Also, how long do you take a holiday/vacation for?
U.S. (California)
- unlimited vacation time
- 40 “sick” hours a year
- “ bereavement leave “ (death in family)
- 12 holidays
I will admit I am lucky for being in the US. It most likely helps that I work for one of those evil Silicon Valley tech companies.
I have 4 week of vacation per year can’t move them. Boss is pretty chill so he give us 2 extra. They are not paid vacation, but i get canada EI for those.
We also have 13 (14?) holiday These are paid by money taken from my salary each week( ± 15%) and given back twice year a in a lump sum (btw 3k-5k depending on the hours you worked) a month before our 2 week mandated vacation.
I’m also permanently on the canada EI. I just went and look it up, i could go 34 week without working (minus the 4 mandatory vacation week) and they would pay me 668$/ week, but i have to stay in canada to get that.
UK, 25 days as standard (not including paid bank holidays) plus my employer has the option to buy/sell up to 5 days so I usually buy 5 extra. Also, if you have left over holiday days, you can carry over 5 to the next financial year.
Additionally, the standard legal of 9 months maternity leave.
Also, unlimited paid sick days providing you don’t take the piss; longer than 3 days you should ask for a note from the GP. Longer than 2 weeks you should arrange a meeting to discuss the situation and what (if any) adjustments can be made.
I will also point out that mental conditions must be treated the same as physical conditions so if you need to take a mental health day then you can.
Also my job is very flexible about working arrangements.
The standard is hybrid working, 2 out of 5 days in the office. But depending on what your job is you could be fully WFH or full-time in the office.
If you feel you can only work part-time and your manager agrees then you can.
And the contracted hours are 37.5 per week and flexible start so you must be available between the core hours of 10am to 12pm and from 2pm to 4pm, and as it’s the UK Fridays you can finish at 12. Providing you’ve logged enough hours for the week, if you want to finish early you can or take a longer lunch break to run an errand.
Oh and the cherry on top is the company tries to match annual pay rises with inflation and give a very good reason if they can’t fully match it. That’s not very common in the UK and one of the main reasons, aside from the fact that it’s a nice place to work, why I’ve stayed with them because I don’t feel pressured to move jobs to stop my pay getting eroded by inflation.
Switzerland, 25 days + bank holidays. + the week between 24.12 to 02.01.
US, self employed (HVAC, family business) so if we don’t work, the business (and by extension, us) don’t make any money. That being said, we set our own schedule, so if we want to take time off, we can.
Germany
I’ve been off work for three or four years now. Long Covid is a removed. The paperwork was monstrous but now me and my wife get paid by a combination of the state’s pension, health insurance so my wife gets paid for caring for me and my unable-to-work (can’t think of the proper name) insurance.
But usually I’d get 26 to 30 vacation days per year.
UK. 30 days plus Bank Holidays as paid leave. Also, we have a flexible working system where we can work additional hours to accrue up to five days’ leave. Longest continuous period I’ve taken off was three weeks. It’s also WFH four days a week.
When I was applying for this job I was offered - and accepted - a job at an American company which paid a few thousand more but didn’t do flexi hours or WFH. It actually felt pretty good letting them know I wouldn’t be starting and why.
USA
I currently have 80hrs of vacation and 40hrs of sick-time + a floating holiday
Also the major holidays
And a winter shutdown (~one and a half weeks)Japan gives me 20 days a year, can bank up to 40. Plus public holidays
Germany.
- 30 vacation days.
- 16 public holidays.
- Unlimited sick days.
These are all paid, all working days.
I started this year with 9 vacation days from last year, I had to take them before the end of March, so I just randomly took a couple of weeks in Feb and Mar.
I usually align my vacation days with my kids school holidays, but I take 2-3 weeks continuously in the summer, usually late August.
It’s a bit misleading to count the public holidays which are always on a Sunday. The normal maximum you can get with days that can fall on a weekday is 14 in the city of Augsburg.
And the number of sick days is not unlimited. The cause for the illness/injury must not be your fault. And then it’s limited to six continuous weeks for the same cause. It’s a bit more complex, but the gist is that it’s not unlimited.
It’s not limited to 6 weeks, you just need a doctor to tell your company you need longer (and your compensation is lowered iirc). Someone who gets run over by a lorry and has to stay in hospital for months doesn’t lose their job, like they would in the US.
Public holidays vary per Bundesland. Berlin has the fewest!
The part about not losing your job is true. The six weeks are mandated by law, it’s how long your employer has to pay your full salary. After that your health insurance will pick up the bill, paying “Krankengeld”. This is limited to 78 weeks within a three year span. Krankengeld is limited to 70% of your income before taxes.
US, I just got to offer stage with a company and the PTO was 10 days… I’m originally from the UK, and previously worked with startups from other countries, so this is shocking to me. More infuriating was the response from my friend group when I complained about it. “Yeah that’s pretty standard” and I’m like “ok but it’s also shit?”
In the UK, for a university. 26 days + 8 days bank holidays. I’ve been offered the chance of ‘buying’ an extra 10 days (salary sacrifice, spread over the year), I might go for it.
Sweden. 30 days of PTO per year.
I usually do three weeks in summer, two over Christmas and save the rest for random extended weekends when the public holidays align.
Also, I have about 90 days of paid, and 45 barely paid days parental leave left to take out. There was a total of 480 days for me and the Mrs to share in-betweenst ourselves per kid. I took four months off. Plus another 10 daddy-days to use immediately after baby was born.
Switzerland - 20 days is the legal limit, but we get 30 with one week around Christmas + New Year’s Eve being mandatory.
I also got a special perk where I work 90% but due to a limitation of our system where we enter PTO, every Friday I take off doesn’t count against my PTO budget (rather than only every second Friday). I have not told anyone.
Norway: 25 working days. And the pay is 12% of whatever you earned the previous year.
On top of that there are the public holidays. 2025 list, lazy copypasta:
1 Jan Wed New Year’s Day
17 Apr Thu Maundy Thursday
18 Apr Fri Good Friday
20 Apr Sun Easter Sunday
21 Apr Mon Easter Monday
1 May Thu Labour Day
17 May Sat Constitution Day
29 May Thu Ascension Day
8 Jun Sun Whit Sunday
9 Jun Mon Whit Monday
25 Dec Thu Christmas Day
26 Dec Fri 2nd Day of Christmas