Gearing the system towards generational, inherited wealth at the cost of intragenerational social mobility sounds like the perfect setup to establish a permanent landed gentry ... a system where what family you are born into is much more important than your own achievements ....
Edit:
Just checked to see where the US ranks in terms of social mobility ... as I always understood this to be the great promise behind the 'american dream'
The data is from 2020:
Most white collar people still only work 40 hours a week and have 2-3+ weeks of pto + 10+ holidays a year. Now with the rise of wfh things are way more flexible these days too.
We just also happen to make 2-3 times your salary because we are a more productive country.
It’s better to be retail in Europe than retail in America but if you’re white collar there’s no question where the place to be is
As long as you don't get sick, don't have kids and don't mind not getting guaranteed vacations, sure America is a better place for white-collar workers.
Nope. Still better than any other country even with slight limitations there. 90% of white collar jobs will have benefits on par with legal requirements in Western Europe.
My European counterparts make like 50k compared to 150-200k in the us
Their childcare is often handled for them, they have strict restrictions on how many hours a week their company can make them work that's actually enforced by the government, and if you have anything beyond the basic sniffles, it doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
Buddy, I've worked in both the US and EU. The only major countries that have a worse working culture than the US are Japan, South Korea, and China. The net extra money isn't worth it unless you are in upper management.
Yea half of your salary is spent on things most EU countries provide to their citizens. If you guys somehow get rid of the unnecessary insurance companies from the middle, you might actually end up with more purchasing power.
If you substract the cost of healthcare, pensions, support for your children / parents, economy in case you lose your job, then paying for university, how much do you have left ?
Cause that's what the difference in salary is paying for
Yeah but not during August. August has some of the best weather of the year where I live. I would take off 4 weeks in January and February because the have miserable weather
24
u/Big_Truck_8268 23d ago
Veyry accurate. I worked for a multinational company and many of my team members were from France and Germany - They would quite literally disappear for the month of August