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Comment by asutekku | Hacker News Reader

Weekends are not holidays and should not be considered at such. It's insane for me, a European, that people in the US are really fine with just 2 weeks of holidays. I get 30 days + I can exchange some of my yearly bonus for 2 extra weeks. There's no way I'd change that into a system where most would be ok with way less.

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Is 30 days including holidays like Christmas, New Years Eve/Day, etc? Or is 30 days in addition to mandated holdiays?

Most people in the US have 2 tiers of vacation days: mandatory holidays (I'd say between 8-14 mandatory holidays is pretty standard at tech companies) plus an additional 3-4 weeks (15-20 days).

For most engineers in the US, something like 10 holidays + 3 additional weeks (or more) can be expected for a minimum total of 25 days. Plus 3-5 "sick/personal" days brings you up to roughly 30 days.

30 days in addition to national holidays, at least in my country. Those national holidays are something like 6-9 days extra paid time off (exact amount varies per year as some can occur on weekends).

These European comments are so tiring. You’re lucky that your job has very good time off, but 30 days aren’t a European requirement and people in many countries in Europe don’t get 30 days.

This is offset by wages being 2-3x (or even more) higher in professional fields. Lower income tax generally as well, so US professionals take home much greater pay in lieu of more holidays.

But what percent of the work force is in a professional field? And is that true of all professions or is this another software bubble?

I'd say its true for the majority of engineering work at least.

I saw and ad for a Waffle-house manager with a salary range of 50-55k year.

That's about what I earn as a engineer in Sweden (pre-tax).

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