Why do Americans get less vacation time than Europeans? - Comparably | Comparably

Why do Americans get less vacation time than Europeans?

Office Culture

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15 Answers

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    Top Employee Response

    Some Americans are overly invested in their jobs. Americans self identify more with what they do as who they are. I think Americans who are career driven in salaried positions do not feel they can be away from work for extended periods.

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    Corporate greed in America

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    Different culture, different expectations

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    Americans just need to be more demanding

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    Living the American dream means paying for some one that doesnt have a job

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    Americans don't actually know what freedom feels like.

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    American's get less vacation time than Europeans because a majority are not pulling the weight of process improvement, thereby causing the need for better performance output to enhance company profits.

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    Because we are ruled by an oligarchical elite who perpetuate the myth of "American exceptionalism"; brainwashing the masses into believing the harder and longer you work, the more "character" you will develop, and the better your life will turn out. Coupled with the longstanding cultural archetype of the "rugged individual", and with the stale fantasy of the "American dream", we see upward mobility as a competition against everyone else rather than something everyone should have a chance to achieve. Inequality in America is vast and growing, and for those of us in the "middle class" we see people living in poverty as evidence that we are succeeding because we have more than them, even if we are not truly as a free or happy as our European counterparts. Once we learn to take back control of the country from the handful of billionaires who have rigged the system against the rest of us, then maybe we will have more vacation time and higher standards of living in general.

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    That is because we as Americans have a less socialist government than Europeans. Though there are other countries getting less than Americans.

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    Because we have a structure that tilts all of society to the benefit of capital.

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    We don't value family & home as much as Europeans. We are a newer country of misplaced people unlike long-rooted family history & tradition in Europe.

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    There are more workers available in America. A surplus of workers drives benefits down. Additionally, congress is typically full of senior/upper management businessmen whose bottom line would be cut if workers were given more benefits, so they have little incentive to regulate increased vacation time.

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    Because Anerica does not care about it's workers. They want to keep us stressed and sick so that they can profit off of us through medical insurance and medicine.

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    Because U.S. corporate leaders are about the bottom line, not realizing that workers without balance will negatively impact their bottom line.

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    because we don't value it as much as Europeans