Xebedee

For them who don't understand exempt/non-exempt and the effects.

Another thing is the difference between exempt and non-exempt. Some firms have even struck on the brainwave of defining workers as "salaried-non-exempt".
My experience has been that if you are salaried, the sick-leave varies from 5 days p/a to no limit. Vacation time might be a little higher also and more immediately available as it is typically credited at the start of the year. Of course, those salaried will work for free beyond 40hrs/wk (hence, exempt from labor law) and may or may not "clock-in".
Hourly usually get 5 days sick p/a, possibly one or two personal days and vac time is typically accrued at a rate. They may have to wait a year before the first vac as well. After 40hrs, time and a half / double on hols.

Exempt or non-exempt (to my understanding) is defined by the fact that you generally define your own work and schedule it accordingly. A usual clue is that a salaried person won't have a supervisor; it'll be a manager. Hourly staff answer to supervisors who, themselves, may or may not be salaried.
Then you get unions in the mix.........

.....and so on and so forth, ad nauseam.

Michael

That is close to what it is for the manufacturing, service, or construction industry but for professionals (engineers, finance, etc.), most are exempt. In the Silicon Valley, many companies have flexible hours for the engineering staff allowing them to arrive and leave whenever they please. Some like myself are workaholics and worked 60 plus hours per week and didn't take lunch breaks while others worked 30-40 hours per week with long lunch breaks and generally shot the bull when they should have been working. Of course my salary was higher than the guy who worked 30-40 hours per week and when layoffs occurred, I didn't have to worry.

Xebedee

Yeah, I'm an M.E. and apart from doing it as a temp, have always been salaried (exempt). Before that I worked hourly here in the US.
You know, I never have come across a firm that allows the engineers to come and go (flexitime) at all. In fact, I've found its more a case of "get in on time or else and what do you mean you want to leave early?"

In a very passive-aggressive way, of course. So as not to invite discussion. Usually with words like "Professional" and "bonus" thrown in to give you a hard-on.

Michael

Silicon Valley is unique in flex hours. Intel is one of the few exceptions where everybody has to sign in if they arrive after 10 am and have to sign in and out during the day after 10 am to make sure that people are working when they are supposed to be working. When I worked for Novell in the 1990's, no one cared when you arrived and left and how long you were out of the office as long as you were available for meetings. When I worked for Fujitsu back in the 1980's, they didn't have flex hours but working hours weren't enforced so people arrived at work at different times but usually at the same time each day. Both companies also allowed you to work from home several days a week if that is what you desired.

Xebedee

Sounds like you've been treated pretty decently.
Good for you.

Bob

Look at what the state minimum is and that's the very least you should get.

In MA, that is a whopping, huge, 0 days minimum holiday allowance.

Anything offered above that is a bonus, anything offered that is paid is a bigger bonus.

Things to look out for, are the business open or closed during public holidays? You might not get the option to take it off if they're closed.

Sick time, it is usually included in PTO time these days as your holiday/vacation allowance but worth double checking to see if it is or separate and how long you can be sick before needing a doctors note, or just how long you can take consecutive days off at once. BIL works for a bank up in Maine, he was only allowed to take off 2 days on the trot on his PTO for the first couple of years, but not in conjunction with a public holiday or a weekend adjoining day. How shit is that

scrubbedexpat099

My lot can take as much holiday as they want, I just require a death certificate and 2 weeks notice.

Ozzidoc

Husband in California gets 20 days vacation plus holidays.

Wibblypig

My husband gets 20 days vacation and 10 'holidays'. Company is based in NYC, if that makes a difference, he works all over the east side of the US. This is a big plus to us as he owned his own company back in the UK and was lucky if he took 2 weeks off a year!

AmerLisa

My husband gets 20 (although it might be 21, can't remember) days of vacation and paid holidays as well.

Mummy in the foothills

My Dh gets 15 vacation days and 4 holiday days thats after 5 years with the company, before that it was 10 vacation days and 4 holidays (after a full 12 months of service)

tonrob

The Connecticut Department of Labor gave Mrs tonrob 365 days off last year.

Mummy in the foothills

Thats what I got too, but the dept of labor didn't want to know about it.

HarryTheSpider

My employer has pretty good benefits in this area.

When people come for interviews and the benefits are explained to them, we can tell by their reactions (akin to disbelief and extreme desire!) that they work for a much larger version of ourselves, a nameless massive silicon chip company whose main product you will find "inside" most laptops and PCs and might sound suspiciously like intel...

I get 15 days paid vacation, 8 days holiday paid, and up to 10 days personal time (paid), which can only be taken at the last minute 1 day at a time, for medical and similar appointments for example. So that's in total, better than back home! We're encouraged to make use of personal time as the manufacturing employees we have get the same, and they get paid for any remaining personal time they have left at the end of the year. No, not a union thing either, just an enlightened employer. Oh, and how does it affect the bottom line? Very nicely! On our worst quarter in the downturn our NET income was a little over 36%... Yes, you read that right - net income!

The workforce here is incredibly loyal and long tenured which brings its own challenges, but generally they're the challenges you'd rather have.

BritishGuy36

I got really lucky in landing a job after moving to the US that gives me 8 holi-days, 3 weeks paid vacation and 4 weeks paid sick leave. Not bad money either. So it wasn't much worse than what I had in the UK. That is far better than the norm so I'm hoping the job continues a while longer yet!

Having said all that, since I got into the american 'work ethic' anyway I've hardly had any time off in two years, got probably 4 weeks of vacation built up and even more sick time.