Work Leave in the USA

[invisible]

Hi everyone! *smiles* It's only me, your silly pal invisible.

I am just wondering, what is the standard number of weeks of paid annual leave for an organisation to provide to its full time permanent employees in the USA? What is the legal minimum?

What is the standard number of weeks of paid maternity leave for an organisation to provide to its full time permanent employees in the USA? What is the legal minimum? What implications do you think that this has for a family and for working mothers in particular?

If you live in the USA, how do you think that this compares to the leave offered and legislated in other countries, particularly wealthy developed nations?

If you live in a country other than the USA, what do you think of the standards that the USA legislates in regard to the annual and maternity leave that should be offered to workers?

Should work leave accrue when not taken?

As always, thank you for any responses to my humble thread x

 

[invisible]

Don't be shy!!!!!! You don't have to answer all the questions, just answer what you know. Then we can all compare notes.

 

[Stu]

six weeks is the standard unpaid leave allotment for maternity. In the US ones time off benefits are wholly dependent on the organization for which one works.
If you are working for the Feds it is fairly robust
If you are working for thriving corporations it can also be very good.
Most wage earners get 2 weeks of paid vacation (but don't quote me on that, I know lots of folks who do not get any paid time off.)

 

[Tzimzai]

As a standard? Maybe two weeks year? It is difficult to say as there really isn't a standard. Each state has it's own laws. I am not sure that any state has a mandatory minimum for annual leave or maternity leave. Washington state just recently passed a law that will ensure 40 hours of sick leave a year but that doesn't take effect till 2018.

Most of the time it is all up to the employer so you can have 0 hours a year if they feel (not an uncommon occurance). Where I work I get about 3 weeks a year paid and I get the feeling that is more than most.

From what I see that is offered in other wealthy developed nations the US is pretty shit for paid leave. Hell, Afghanistan apparently has better paid leave than we do from a required by law standpoint.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_minimum_annual_leave_by_country

Notice the US is goose eggs in all columns.

That being said there are many companies that offer it regarless. Still, most likely not as much as other wealthy developed nations. Like Stu alluded to above it all depends on who you work for.

 

[James]

I have to say I think the paid leave, sick leave, maternity pay etc in comparison to the UK and EU members ? It's far worse. Here you'd normally get 4 to 5 weeks paid holiday leave. Good employers offer 6 weeks. Plus you'd get between 10 days as public holidays.

Maternity pay depends on the employer but I think the minimum is 13 weeks. Public sector employees often qualify for between 6-12 months paid leave. I think in America you have lower direct taxes, but get far less in return.

 

[invisible]

In Australia,

The standard paid annual leave for a permanent employee, whether full time or part time, is 4 weeks. Whether you're permanent or full time you will get paid for the hours that you would normally work during that period, while you are away.

The standard paid maternity leave is 12 months.

If an employee gets less than these things, they will sue their employer in a court of law for treating them unfairly.

 

[invisible]

In the country where I live, I will go to my employer,

"My mother is having surgery. She is having a general anaesthetic. I need a day off next week."

My employer will say "No problem. Is your Mom OK? I hope so."

"I am desperate for some time off. I am frayed and need a holiday badly. How soon can you give it to me?"

"We don't have many people off in May-June. You can take a month off then?"

Would this kind of thing be usual in the USA?

 

[invisible]

You guys are SUCKERS for the system. You think that corporate owns you. If you were in another developed country, you would be rioting, even the people who say "Leftist violent people don't care about the law" would be rioting. But the expectations are so normalised for you that you don't know what's fair and reasonable or not anymore. 2 weeks off a year is NOT a reasonable human existence. But you don't know it's not reasonable, because you don't know any different from what you've experienced. You just do what corporate tells you.

 

[Tzimzai]

In the country where I live, I will go to my employer,

"My mother is having surgery. She is having a general anaesthetic. I need a day off next week."

My employer will say "No problem. Is your Mom OK? I hope so."

That probably isn't to uncommon. Just don't do it more than once or twice a year

"I am desperate for some time off. I am frayed and need a holiday badly. How soon can you give it to me?"

"We don't have many people off in May-June. You can take a month off then?"

I don't know if that is common or not. I would guess not. Most of the places I have worked would have had a problem with that much time. This is the country where they like putting you on salary so you can work 60 hours a week and only get paid for 40.