st: the European penchant...

[Kit Baum <baum@bc.edu>]

Nick Cox questioned my off-the-cuff remark about 'the European  
penchant for extended vacations.' It turns out to be enshrined in EU  
statutes:

"In Europe, vacation time often occurs in August--all of August! A  
European Union directive prescribes four weeks annual leave for all  
employees (EC 93/104 Art.7(1)) (Europa, the European Union Online),  
but some countries' national laws exceed this allotment."

The tables in the article below show (albeit dated, but no doubt  
still quite relevant) that US vacation time -- which is not mandated  
at all by labor law -- is far short of four weeks / 20 days paid  
vacation.

http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/library/research/questionofthemonth/ 
aug03.html

As anecdotal evidence, my own employer grants

5/6 day per month in the first year (10 days)
1 1/4 day per month in years 2-9 (15 days)
1 2/3 day per month in years 10+ (20 days)

to the office/clerical/service staff, so that only long-term  
employees get 4 weeks' vacation per year. (Full-time faculty get two  
months vacation, unfortunately sans recompense).

Kit Baum, Boston College Economics and DIW Berlin
http://ideas.repec.org/e/pba1.html
An Introduction to Modern Econometrics Using Stata:
http://www.stata-press.com/books/imeus.html


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