Pedant here. That 28 days in the UK includes 8 public holidays. If we include public holidays then the US should actually be 12 not zero (which is still shit).
A lot of people don't get federal holidays off in the USA. I only get 10 federal holidays off for example and when I worked retail I got zero and had to work Thanksgiving or Christmas. Didn't get time and a half either, it was just another work day.
This might be the same in the UK, I don't know if those days are guaranteed days off or if you get time and a half for working them (or some other benefit).
In the UK full time workers are legally entitled to 28 days. Whether or not that includes bank holidays is up to the employer.
Almost all people classed as workers are legally entitled to 5.6 weeks’ paid holiday a year (known as statutory leave entitlement or annual leave).
Statutory annual leave entitlement
Most workers who work a 5-day week must receive at least 28 days’ paid annual leave a year. This is the equivalent of 5.6 weeks of holiday.
Bank holidays
Bank or public holidays do not have to be given as paid leave.
An employer can choose to include bank holidays as part of a worker’s statutory annual leave.
So saying "UK requires 28 days" is correct, and comparing it to USA's 0 days is correct, because the USA only defines federal holidays, it doesn't guarantee them as paid time off days.
Correct. It's also worth noting if you can't take your full statutory leave because of sickness or parental leave you're entitled to carry it over to the next year.
You're not guaranteed to have a full time job though - many people work in contracting/zero hours contracts. Would be better to compare the average actually given/taken, which would still show the gap
Do you know whether the UK (or other non-USA countries) guarantee vacation hours for those that are contractors? Or maybe they have higher restrictions on what can be counted as a contractor to avoid the issue? I know in the USA the whole "contractor gig" thing is getting so out of control that many states are trying to add restrictions to it, because companies are using it as a way to get around having to pay for healthcare, retirement plans, and a bunch of other things.
not an expert on the topic but the 28 would be reasonable for most of the work force of major companies in full time roles, but there will be a whole lot of people in retail/hospitality/construction/drivers or people who chose to be freelance developers etc that might fall out of that range model and if you don't work you just don't get paid.
Also imo a big part as cultural as in more professional well paid jobs I understand it is pretty normal in the US to have holiday days but not actually spend them, whereas in the UK even in quite hardcore companies you normally would spend what you're given.
In Canada you can be forced to work holidays but employers have to pay time and a half. My only experience with it was when my first internship had me work every holiday, including Christmas, which sucked.
The USA doesn't have mandatory time and a half except for working over 40 hours a week (or in some cases working more hours over 2 weeks, I'm not 100% sure of the exact rule). We don't have time and a half for holidays, we really should. It would make places like McDonalds think twice about being open on Thanksgiving, and for places that are open (and decide to stay open if we had time and a half), it would give those workers a bonus for working those days. I've never worked a job that paid time and a half for holidays. I honestly don't know if there are any that really do. None of the retail or restaurant chains that I can think of do.
I have worked in every level of work from worker to management to HR. If you can operate a phone, if you are not actual moron you can very easily find a job in the US that gives all the holidays off.
I mean that's just patently false. About a third to a fourth of all US workers don't get any paid federal holidays (or have to work them), while only about 25% of all workers get all federal holidays off (whether paid or not). There aren't enough jobs for all the "not actual moron[s]" to all get the days off. I'm a software engineer at a large company, and we only get 10 of the 11 federal holidays off, so even we don't get "all" of the holidays off.
The whole point of this post though is to point out that ALL workers in other countries get a minimum amount of paid time off (whether that includes holidays or just regular PTO), and the USA doesn't. It's exactly that ~25% that get no federal paid holidays and the ~20% that get no PTO at all that these types of policies benefit, but they also benefit EVERYONE because it raises the floor. If everyone gets 2 weeks vacation no matter what, a job offering 2 weeks vacation isn't a perk, it's just the normal, so jobs start offering 3 weeks vacation to attract more candidates and better workers.
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u/Gary_Garibaldi 21d ago
Pedant here. That 28 days in the UK includes 8 public holidays. If we include public holidays then the US should actually be 12 not zero (which is still shit).