A highly subjective poll about standard of living

Indeed, which I daresay could also make a big difference to a family's 'material comforts'.

I've heard of places that just give you 'X' number of days off per year, which you can use for whatever. So, no having to declare whether you're sick or going away or whatnot.

Hiya

DrSuperL99 -

I know that you are completely biased towards the US in all these things, but studies by financial magazines don't seem to take a lot of different circumstances into account (and seem to be biased towards healthy childless adults who measure quality of life largely on how much expensive crap they can accumulate).

ETA: Sorry, that last paragraph sounded a lot more like nasty than teasingly sarcastic, which is how I meant it. Should have put a  there!

It's OK - I can never be offended no matter what anyone says

Yes! I am 'biased' .. but to Canada more than the USA! - For me, Canada takes the very best parts of the UK and the USA and overall, if I could up sticks tommorow and go live somewhere, it'd be Canada. The USA does come into my own personal places to also want to move to, so I do have some bias there as well!

I understand completely that alot more ailments and treatments are available on the NHS, I'm not trying to make it sound like it's stuck in the dark ages or anything, however maybe 'less' so on UKY but on my many US travels and discussions, there is definitley the notion that the NHS is some sort of awesome service that solves all medical issues - and not 'just' from Americans, other countries folk as well. It's that element to which I refer to, not everything is covered on the NHS, and also sometimes knowledge and medical expertise just isn't as good here too. Like some of my previous posts, I have family and friends who are medical professionals in the UK, USA, Canada and India and some of the 'real world' issues and the reality of Quality of care will make for some sobering thoughts. I've always maintained and known, when the NHS get it right, they do so very well indeed. When the NHS don't get it right, or lack in someway, unfortunatley, it's the individuals who often feel the brunt of it.

Mrs Robinson - I did say 'I believe' theirs a statutory minimum holiday entitlement!! - sounds like there isn't, so I unfortunatley don't have a link to back my claim up! - are you now going to slap my wrists?!!   - If I could be slightly risque for a second - but if there's employment sectors of the USA economy that don't provide any holiday entitlement for workers, to me, that immediately strikes me as the service sector and menial jobs level of employment that historically offer low pay. When perhaps looking at the vast majority of employment sectors throughout the USA, I'd hazard a guess that 'most' of those employers offer that 10 days (2 weeks) paid holiday time at a minimum.

As I mentioned, this topic is geared towards individual experiences between the 2 countries and theres no doubt for many here on UKY and other similar sites, the UK has indeed provided a better level of the various indexes.

Cheers ! DtM! West London & Slough UK!

I likely won't say anything new here, and I don't want to get too bogged down into the semantics debate, but I think the standard of living in the US is generally better, whereas I think the UK gets the nod for 'happiness factor'. I moved from San Francisco to central London, so the lifestyles weren't radically different (both are dense, major international cities and tourist centres and both are ridiculously overpriced). Quite simply, as expensive as SF or NYC may be, London humbles them both. Combine that with most UK jobs paying less (sometimes -far- less) than their US counterpart, and you will almost certainly be living a noticeably different and reduced lifestyle here than there.

In its favour, one cannot overstate how nice it is to have 5 weeks of holiday, on top of the regular bank holidays. I had a -very- generous company stateside (3 weeks holiday to start, 4 weeks after two years), but even that program paled in comparison with what basically everyone seems to get here (at least in middle-class / white-collar type jobs). The work/life balance also seems a bit healthier here, with people working 60+ hour weeks being more of a rarity than a norm. Overall, I think the UK is better for peace of mind. Combined with all of the other little things that are too numerous to list, I think my wife and I have generally been measurably happier here than in the US. That said, we do miss having a bigger house, better shopping options, a posher lifestyle, and all the material and service comforts that make America so, well, American.

Mrs Robinson - I did say 'I believe' theirs a statutory minimum holiday entitlement!! - sounds like there isn't, so I unfortunatley don't have a link to back my claim up! - are you now going to slap my wrists?!!

No, because you would enjoy it too much! 

If I could be slightly risque for a second - but if there's employment sectors of the USA economy that don't provide any holiday entitlement for workers, to me, that immediately strikes me as the service sector and menial jobs level of employment that historically offer low pay. When perhaps looking at the vast majority of employment sectors throughout the USA, I'd hazard a guess that 'most' of those employers offer that 10 days (2 weeks) paid holiday time at a minimum. 

