Quality of life in Europe

[barneyg]

Originally Posted by Lusitano_

In Portugal I know it's 25 business days mandatory of paid holidays.

In France it seems to be 6 weeks MINIMUM, but in the link you provided it says it can go up to 9 weeks of PAID HOLIDAYS! Damn ... that seems like a lot! If that indeed is true... I cannot even imagine the grasp of being an enterpreuner and the costs of doing business in France.

Well that 9.5 weeks figure is misleading as it's really just a reallocation of hours worked -- if you work extra hours in weeks A, B and C, you can take part of week D off. That type of thing happens all the time here in Quebec, although not to that extent (many public sector employees have something similar to RTT but the cap is 1 day per month).

The main difference between some of these countries is the 'one size fits all' approach taken by France, while in many other countries some people have those kinds of conditions while others do not, depending on who they work for, whether they are unionized, etc.

[pigeonhole]

the 'one size fits all' approach taken by France

Absolutely not true. Depending of your type of contract (public/ administration, public/industry, private /big corporation, private/ startup, special public like railway, underground workers, etc) the conditions are wildly different.
For instance my young colleague , new in the workforce, doing exactly the same work as me, earns only 16 000 €/year (less than half what I earn) and has only 4 weeks holidays because he is on a private contract (in the IT industry) whereas I am on a public contact (government). I find such a difference is unfair, even if it's in the order of things that I earn more being an "old hand"...(fortunately is is a good sport and makes fun of it, calling me "hey rich guy" -lol-)