discoviking

The financial industry is pretty good with vacation days, too - at least the european firms are. I get 35 days plus all federal holidays. Many banks also have a rule that you have to take 10 consecutive days off per year. The thinking behind that is that is fraud prevention - but who cares, I like being "forced" to take a real vacation each year.....

ian-mstm

It always amazes me that so many people whinge at the thought of not getting the same vacation allowance that they were used to in some foreign country.


Am I missing something? Oh... wait, there's that pesky thing called "The American Dream" that foreigners all want but whinge about when they have the opportunity!

Ian

Bob

Also they don't have to be offered and they don't have to be paid time off if they are offered.

Bob

Yeah, the missus only gets 4 of them off...also new hires aren't allowed to take a PTO day a day before or after to extend their holiday either.

She does have pretty decent holiday allowance though, but then shes in the management tier of benefits.

njmackem

The one thing that nobody has mentioned yet, and for most of us Ex-Pats its a pretty big one is that the salaries we earn here in the US in most cases far exceed those that we were earning in the UK (for what is in many cases the same or similar work).

Given that trade off, would you sacrifice 3 of your 5 week vacation allowance for an extra $30k?

I have friends who have made the trip over here for that exact same reason.

frankig

[QUOTE=essexnick;9926692]So for any of you who are living in the UK, please consider something that may not be a big deal at the time, but will eat away at you over time living in the USA....Vacation allowance.

Another way this supposedly great country is behind. And yes, it eats away at you.

robin1234

But as we keep on hashing out in various threads, the calculation is so much more complex than just comparing salaries; US property taxes are often many times higher than (whatever the UK equivalent, I've forgotten,) out-of-pocket heath costs can be $12,000+ per family; if you live in the north-eastern US you may be paying $10,000+ per annum in energy costs; if you have to drive tens of thousands of miles a year here, it could be that your vehicle costs are higher in the US than the UK..

But even just basic salary, I'm probably earning less here than I would be in the UK; but I came here for family reasons, not career-related..

ChocolateBabz

This is one of the reasons I am dreading going to back to work over here. Hubby has retained his UK holiday allowance of 5 weeks as he has been with his company so long plus he gets the public holidays. The dude gets lovely long summer holidays, spring break, thanksgiving, christmas etc. If I return to work with minimal holidays, the dude will be on his own during holidays - he is 13 now so has 'aged out' of a lot of kids programs and my vacation time will be swallowed up with one trip. I certainly won't be wasting that on a trip back to the UK to appease the family!! Oh yeah and if they think they are coming over here for a month I won't be using my holiday time for that either!!

Am just going to have to come up with a million dollar 'work from home' plan and be my own boss. Crocheted scarf anyone??

HumphreyC

Isn't a lot of that because certain states - like New Hampshire and New Jersey to a certain extent - have lower income and sales tax rates (none in the case of NH). This is based on the lie that you can live in an advanced 1st world country without having to pay out $$$'s for government and services. Instead the burden gets put on the property taxes which then go up to silly levels (in NJ the problem is worse because of the sheer number of municipalities and school districts). In the UK the taxes are countrywide and broad based so the council tax is comparatively small (I think also because our schools tend to be larger and more centralised they are much cheaper to run but I could be wrong on that)

That sounds high - what is included in the $10,000 - heating, electric, air conditioning etc?

markwm

I always thought it was common knowledge that holiday entitlement in the US is low compared to the UK. As part of my research before coming I looked at all that and decided it wasn't that big of a deal and certainly not a deciding factor. If I really needed more time I'd take unpaid leave or work something out. The fact that I can be outdoors virtually every weekend of the year and most evenings was far more important to me: it's like having a mini-vacation every week! How often can you do that in the UK?

robin1234

Depends where you live. From my perspective, I could be outdoors and enjoy it almost every day of the year in the UK because of the comparatively warm winters. Here in the US northeast, enjoyment of the outdoors is severely restricted because of the profoundly cold winters and the unpleasantly hot and buggy summers.

markwm

Fair point though I've never quite understood leaving one cold country for another, even colder! My moving choices were always predicated on copious amounts of sunshine and warm weather (though I have to say that LA was a tad chilly this morning).

robin1234

Heating oil and electricity. We don't have air conditioning. Heating oil this winter will be about $8,000 (oil is now over $4 per gallon.) Our electricity is between $1,500 and $2,000 per year.

Yes, I believe you are about right in your analysis of why property taxes are high. I would push it further, and say that because of unrealistic expectations & unfunded mandates, states, counties and localities have to add fees etc that nickel & dime us to death. Plus, more and more $160 road traffic fines that are apparently part of state's fiscal strategy these days.

SultanOfSwing

You've obviously not met my wife ...

This discussion is more of a one for the career-based visa people, I suppose. However, while sacrificing three weeks of wonderful leave for a bit of rumpy-pumpy may be 'worth it' in the long run, but one can still pine for the best of both worlds, can't one?

robin1234

I do agree with you and would have liked to give the west coast a go. But my wife, a Bronx native, has an irrational contempt for everything to do with the west coast.. probably a consequence of watching too many Woody Allen films at an impressionable age.