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Comment by antjanus | Hacker News Reader

That's a very good point. I once applied for a job that had an interesting pay: a little over 100K. But that doesn't tell you anything, right? It's the benefits:

1. 8 days PTO - yeah...seriously, so basically no time off

2. distance to work was about 20-30 minutes -- not bad

3. LOW relative cost of living -- that 100K STRETCHES FAR, unlike in the bay area

4. no health insurance, no coverage

5. no retirement benefits

6. 70-80ish hours (basically late nights + weekends) weeks prior to investor meetings, 60-70ish hours normally

Take it as you may but taking out just one of those points above changes your whole perspective on the job.

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I'll never understand the pitiful amount of time off US employees get - here in the UK I get 30 days holiday time a year, and unless I were to utterly take the piss being sick isn't taken out of that, its just accepted as one of those things that happens.

The issue is more people don't even use up the vacation days. People in the states are workaholics. It's competitive, there's the fear of losing their jobs if they are out of the office for too long.

Vacations cost money.

You can spend your vacation time at home, if you don't want to spend money on big trips. Where I live, vacations are 30 days a year but most people only spend around 7 on big trips, or less if they need to save money.

Like pnt12 I don't use much of my holiday time for traditional holidays, but I do tend to take the time off. Some of it will go on simply needing to do things like take my son to a doctor's appointment or other errands, but I've also taken time off to move house, play a new game on release day, and once I took a week off to make some progress on a side project. Having a decent amount of holiday time is great for that sort of thing.

Yeah as a state employee my pay looks low compared to what some of my peers make. When you factor in benefits and 14% in pension contributions not to mention good culture and work-life balance I come out the same (if not ahead IMHO).

I don't know, I'd be getting nervous about state backed pension schemes (assuming that's what you're in).

True, very true.

I'm part of a University system pension scheme that, while operating with a sizable unfunded liability, is fairly stable and has a good outlook. In the end there is a risk but it's difficult to quantify looking out 35 years in the future. I do know better than to take it as a 100% and have eggs in other baskets as well.

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