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How many days annual leave in the US?

I work at a University here in the US so my days off may be more similar to what you would get here. Each state is different and private universities are different as well but I would assume they are more similar on average to each other than to the corporate world. I'm relatively low on the food chain, and here is what I get:

8 hours (i.e. 1 day) vacation leave for every month I work
8 hours sick leave for every month I work
I then get 7 holidays throughout the year and Christmas through New Years off about 14 working days total.

My vacation and sick hours accrue up to a certain point (its pretty reasonable I could accrue up to 22 days right now and that increases with service) and then vacation hours will start to roll over into sick time.

I have relatively few restrictions on my use of vacation time except that there was a probationary period (6 months) when I couldnt use vacation time.

I also have to do a timesheet event though I'm on salary which kinda sucks but it allows me to be flexible with my 40 hours in a week. So if I want to take a long weekend, I can work extra hours during the week and then take a day or afternoon off without using vacation time.

I think what I get is pretty good for the US. I don't get all the same days off as the students do but I get some of them off like a longer chirstmas holiday. If you work in the state for a long time it becomes a pretty awesome plan as you can actually earn up to 21 hours of vacation time for each month you work so I have coworkers who have been working with the state forever and who take month long summer vacations.

Hope that helps.
 
I get 20 vacation days, 13 sick days, and 10 holidays. We can carry over up to 240 hours (30 days) of vacation, although I usually only carry over a few days to a week. Some of my colleagues who have been here longer, though, end up taking a lot of days off around Christmas because anything over 240 hours is lost at the end of the year.

Sick leave can be carried over indefinitely. Again, some of the old timers have hundreds of hours of sick leave, but with 3 kids, I usually only have a few days stockpiled. I'd like to build up a cushion of sick days in case of surgery or other serious illness.

When I've been here 15 years (only 9 more to go, haha), I'll earn 26 days of vacation.

I often earn some comp time during the year (esp. when I travel for work), and that must be used during the year in which it's earned. No carryover of comp time.

My sister, on the other hand, gets 13 days of PTO, which is combined vacation and sick leave. That's really not much, and it's hard for her to plan a vacation. Getting the flu in during the winter can pretty much wipe out all of her time off.
 
I work in a financial investment firm and get 15 days vacation, 3 personal days, and no limit to sick days (although no one really takes them).

The standard is about 2 weeks (10 days) vacation with additional sick days OR 15 days PTO.
Unlike parts of Europe where length of vacation time is based on age or total years worked, vacation is highly discretionary in the US and is usually based on how many years you've been with *that specific company*. Change jobs and it's back to the negotiating table. A lot of companies also highly discourage taking vacation for the first 6 months.

PTO (Paid Time Off) is tricky because it means that you can use your sick days as vacation, and your sick days can suck up your vacation :o It's great for a young, healthy workforce with fewer family obligations, not so good if you need those sick days. What it means is that a lot of people will come in to work sick to avoid losing those days.

Sometimes you also get additional Personal Days which are meant to be for random doctor's appointments, errands you need to take the day for, or random days off.

I'd say most employers discourage taking more than a week or two at a time vacation. I had to get extra special permission to be gone for three weeks for my honeymoon.

One good thing about American holidays though is that they are almost always scheduled to give you a long weekend. Labor Day and Memorial Day are always Mondays, Thanksgiving is always a Thurs (90% of people take the Friday as a holiday if they can), and if a holiday falls on a Sat/Sun, you will get a workday as the "observed holiday".

It's definitely going to be an adjustment for you--don't let anyone understate that for you! Americans just don't take those huge vacations around the world like Europeans and they often let their vacation lapse :rolleyes: My husband and I left Europe a couple of years ago and it still comes up in conversations weekly about how we need more vacation time.
 
At my former job, I started with no vacation time but got 1 week after I'd been there for 6 months, and then 2 weeks per year after I'd been there for a year. I also got 10 sick days, most federal holidays, and two "floating" holidays instead of Columbus and President's Days (we could take them on those days or use them as extra vacation days). After 3 years at the company, employees got 3 weeks of vacation, and after 10 years, 4 weeks per year. I could carry over up to 2 weeks of vacation time but no sick days. As far as taking off all the time at once, it was really up to each manager. Some people chose to take all their vacation at once if the manager was okay with it, others (like me) usually split it up.

