How Much Vacation Time Do You Get?

This piece on vacation days made me want to ask all of you:

How much vacation time do you get?

The numbers in the article above include both vacation days as well as holidays. Workers in Lithuania and Brazil led the pack with an average of 41 days off per year. The US averaged 25 days -- 15 days of vacation plus 10 holidays a year.

Vacation is one thing that I've always guarded and negotiated as I've changed jobs, and I've never gone backwards as a result. I've had a couple employers want to drop me back to their "standard policy" (like one week) when I've switched positions, but I've held firm. I see vacation time as time with my family and I'm not going to give that up.

As such, here's what I currently have as vacation time each year:

• 20 vacation days
• 7 personal days (can be taken in one-hour chunks for things like dentist visits or full days for sickness, etc.)
• 6 holidays (New Year's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas Day)
• 33 days total

We actually convert the vacation and personal days into hours and then take off what we need, when we need.

BTW, I hardly ever take all my vacation. I take what I need/want and the rest is banked. I carried over some days last year and as of this writing I still have 24 days coming to me for 2009. I may use some of those in December, but no matter what I do, I will carry over a big amount into 2010. I can choose to get paid for them if I like, but I prefer having banked vacation in case we decide we want to take an unexpected vacation.

Now that I think about it, I should make it a goal to take more vacation next year. I'll put that on my resolution list.

So how about you? How much vacation time do you get?

Comments

[CPA Abroad]

In the US, 28 PTO (Paid Time Off) days plus 8 holidays (those you list plus 2 floating where the company designated the days at the beginning of the year, generally the day after Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve or the 26th or the 4th of July to make a 4 day weekend). If you got sick, it came out of PTO, but you could go negative in certain instances. You could only carryover one year's worth of vacation and you would lose the excess (i.e. if you had 30 days to carryover, you lost 2 days). In order to get paid out you had to leave the company. Moving to Europe, still with the same firm counts, so I got paid out 24 days when I moved, which was nice.

In Europe now, 25 days and 8 or 10 holidays, I am not sure. But you get sick days. Get a doctor's note and you can be off as long as they say you need to be off.

BTW, both of these are at a Big 4 firm. Big 4's generally have really good PTO policies, but you have to work hard to take all you days. They are not going to beg you to take your days, or even suggest it.

[Mike]

15 days total PTO (paid time off). All our vacation, sick, and personal time comes out of the same pool. 9 company holidays. 24 days total. Our policy essentially encourages us to come to work sick because there is no distinction between vacation and sick/personal.

[susan]

I get 10 vacation days, 5 personal/sick days (like at Mike's place - that makes me go in to work sick so I can use the days for personal days), 6 holidays, 4 floating holidays.

[Crystal]

10 vacation days (can also be broken down to 1/2 days)
4 excused sick days (doctor's note)
2 unexcused sick days (no doctor's note)
8 holidays (New Year's Day, Memorial Day, July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Day after Thanksgiving, Floating Christmas holiday, and Christmas Day)

24 days total

Vacation days are use it or lose it, and you are encouraged to use it. You can carry over up to 5 days after 5+ years (when you start getting 15 days a year) and up to 10 days a year after 10+ years (when you start getting 20 days a year, which is the max).

Any unused sick days will carry over as excused sick days (maximum of 40 days total).

I cannot wait until January 2011 when I get 5 more vacation days. It's murder being married to a teacher when you have to get up and go to work for the 2 1/2 months of summer and the 2 weeks around Christmas while he/she is snoring away happily... :)

[Mark]

31 days + 8 days purchased = 39 days

The 40 hours purchased each paycheck is deducted before-tax along with 401k, insurance, & benefits.

[Crystal]

To those who feel encouraged to come to work sick, please don't. If you pretend some of your personal days are for sick leave only, you wouldn't feel bad about using them when you are sick.

Otherwise it's like encouraging a company to treat you like a child and forcing you to get a doctor's note in order to use some of your days (like my company does).

[StL Pastor]

16.5 days off (I have a 5.5 day work week)
plus sick days 'as needed'
I like working for the church.
My wife also had a job that blended sick days and vacation days. We definitely experienced it as the company wanting her to come to work when she was ill. And if you boss wants you to do it, who are we to say no?

[Jim]

In the USA, I get 20 paid vacation days, 9 fixed holidays plus 1 'floating' holiday that I can use whenever I want. My company does not allocate sick days so you use whats needed and its honor system basically. But I've never seen anyone abuse the sick days.

