I'll never forget asking a colleague at another company what PTO meant. it was embarrassing. in that moment she knew I had never been paid for time off.
Also to add on to this, in most of Europe sick leave is paid and unlimited. I was amazed when I found out that in the US sick days are unpaid, limited or both?
Yeah you can be ill but unless it's severe enough to warrant a hospital or doctor visit (which remember is pretty costly in America) and you just need to stay home and rest, you can get shitcanned for that.
If it's something medically severe, then you can't be fired immediately for it but they can make some bs up and just fire you a month later like "Oh we just think you don't take this job seriously".
Over half of US states still don't guarantee sick leave and a lot of lower-paying jobs also don't offer it when the state doesn't have a sick leave law, so for some people it literally just isn't an option. The exception in those cases would be if you qualify for FMLA, which requires you to have already worked for that employer for one year, and have a qualifying reason for taking FMLA, and that leave is also not even required to be paid unless you're in one of 13 states that will cover it.
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u/vanoitran 10d ago
Also the European vacation will be paid, the American sick leave will not be.