I've been a grad student for the past three years, so lots of vacation but none of it paid.

When I start my new job (federal) in a couple months, I will get 13 vacation days and 13 sick days, plus all federal holidays (10 or 11?). I don't know about carry-over because I haven't had my full orientation yet, but it's only a 2-year position so I'm pretty sure I will just take all my vacation each year.

This has always been considered a "good" amount of vacation by the Americans I know...but my foreign husband thinks it's tantamount to employee abuse. Fortunately for him, his profession allows him an obscene amount of vacation, but it basically impossible to get into so I'll never have the kind of vacation time he has. It will be better if/when we leave the States, though.
 
I get 2 weeks vacation per year. (since I work 4 days/week that is 8 days) Plus the national holidays (if it falls on a day I work, otherwise I don't get extra time off that week) Sick time wasn't really discussed. I usually wind up working additional hours the following week to make up for the lost time.
Sucks being an independant contractor...

FI currently gets 15 days vacation + 10 (15?) sick + 5 personal holiday
Starting this year or next, that will go up to 20 days vacation + additional sick (20?) + 5 personal holiday
 
I work part-time (35 hours a week usually) and don't have any paid time off. If I don't go in to the office I don't get paid. I get paid for Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, but not any other national holiday.

When I worked full time I had 10 paid personal days, 3 paid sick days and all national holidays were paid.

I also don't get any paid maternity leave and I am not covered by FMLA since I am the only employee. :roll:
 
It depends on the place you work and the company policy. I get 25 vacation days, 15 for entry level and it builds- in addition we get all federal holidays, plus 22 days sick leave that can be carried over year to year, and is held in a "bank", which is great because so many people have had medical problems and they can recover in peace. It can work out to quite a haul by year end and it all carries over to next year.

Most of my colleagues take these days throughout the year, not in one chunk of time, a bit here and a bit there, its rare to see someone gone for three weeks to a month at a time -
 
I'm kind of regretting starting this thread. It's beginning to depress me. :(sad
 
Wow, I really feel sorry for you guys. Here in Oz, it's compulsory to get 20 days annual leave (vacation time). It's also law to get a min sick leave of 8 days per year I believe.

I am lucky here, I get 15 days sick leave, 20 days annual leave and a RDO (rostered day off) every month. Happy employees equal productive employees. When are US management going to realise this?
 
honey22 said:
Wow, I really feel sorry for you guys. Here in Oz, it's compulsory to get 20 days annual leave (vacation time). It's also law to get a min sick leave of 8 days per year I believe.

I am lucky here, I get 15 days sick leave, 20 days annual leave and a RDO (rostered day off) every month. Happy employees equal productive employees. When are US management going to realise this?
Click to expand...

Actually, U.S. employees are some of the most productive in the world, google it.

Not that I disagree with you. I'd love to have more time off.
 
Gosh, we really don't give a lot of PTO here in the US, do we?

My husband works for himself, so he doesn't get any paid time off whatsoever. The trade off is that he can take time off whenever he pleases, and all the money he earns actually goes to him, and not a company. He has actually NEVER worked for anyone else in his entire life, unless you count his stint working at the local grocery store in high school. He just isn't the type who would be happy working for someone else.

Many of our close friends are European, and they always tell us that Americans are crazy for working so much. I don't disagree. I don't think I'd be happy having only a couple weeks off per year. I like that my job is crazy busy and full while it's on, but then I get long periods of time all to myself.
 
Actually, as little as it may sound to you, mayerling, I think people on this board have more vacation days than the average American. Many people have only 10 days, particularly when they start out a new job. When I started, I had 10 days and only in my third year did I go up to 15.

Working in Europe now starting this Fall, I'll have 25 days off -- plus tons of national holidays! Yay!
 
mrscushion said:
Actually, as little as it may sound to you, mayerling, I think people on this board have more vacation days than the average American. Many people have only 10 days, particularly when they start out a new job. When I started, I had 10 days and only in my third year did I go up to 15.

Working in Europe now starting this Fall, I'll have 25 days off -- plus tons of national holidays! Yay!
Click to expand...

Yeah, it really doesn't help when you want to visit your family, half way across the world, but you can only go once a year for like 5 days.
 
DVS1 said:
Well, it seems vacation time in the US really doesn't compare with the situation in Europe. I guess it's something to think about.