The article says that 15 days is average in the USA. I don't think thats exactly right. 15 days is average if you have 15 years experience. People with 1-5 years experience average 10 days. Total average is lower than 15 probably like 12 days.
ref: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/ebs.t05.htm

[Victor]

This year I get 10 (vac) + 5 ( sick days) + 10 ( holidays). I never used to use all my vacation time, but last year, I took the last two weeks of the year off. Nice !!. I plan on doing that again this year. Next year is a big year for me, it will be the first time ever that I get 3 weeks vacation -- And I've been working in this field for going on 15 years now !!

[momof3dogs]

17 holidays (pretty much all the major and minor holidays plus x-mas eve through Jan. 1)
12 sick days at full pay of which 7 can be used for personal days
88 sick days at half pay (I assume this is to be used for a catastrophic illness)
20 vacation days
49 full paid days total

[Josh Stein]

15 vacation days, 7 1/2 holidays (a half day for Good Friday)...use it or lose it.

In a couple years it'll move up to 20 vacation days. Company may some day offer a plan to purchase additional vacation. I'll be first in line.

[Katharine]

13 vacation days
13 sick days [both can be broken down by the hour]
10 federal holidays

I'd gladly trade the holidays for more vacation days - I started working in June, and just barely have enough that I can take the week between xmas and new years.

So 33 paid days. After 3 years my vacation days jump up to 19.5 vacation days per year.

[kitty]

25 vacation days (see note 1)
3-4 personal choice holidays (2)
9-8 fixed holidays (2)
sick days "as needed" (3)
"personal business" time off e.g. for visits to doctors, etc. "as needed" (3)

ability to work from home except on days where there are face-to-face meetings (although even then I could ask a manager for call-in number if have a good reason for working from home)

Notes:
(1) (a) got it during the year of my 20 anniversary with the company, but then when I started I only got 2 weeks in the year of my first anniversary. Current new hires get 3 weeks at start, 4 weeks at the year of the 10th anniversary and that's it. (b) we are not allowed to carry vacations, if we don't use it in a year, we lose it. Some people do not take all of their vacation.

(2) It's 12 total holidays a year. Depending on how the holidays fall - e.g. 2 days for Christmas or one, 2 days for independence day or one, there could be 3 or 4 personal choice holidays.

(3) The work still needs to be done. The emphasis is on accomplishements not time spent. If you are sick - fine, take time off, but at the end of the year you still need to show accomplishements, and your accomplishements will be compared to that of everyone else. You may look busy or browse internet, but at the end of the year, you better not end up in bottom 5%. Two years in a row in bottom 5% and it's good bye, sooner if they are layoffs (nobody is safe during layoffs, but with "needs improvement" evaluation you are as good as gone). I've not seen anybody abuse vacation days or "personal business" time; sure someone may take a few hours during the day for a walk in the park, but the same person is likely to stay late or work from home to still get the job done. Lots of people just lose their vacation. It's a very competitive environment.

[Carrie]

Mine seems to be pretty generous (I've only worked here 3 years):
15 vacation days (will be 20 as of 01/2011)
10 sick days (can use if kids are sick too)
10 holidays
Plus, we don't have to use vacation time for doctor's appts, kids school functions, etc. as long as we only miss 3 hours or less.

[Niranjan B]

14.67 hours per month which makes 176 hours i.e. 22 days of PTO
9 holidays per year
Total: 31 days

[Gerry]

Vacation:
Years 1 - 5: 10 days
Years 6 - 15: 15 days
Years 16 - death: 20 days

Sick:
Non-Exempt employees: 5 days
Exempt employees: Honor System

Holidays:
12 days

[cmadler]

18 vacation days (accruing at 1.5 days/month, can accumulate up to 36 days)
5 sick days (no accrual, no Dr. note needed, just call in)
7-10 paid holidays (can include a day before/after July 4, Christmas, New Year's Day, depending on where in the week they fall). Also, we usually close 2-4 hours early the day before a holiday
Total: 30-33 days, plus early closures etc.

[MC]

25 days PTO (includes vacation & sick & emergency child care/sick child days)
10 days company-determined holidays

We can carry forward 10 days of PTO year to year, but otherwise if you don't use it, you lose it.