I think that would be a pretty hazardous guess, as service sector, menial/manual labour & general office jobs comprise the biggest employment sectors within the US.  Yeah, sure, if you separate all the minutiae of different sectors - perhaps a lot do offer a basic standard of holiday time.  However, that doesn't really translate into anything meaningful if the vast majority of the working people are in fact employed in sectors that don't offer that as standard.  Whereas over here, having the statutory minimum annual leave days is fundamental - no matter what sector you may work in.

So as with the 'statutory minimum holiday time in the USA'...on this point, I think that you are talking... 

I am not aware of any minimum statutory holiday/vacation time requirement in the US.  Perhaps you could provide a link to back up that claim (10 days minimum in the US)?  AFAIK, it's completely down to the employer and/or possibly some state variations as well.

Even paid public holidays aren't an automatic given in many lines of work in the US.

Most of the places that I have worked (and people I know have worked) in the US, you weren't even entitled to take any paid vacation until you had worked there for a minimum period of time ranging from 6 months to a year.  The last place I worked, I had 10 days available to take after a full year's service, and after I had worked there for 5 years, I finally had accrued 15 days available each year.

Several full-time jobs I had in the USA didn't come with paid holiday time at all (granted, those were service industry jobs) but the most I ever received from any employer in the US was 5 days - just one working week.  However, I have no idea how service industry jobs work here as far as holidays go, they tend to be one of the industries in which employees receive the least benefits, I would imagine that may be the case here as well as in the US. Still, my stepfather has worked for the state government for nearly 20 years and only gets 10 days combined annual holiday and sick leave from his job. He had to go to work when he was unwell several times just to be able to come and visit us this year. 

Speaking of holiday allowances
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11139960

Speaking of holiday allowances
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-11139960

I like that!

It's interesting that no paid holidays are mandated by law in the UK. Even so, I think most people have paid holidays in addition to their paid leave - which would bump the UK (along with Switzerland and the Netherlands) up quite a bit on that list.

I'm a little unclear on the distinction between paid holidays and paid leave.

I'm a little unclear on the distinction between paid holidays and paid leave.

Paid holidays are the bank holidays- So here in Scotland its like the 1st and 2nd of January, Good Friday, 2 Mondays in May, the one at the beginning of August, then Christmas/Boxing Day, etc

Paid leave is like vacation time

Some employers roll them into one for a total of 20 days off in general.  I have friends who don't get the specific bank holidays, they just have total time off of 20 days.

My BF has 20 days total and then random Mondays off, whenever his employer feels like giving him a "bank holiday"   

I'm lucky, I have 28 days of leave and 8 bank holidays. I'm never working.  

 

phatbeetle, I think it's actually 20 days + 8 bank holidays, so the total minimum is 28 days. Employers can choose whether to include bank holidays in the 28 or whether to give 28 + 8. See the direct.gov link I posted above.

You would think there would be some uniformity amongst European community countries?

Just looked it up and this year we have 11 1/2 "bank" holidays. The 1/2 day is for Christmas Eve and we get the Friday after Thanksgiving thrown in too. However, we do not have the advantage of state holidays, e.g. Patriots' Day (aka Paul Revere Day), which is a flipping nuisance as public transportation uses Saturday or Sunday schedules on those days.
So that gives me a total of 44.5 days this year, counting vacation, personal days, and the Winter Recess. Actually I will have more than that because I had some vacation brought forward from last year. I didn't realize it was that much 

Reading this thread I realised that I actually don't have any idea how much paid leave I get.  So I dug out my contract and it turns out that I get "5.6 weeks," which by my calculation equals 28 days.  That's very interesting because we don't get paid for bank holidays unless we work them, in which case we get paid double.  But if DrSuperL is right, then we do get paid bank holidays, we just get them in the form of paid leave, which seems odd .  We also don't have to take our leave unless we want to; any unclaimed leave is paid as salary at the end of the year.  Does anyone else have that?  My husband works for the NHS, and he has to take all his leave, they're quite insistent about it, to the point where if he has any leave left by February (the new "leave year" starts in April) then his boss starts to nag him to take some time off! 

My husband works for the NHS, and he has to take all his leave, they're quite insistent about it, to the point where if he has any leave left by February (the new "leave year" starts in April) then his boss starts to nag him to take some time off! 

My old company in the US did this too. They didn't like you to carry days over into the next year because they were very afraid of someone being gone for 2-3 weeks at a time! Oh, the horror!