Thank you all for your replies.
Click to expand...

Haha! No, does not compare well at all. My first employer gave 2 weeks vacation (10 days) and no sick days to new hires, but you accrued them after working there, i.e., you got the first week after you worked 6 months. Vacation time was locked at 2wk/yr until 5 years (upped to 3 weeks), then 10 years (upped to 4 weeks), then at 15 years (if I recall) it went up to 5 weeks per year but stayed locked there until you hit 25 years or such. There was no provision staying home for sick kids, etc. and you had to use vacation time for that, or else stay over and make up the time when you came back to work.

With my second employer, I received 2 weeks per year as a new salaried employee, plus 3 or 4 sick days, and I had that 2 weeks from the start, as far as I know. The union employees per the contract they agreed to had to accrue vacation as the year progressed. I'm not sure how the union added vacation weeks over the years. In truth, the factory was always having a voluntary layoff going on, and highest seniority got first crack at that. So, lots of the longtime employees got a lot more "vacation" than their official weeks because they took the voluntary 6-week layoff periodically and were paid at reduced rate for the duration.

As far as rationing what you can take and when, I believe the employer has control over that. They can deny your requested vacation, make you stay on the job if some emergency arises, or essentially do whatever they want to. I don't know the regulations on that ,if there are any. I do know that if it got to the end of the year and you had unused vacation, you could carry all or part of it over into the next year, if you went through the proper channels to do that.
 
Oh, and in this bad economy with people begging for jobs, a friend applied for a job and was told that he'd get NO paid time off until after he'd worked there 2 years. Can you believe that??? And he was basically on call, too, meaning some days he might be called to work and some not, but he'd get 40 hours per week minimum and benefits as a full-time employee. Talk about dictating someone's life.
 
I get 19 days, which has to include all sick, vacation, misc. days. It is accrued at 1.5 days per month and 4 floating holidays throughout the year.

I believe that it will get worse with how slow the job market is. People will be willing to take less now because jobs are so hard to come by. I wish the US would take after the UK in that respect.
 
elle_chris said:
honey22 said:
Wow, I really feel sorry for you guys. Here in Oz, it's compulsory to get 20 days annual leave (vacation time). It's also law to get a min sick leave of 8 days per year I believe.

I am lucky here, I get 15 days sick leave, 20 days annual leave and a RDO (rostered day off) every month. Happy employees equal productive employees. When are US management going to realise this?
Click to expand...

Actually, U.S. employees are some of the most productive in the world, google it.

Not that I disagree with you. I'd love to have more time off.
Click to expand...

And how do they come to that conclusion? If by calculating how many days they are at work, then I would say yes, as they don't have as many days off! But look at staff satisfaction levels, etc etc, it might be a different story, who knows.

And I tend not to believe everything I read on the internet ;))
 
Are there states in the US which are better in terms of leave or would you say the situation is the same across the board?
 
honey22- The U.N. did a study on it back in 2007. The U.S. leads, followed by Ireland, Luxembourg, Belguim and finally France.
They got the number by dividing the country's gross domestic product, by the number of people employeed.

There were several countries in Asia that beat U.S. employees for hours worked, but productivity rates there were lower.

Satisfaction.. well.. that's a whole other issue....

Mayerling- It depends on your field and the company, not so much where you live.
 
I was shocked to learn that my DD will get 4 weeks of vacation. That's way more than I ever would have thought.

She's a Financial Analyst for a large firm and works super long hours. So kinda thinking, she deserves that time off..

Back in my day?? I was lucky to get a week, or even stretch that to a week and a half. Sick days?? We didn't have them back then, LOL.

Her good friend took a job in NYC, gets ONE sick day?? She asked me what I thought, as she was negotiating the offer.. I said well one sick day doesn't do much, what if you get the flu??
 
My husband is a VP of Technology for a company, and he's only allowed two weeks of vacation time per year. He has to fight tooth and nail to take any of that time, and he's definitely not allowed to take both weeks at the same time. Most people we know are not allowed to take more than five business days at a time, and even those have to be submitted at least 6-10 months in advance of the time they want.

His boss is a slave driver who's never married, and never had a family.
 
