So I’m off next week and got jimender2 and rthelpdesk1 covering Spark! whilst I’m away. After a brief message exchange with jimender2 it turns out he gets 0 paid holidays at work! Is this a common thing in the US?!

I was honestly shocked. In the UK (and at my current workplace) I get 29 days a year (including bank/public holidays) and I’m arguing for a few more. As far as I know, 29 or thereabouts is a common amount here. Is holiday allowance really that bad in the US?

Note: I did quickly check to see if there were any threads on this but couldn’t see one. If there is, link me please!

@rthelpdesk1 @jimender2

46 Spice ups

I am hourly so yes.

2 Spice ups

Null Holidays :flushed:. I’d say sayonara to that.

1 Spice up

We get 8 paid federal holidays, a paid holiday for our birthday, and then additional PTO based on weeks of service. Right now I’m getting about 4 weeks, but it maxes out at 6 weeks when you hit 15 years worth of WoS. We are able to bank up to 9 weeks, which will carry over indefinitely.

3 Spice ups

I wouldn’t say that is common but there are certain jobs which essentially require holiday hours.

1 Spice up

A lot of it depends on the place you work for and whether you are hourly or not. My last job that I had during school was at a fast food place and I did not receive paid holidays. I had to work there, full time, for over a year before I was given a week and a half worth of vacation time. My current employer does it a bit differently. I started earning paid time off the day I was hired. Every week, I earn about two hours of PTO time but I do get 9 days for holidays paid off.

2 Spice ups

My company does a lot of government work, so we get 10 mandated holidays a year. I also happen to get ‘vacation time’ that accumulates each pay period, but that’s not a given in the US, and many places won’t give you vacation until you’ve been there for, at minimum, a year. At my previous job, there were only 2 days a year we were off, Christmas and Thanksgiving, and trying to use your vacation time was usually denied due to being understaffed (Gee, I wonder why we were understaffed…)

2 Spice ups

I wouldn’t go for any job with less than 25 days pa (pro rata) plus bank holidays (7 in England) - I’d love more - time is a precious commodity - once it’s gone it’s gone…

3 Spice ups

That depends. If you are a contract employee (which under our taxing code means you use a 1099 form), there is zero chance that you will get any paid days off at all. However, if you are a more traditional W2 employee, in my experience, if you are a full time employee you will get paid time off.

4 Spice ups

Last 2 years at work before I got sick I used null days off. Ended up having a nervous breakdown and a burnout. Had weeks where I worked 80hrs+ a week for what? Couldn’t use the cash anyway as my ex ran off with it.

6 Spice ups

I work in a school so some of the holidays that the other staff get, I don’t get and vice versa.

I think it’s around 10 that I get on top of three weeks vacation, up to 5 personal days, and my sick time.

When I worked in the private sector, I usually only got a handful of holidays and I didn’t get any vacation.

1 Spice up

29 Days holiday!

I currently get 22 days holiday but hopefully this will increase a little in the future.

1 Spice up

Yes, yes it is.

At my last job before IT you "earned’ 1 week(5 days) of vacation annually for your first 5 years and with the exception of Christmas, everyone was in the rotation to work holidays.

At my previous job to this one, I earned 14 days annually to cover holidays(we closed a few days a year), vacation, and sick time.

At this job I do get paid holidays but everything is charged against a 9-hour workday and still only acquire 14 days to boot. We do get paid for 7 federal holidays. But everyone is essentially 24x7 on-call anyway, so someone always winds up blowing their whole day anyway.

Even the really good packages I’ve seen come nothing close to the amount of time off you guys get. This is why I never take vacation. The thought of taking many months or years to accrue time and the sheer cost of trying to go anywhere means I generally use my time for burnout days when I’m too sick to move.

2 Spice ups

While I was in school working part time, that was the case. In my former employer before this one, it was also the way JimEnder2’s is, I could take a great number of unpaid days, but they were all without pay. I traded that flexibility in when I started this job. When I started I had 3 days off per year, plus the standard holidays (Christmas, New Years Day, Good Friday, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Thanksgiving, and half-day Christmas Eve), now I’m up to 12 days off per year. Mind you though, that’s actually hours not in the office, so 96 hours. Need to go to the doctors and leave an hour early? There’s an hour. Need to meet with a state official for another job? Sick time is rolled in with that, although if you’re off for more than 5 days, with a doctors note, you can take those 5 days as unpaid instead.

Oh, and bad weather? Yep, we’re open. No excuse. Not that I’m bitter.

3 Spice ups

UK statutory minimum for a full-time position is 28 days: Holiday entitlement: Entitlement - GOV.UK

I presume you have public holidays in addition to the 22?

3 Spice ups

Ouch that sucks man. Ive always worked at places that provided paid vacation hours per weeks worked. The wife gets waaaay too much paid vacation so i burn through mine quickly thanks to her.

3 Spice ups

Full-time non-contract employees usually get paid holidays in the US, but in my experience 10 of them is generous. I think we had 12 (including one floating) when I worked for a company that had its headquarters in Israel, but that’s the most I’ve ever seen.

We do get other paid time off though, usually vacation and sick time although the definition is different based on the company. Some jumble it all together under PTO, and some are way more strict about it than others.

3 Spice ups

UK here and I get about 32 days in total. I know a lot of companies give the bare minimum as my girlfriend only gets 20… 0 would be shocking, you’d burn out in no time

I get jack… which means the bare minimum required by law. Also haven’t had a pay raise since 2005 (3 jobs ago). I’m also currently hourly so, nope…

I think we have 8 paid days off this year.