How much time off...?

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I've seen lots of stories about how Americans work far more hours every year than most other people in the world (I think that I once read that it is against the law to work more than 36 hours a week in France...I usually hit 36 hours by my second cup of coffee on Thursday morning).

As we have members from all over the world, I'd like to compare notes directly and find out if this is true.

The company that I work for uses a "Paid time off" program that includes vacation, personal and sick time. The only thing not included are holidays, of which I think we get 7 (New Years, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksging, Christmas and one floater). All totalled, I get paid time off equal to 16 days plus the Holidays. We get more time off as we accrue years of service, topping out at I think 20 days and starting at 12. How does that compare to the rest of the world? Looking forward to your answers.

 

In Canada, labour laws are provincial jurisdiction, so the laws vary by province. In my province (Manitoba), maximum hours are 40 per week, 2 weeks vacation (3 after 5 years), 7 statutory holidays per year (although there are another 3 days which many people get as well). Of course, even though that’s the law, it is frequently ignored. I typically work 5½ days/week (total 50-55 hours), and overtime is unpaid, but I consider it to be part of my job given my relatively senior position and related salary. I get 3 weeks vacation, but I can take a day here and there on top of that without any problem (not that I often do). I haven’t asked for more vacation time as I find that trying to take just the 3 weeks is tough, but I’m sure I could negotiate an extra week without much difficulty if I wanted to.

 

I am not completely sure about all the details of how it is here in Sweden as there are quite a lot of regulations and the kind but a full-time working week is 40 hours. Everything above that is over-time and should be paid as such. A minimum of 4 weeks paid vacation on a year of working full time.

 

Thats funny because I work approximately 168 hours a week and don't get paid any overtime. Time off doesn't exist but I do get paided for room and board.

 

@Splunge: Sounds like Canada is much like the US

@Joacqin: What about Legal Holidays?

@Arahar: You must either be a student or an inmate

 

It's highly sector-specific. If your unlucky, 48 hours. The maximum for most sectors is 45. If you got good job-training and/or are lucky, you can get off the hook with 40. Holidays -> 4 weeks.

 

@Arahar...
You work 24/7? (168/7=24)
That's awesome. How much meth do you take?

Aside from that, I'm still in school, so I don't know how many hours there are in a work week. My brother works for a satelite communications company (Network Innovations) and he works a lot. He is the tech guy, so he's taking calls from all over the world and from countless different time-zones all the time. It's not uncommon for him to get a call from Afghanistan at 3am. I'd say he works 60-70 hours a week, at least.

Labour laws have gone the way of honesty. I guess our lazy forefathers have failed. Either that or we have to work more just to make up for the fact that white people have such small wangs.

 

@HS, many many many many many legal holidays and red days in the calender. Sweden has even managed to invent something called squeese days, it means that if there are a holiday for example on a Wednesday and people get time off there, we dont think it is worth going back to work on Thursday and Friday either so we have those off too.

 

WOW, we need squeese days in the US! Some employers have a policy that if you don't work the day before or after a legal Holiday, you don't get paid for the Holiday. I guess they are trying to cut down of the tendency to call in sick before or after a Holiday to get a long stretch of time off. It all just means that Americans never really ever have time to unwind, so we do nutty stuff like go off and invade places!

 

Hacken Slash, I think Canada and the U.S. are very similar here. Although, with respect to not getting paid for legal holidays if you don't show up the day before and after, in Manitoba, as long as you have worked 15 of the 30 days prior to the holiday, you must get paid for it.

@joaquin - with all those "squeeze days" you talk about, rather than telling us how many days Swedes get off, you should tell us how many you actually work; it sounds like you wouldn't even hit triple digits!

 

I would tell you if I knew but I dont know exactly how many days a year you work here. I do know that there are quite a bit of holidays you have in the US/Canada that we dont have here, and a few we have that you dont have but I dont think the number of days differ that much. I am quite certain that you supposedly "work" in those squeese days during the year but I think that is more on paper than in reality.

 

In Alberta we get paid overtime anything over 40 hours a week, unless it's on rigs, or construction or a salary job.

My job I get O.T. after 37.5 hours.

We also get paid Stat holidays, and if we work a holiday like Thanksgiving we get paid Triple time. We get days off when we ask, and vacation is paid as well, we can also bank overtime, so we can take days off and still get paid.

I don't know about anyone else, but I could use a day off, I've been working straight for 20 days now, with no rest in sight. It sucks.

 

actually I'm in the military(USN) so I guess I could be considered an inmate;P. But I also get paid more than an inmate, approximately $2 an hour.

 

The company I work for is extremely stingy. I've been working for almost 20 years, and when I joined they offered me 2 weeks vacation (I held out for 3, trust me). There's no sabbatical policy, as at many high-tech firms. We have 7 or 8 holidays throughout the year, and I get no OT since I'm salaried. However, being salaried, I'm also able to be flexible with my hours. If I have to leave early for personal reasons, it's simply assumed that it gets made up later.

On the other hand, Velcro has 30 vacation days in the bank, even after taking 5 weeks off for moving-related stuff already this year.

 

My official work week is 35 hours but I work as many as 70 hours per week. I am on salary but we do get paid overtime, of course they just pay us a lower base salary to accomplish this.

We get nine days of statutory holidays (although I almost always end up working on the Easter statutory holiday). I currently receive four weeks of paid vacation per year. It would have been three weeks but I asked for the extra week off instead of a direct pay raise in 2002.

 

America should change to a 35 hour work week...

 

I know that many government agencies in this area have converted to a 4-day work week. Unfortunately, any private sector org. has not the man power to go to that kind of schedule.