I am a civil servant. Here's what I get:

Sick leaves
During the first six months probation period, I got no sick leave. After the six months, I get 1 day and then 1 additional day accrue at the end of each month. Then the next calendar year on Jan 1st, I got 12 sick days at 100% pay and 5 sick days at 75% pay. All the unused 100% and 75% sick leaves are carried over and accumulated up to 100 days for each pay rate. Any 100% sick leaves over the 100 days at the end of an calender year are paid in cash at 50%. Any 75% sick leaves over 100 days at the end of the calendar year are lost. I can only take 3 consecutive sick days off at a time. Anything over 3 consecutive days requires a doctor's note. I am also put on an excessive absence list if I take sick leaves 10 or more times a year.

Holidays
12 national holidays and 1 floating holiday.

Vacation
No vacation days during the first 6 months probation period. Then vacation accrues at a rate of 7 hours 20 mins per month, which equals to 11 days after a year. So I get 11 days for the first 5 years of service. At 5 years of service, I will get 17 days per year. The vacation days are carried over, but there is a max # hours that can be accumulated. The max # that can be accumulated depends on the years of service. I think it's about 2 years worth of vacation days that can be accumulate for the first 5 years of services. I am not sure because I used them all up for my two maternity leave. I can take 11 days off all together.
 
qtiekiki said:
I am a civil servant. Here's what I get:

Sick leaves
During the first six months probation period, I got no sick leave. After the six months, I get 1 day and then 1 additional day accrue at the end of each month. Then the next calendar year on Jan 1st, I got 12 sick days at 100% pay and 5 sick days at 75% pay. All the unused 100% and 75% sick leaves are carried over and accumulated up to 100 days for each pay rate. Any 100% sick leaves over the 100 days at the end of an calender year are paid in cash at 50%. Any 75% sick leaves over 100 days at the end of the calendar year are lost. I can only take 3 consecutive sick days off at a time. Anything over 3 consecutive days requires a doctor's note. I am also put on an excessive absence list if I take sick leaves 10 or more times a year.

Holidays
12 national holidays and 1 floating holiday.

Vacation
No vacation days during the first 6 months probation period. Then vacation accrues at a rate of 7 hours 20 mins per month, which equals to 11 days after a year. So I get 11 days for the first 5 years of service. At 5 years of service, I will get 17 days per year. The vacation days are carried over, but there is a max # hours that can be accumulated. The max # that can be accumulated depends on the years of service. I think it's about 2 years worth of vacation days that can be accumulate for the first 5 years of services. I am not sure because I used them all up for my two maternity leave. I can take 11 days off all together.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that maternity leave is NOT EXTRA??? :errrr:
 
My dh started a new job this past Nov and the policy there is that you may take as much time as you feel you need... :appl:
I am not an employee anywhere but an independent contractor so I do not get any benefits (i.e. sick days, personal days, vacation days, health benefits) and I may also take as much vacation as I want however I do not get paid for my days off. I usually take about 6 weeks of vacation a year not including holidays.

At my dh's previous job (where he had worked 16 years) he had over 5 weeks of vacation and I am not sure how many sick/personal days as he never took any of those.
 
mayerling said:
qtiekiki said:
I am a civil servant. Here's what I get:

Sick leaves
During the first six months probation period, I got no sick leave. After the six months, I get 1 day and then 1 additional day accrue at the end of each month. Then the next calendar year on Jan 1st, I got 12 sick days at 100% pay and 5 sick days at 75% pay. All the unused 100% and 75% sick leaves are carried over and accumulated up to 100 days for each pay rate. Any 100% sick leaves over the 100 days at the end of an calender year are paid in cash at 50%. Any 75% sick leaves over 100 days at the end of the calendar year are lost. I can only take 3 consecutive sick days off at a time. Anything over 3 consecutive days requires a doctor's note. I am also put on an excessive absence list if I take sick leaves 10 or more times a year.

Holidays
12 national holidays and 1 floating holiday.

Vacation
No vacation days during the first 6 months probation period. Then vacation accrues at a rate of 7 hours 20 mins per month, which equals to 11 days after a year. So I get 11 days for the first 5 years of service. At 5 years of service, I will get 17 days per year. The vacation days are carried over, but there is a max # hours that can be accumulated. The max # that can be accumulated depends on the years of service. I think it's about 2 years worth of vacation days that can be accumulate for the first 5 years of services. I am not sure because I used them all up for my two maternity leave. I can take 11 days off all together.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that maternity leave is NOT EXTRA??? :errrr:
Click to expand...

