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That would be incorrect. 2013 OECD data puts the US as second in terms of average annual wages, Luxembourg is #1. However, this is pre-tax. Add in the considerable income tax burden that EU maintains and we would far outdistance other countries in terms of annual wages.
I've lived and worked in Austria for a time after graduation... it is simply a different culture... many have lower expectations and more time for family is what I found.
Heck.. you can't even find a open hardware store or market on a Sunday...
All of my colleagues owned a single small car for the family if they owned a car.
Since my time there I have hosted many of the kids of my colleagues... some came as Au-pairs... none would trade their time in the States for anything but were happy to return to Austria and Germany to settle down...
The common consensus is America is a wonderful place to be single and for those that are ambitious... not so for families because of the competition that is the norm here... the social services for families are truly amazing there... but it comes at a cost or a kind of one size fits all.
We are a nation of immigrants and people looking for better and willing to take on the struggles to realize a dream..
I am a consultant and while I make a good living, I don't take vacation much because I can't bill companies if I don't work. I take no more than 2 weeks off a year not including holidays and that's good enough. Work when you're still in the prime income years. Vacations are nice if you are entitled to them but I always find going to vacations more hassle than staying close by and just relax.
Europe isn't a paradise. There are restrictive laws, taxes are higher, and there is less tolerance for new ideas. America has less regulation, more innovation, and more creativity.
Sure you get paid vacation by law. If you work a term of employment and never take the holiday, it accumulates and you can even get a payout of wages from paid holidays which were not taken. Sounds kind of sweet?
But in Europe everything is more expensive. Property, food, booze, anything. The price of cigarettes in your state will probably be around five bucks. In Europe, you're talking about fifteen. That goes for anything, like music CDs, or shirts, or car accessories, don't even get started on gas.
Still it is surprising how America is so ruthless on working people while at the same time trying to promote the idea of being a country of working people. Sure, paid vacations were championed by the Socialists, but they have been tolerated, even used as examples by Nationalists too. So it is not as simple as "darn european commies!"
The US is most certainly not known for its high rewards in salary. Quite the opposite, actually.
The U.S has terrible lousy work life balance for the most part
I'm all up for working and earning a paycheck
But I hate the idea of having to compete with other people for the same jobs, and some of those jobs expect you to put your own family/social life ahead of them.
No thanks I am not a 24/7 employee and refuse to be
At least some companies are family friendly but the U.S is embarassing the only country to not require paid time off this needs to change.
The U.S has terrible lousy work life balance for the most part
I'm all up for working and earning a paycheck
But I hate the idea of having to compete with other people for the same jobs, and some of those jobs expect you to put your own family/social life ahead of them.
No thanks I am not a 24/7 employee and refuse to be
At least some companies are family friendly but the U.S is embarassing the only country to not require paid time off this needs to change.
The US can learn a bit from Europe
It's a different cluture and philosophy. The key point here is "REQUIRE", and also competition. Where do you draw the line when you REQUIRE your citizens to do anything?
It's a sliding scale, Europe REQUIRES much of it's citizens, as a continent dominated by social democracies and collective, rather than individual, rights. You can't disregard one without the other.
The US has always been about individual rights, individual responsibilities. The country was found on those concepts and principles, the first ten amendments or the US constitution is nothing but individual rights. Are you prepared to give up some of your freedoms (the government not only dictating what companies should do, but what you should do in every facet of life), in exchange for these collective benefits? Most Americans want it both ways, you can't have it both ways. I work for a European company, my coworkers are European, trust me it's not all rosy there.
Your company doesn't offer paid family leave and it's important to you? Leave it and join a company that does. The best companies will compete for the best employees and offer these benefits. If you don't want to compete, you want to succeed without hard work...then maybe the US is not for you.
I hate the idea of having to compete with other people for the same jobs
This sentiment seems to be strong among those who believe they are entitled to more time off, more benefits, cushier hours, etc with no other concessions.
It seems like there are a lot of people who want "X" but are unwilling to do "Y". If you want a job that pays well and gives you flexible hours, great benefits, and PTO, you need to be a competitive, educated, and valuable candidate. You could also leverage your creativity and start a business to create your own hours. If you are unskilled and unwillingly to change that, and also unwilling to work hard and compete, than how can you expect to get all these wonderful benefits?
There is also lots of complaints about "consumer culture" in America. I agree, it is stupid and wasteful, so just don't participate!! If you are clearly aware of it, don't buy useless trash, buy stock in the companies that make it instead.
In Europe employees get vacation time, leave and all sorts of amazing benefits that Americans don't. Why does America suck so much?
I get Vacation time, Personal Time and Sick Time, all fully-paid, and I live and work in the USA. All depends on who you work for. Some employers are more generous than others.
My employer is so generous that, when we had to completely shut down for the blizzard back on the 14th, they paid us full day's Regular pay, meaning we got paid as though we worked. We didn't use paid time off.
They appear to value quality of life over money or materialism. The countries who come out highest on the happiness scale are the ones paying higher taxes and receiving more benefits that contribute to their quality of life.
And Norway was just ranked #1. The US would be smart to start following their lead.
It’s true that they didn’t work much, not by American standards anyway. In the US, full-time salaried workers supposedly laboring 40 hours a week actually average 49, with almost 20 percent clocking more than 60. These people, on the other hand, worked only about 37 hours a week, when they weren’t away on long paid vacations. At the end of the work day, about four in the afternoon (perhaps three in the summer), they had time to enjoy a hike in the forest or a swim with the kids or a beer with friends — which helps explain why, unlike so many Americans, they are pleased with their jobs.
So here’s the big difference: in Norway, capitalism serves the people. The government, elected by the people, sees to that. All eight of the parties that won parliamentary seats in the last national election, including the conservative Høyre party now leading the government, are committed to maintaining the welfare state. In the US, however, neoliberal politics put the foxes in charge of the henhouse, and capitalists have used the wealth generated by their enterprises (as well as financial and political manipulations) to capture the state and pluck the chickens. They’ve done a masterful job of chewing up organized labor. Today, only 11 percent of American workers belong to a union. In Norway, that number is 52 percent; in Denmark, 67 percent; in Sweden, 70 percent.
In the US, oligarchs maximize their wealth and keep it, using the “democratically elected” government to shape policies and laws favorable to the interests of their foxy class. They bamboozle the people by insisting, as Hillary Clinton did at that debate, that all of us have the “freedom” to create a business in the “free” marketplace, which implies that being hard up is our own fault.
In the Nordic countries, on the other hand, democratically elected governments give their populations freedom from the market by using capitalism as a tool to benefit everyone. That liberates their people from the tyranny of the mighty profit motive that warps so many American lives, leaving them freer to follow their own dreams — to become poets or philosophers, bartenders or business owners, as they please.
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