That varies from employer to employer. I have friends who got quite generous paid maternity leaves from their private sector employers and others who got nothing but FMLA (which is unpaid). I work for the Federal government, and we don't have paid maternity leave. We use our stockpiled vacation and sick days for for maternity (or paternity) leave.
 
elle_chris said:
honey22 said:
Wow, I really feel sorry for you guys. Here in Oz, it's compulsory to get 20 days annual leave (vacation time). It's also law to get a min sick leave of 8 days per year I believe.

I am lucky here, I get 15 days sick leave, 20 days annual leave and a RDO (rostered day off) every month. Happy employees equal productive employees. When are US management going to realise this?
Click to expand...

Actually, U.S. employees are some of the most productive in the world, google it.

Not that I disagree with you. I'd love to have more time off.
Click to expand...


Snort. If productivity is widgets produced per man hour worked, then all I have to do to increase "productivity" is install a machine to replace 4 of the 5 people I previously employed making widgets and leave one guy to run the machine. Voila! Instant productivity gains.

Numbers are deceptive. We work hard in the US - work ethic is part of the culture, but I doubt we're all that much more "productive".
 
DVS1 said:
qtiekiki said:
I am a civil servant. Here's what I get:

Sick leaves
During the first six months probation period, I got no sick leave. After the six months, I get 1 day and then 1 additional day accrue at the end of each month. Then the next calendar year on Jan 1st, I got 12 sick days at 100% pay and 5 sick days at 75% pay. All the unused 100% and 75% sick leaves are carried over and accumulated up to 100 days for each pay rate. Any 100% sick leaves over the 100 days at the end of an calender year are paid in cash at 50%. Any 75% sick leaves over 100 days at the end of the calendar year are lost. I can only take 3 consecutive sick days off at a time. Anything over 3 consecutive days requires a doctor's note. I am also put on an excessive absence list if I take sick leaves 10 or more times a year.

Holidays
12 national holidays and 1 floating holiday.

Vacation
No vacation days during the first 6 months probation period. Then vacation accrues at a rate of 7 hours 20 mins per month, which equals to 11 days after a year. So I get 11 days for the first 5 years of service. At 5 years of service, I will get 17 days per year. The vacation days are carried over, but there is a max # hours that can be accumulated. The max # that can be accumulated depends on the years of service. I think it's about 2 years worth of vacation days that can be accumulate for the first 5 years of services. I am not sure because I used them all up for my two maternity leave. I can take 11 days off all together.
Click to expand...

Are you saying that maternity leave is NOT EXTRA??? :errrr:
Click to expand...

I was going to bring that up... I'm in Canada, and in my province (Qc), moms have 18 weeks maternity leave (70% salary), dads have 5 weeks (70% salary) and then they can split 32 weeks (55% salary) between themselves (many choose to give them all to the mom so she can have a year off). In the mom threads I came to realise how little maternity leave moms have in this US. I've seen as little as 6 weeks, and I think the most I've seen was 6 months and there were special circumstances because she had twins? So... yeah, not so good on the parental leave front... :(sad
 
Yes, I worked for a hospital, and now work at the VA. In both cases, no paid maternity leave. For me it was tough both times, because in my first situation even though I took virtually no time off when I was a post-doc, they wiped the slate clean and didn't count any of the sick/annual I didn't take during those 3 years, which really sucks. So for some of my maternity leave I was moved down to part time so it would stretch for the 8 weeks I took off.
For my second maternity leave (also 8 weeks) I think I was accruing at around 6 hours per month, so when it came time to take maternity leave, I didn't have enough accrued, so needed to complete paperwork and take what is called advanced sick/annual leave, where I was in the negative when I returned to work. It wasn't the greatest feeling, especially as for the second child I stopped working on my due date, but she was born a week late so I returned 7 weeks after giving birth.

Really, all FMLA does is prevent you from getting fired if you have a child, but even for that it can be iffy.
 
My DH gets time off according to how many hours he works. Usually, this adds up to about 2 1/2 weeks vacation per year. BUT, he has to clear any vacation longer than 2 days with 6 months advance notice.( When we planned our honeymoon, we gave them 9 months notice, because we didnt want any room for error.) So, we usually end up doing weekend trips and 1 week vacation if he can get the time. Oh, I forgot he gets 4 days sick leave per year, too.
 
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