[Amanda L Grossman]

12 PTO days per year
12 sick days per year
14 holidays+ periodic extra admin time they give us (like in December, we get 8 hours of admin time we can use whenever we'd like)
*if I work overtime, I do not earn more, but I do get time and a half added to my PTO, which is a big help especially since I am getting married and going on a honeymoon this year!

[billyjobob]

32 days of PTO and 6 holidays with pay. We don't have sick days. If your sick you use pto time. I like it that way. I worked at one place that gave sick days. To me that encourage people to call in sick. Can't blame them. A day of is a day off.

[Rich A.]

I get 20 vacation days plus...

The "plus" is because I travel a lot for work. I can flex my schedule to take off a day or two before/after trips to make up for the time I will be or have been away from my family.

I can also take my family with me on some trips, so we end up getting some family vacation time that doesn't count against my vacation days...plus a lot of the expenses are covered (like vehicle costs and hotel).

[JimL]

25 PTO days per year (includes vacation, personal days and sick days).

10 holidays per year

Flexibility in time off if you have had to work evenings and/or weekends.

You can carry over 20 days into the following year.

[Tim]

10 vacation days
13 holidays

I am only in my first year at my current company. When I enter my third calendary year I 10 additional vacation days. Sick days and personal days are all handled on an honor system.

[Kimberly]

15 days of PTO a year to be used for vacation and sick time
6 regular holidays plus 2 floating holidays

I don't know why the floaters are called holidays when there are no restrictions on their use, but they were given with "intent" for things like the day after Thanksgiving or Christmas Eve.

I don't mind the combination PTO, I just find that in my positions it has been a very small amount your first year. Add to that the fact that it is accrued and not given up front, it's very tough to take a proper vacation.

[Liz M.]

I get 10 paid holidays plus a floating holiday for Christmas Eve, Black Friday, or New Year's Eve. After that, I get 9 hours of PTO every 2 week pay period. That is used for your sick and personal days and you can use it however you want to. You can carry over something like 300 hours per year otherwise you need to burn it. My office personally would rather you stay home sick than come in. We have several people with small children and compromised immune system so it is a precaution. Also, they are somewhat lenient if you need to leave a couple hours early or late for appointments.

[Matt]

20 base vacation days
10 purchased vacation days
11 Statutory holidays
24 Fridays off (1st and 3rd of each month)

I still find it hard to be economical with my holidays! Too many places I want to see, and I don't want to cheap out like most of the readers here...life is too short! (And I pay my trips off almost immediately upon my return...cash!)

[LeeAnn]

15 vacation days (paid)
10 special leave days (paid - meant for errands, taking care of sick child or a random day off. I use mine in chunks i.e. I took 2 weeks off this summer.)
20 sick days (paid - If none used in a 3 month period, then I get 1 additional "gratuity day" that I can use whenever I want. Also, sick days get carried forward indefinitely.)
13 statutory holidays.

[TG]

I work for a pharmaceutical company. I have been here 11 years. Here is what I get:

(9) Fixed Holidays
(4) Personal Floating Holidays
(21) Vacation Days
sick days "as needed"

Having said that, I also get to work from home one day per week and this a great plus! On the down side, when I am sick, I usually end up working anyway (unless I am on my death bed) and so it is more like a "work from home" day instead of a sick day. I think I have only been too sick to go into the office an average of 1 or 2 days a year.

[Rebecca]

13 vacation/personal
10 sick
10 company holidays

No carrying over any PTO days - they disappear on Dec 31.

I don't understand people that complain about the combined vacation/sick time. I would love to be able to use some of those sick days for vacation! If it bothers you that much, designate your own personal number of sick days at the start of the year and stick to that.

[Allison]

160 hours of PTO a year (sick/vacation/whatever). So that averages out to 20 8-hour days, but I'm a nurse working 12 hours shifts, so it's really only 13 days a year. No holidays, but I do get 1.5 time for the ones I am required to work. And our company says they give 3 days of bereavement leave, but those are really 8 hour days, so 12 hour shift workers really only get 2 days.

I just gave my two weeks notice today. I'm done with being a nurse!

[Leah]

18 holidays (if they fall on a weekend, no dice)
15 vacation days
12 sick days
Comp time on a 1:1 basis for hours worked over 40/week.
Holiday comp time on a 1:1 basis for hours worked on holidays.
Everything but holidays rolls over

[bob smith]

20 days annual leave (vacation), 6 weeks carry over to next year if saved.
10 defined holidays
10 days sick, unlimited carry over

So 40 days

Once I hit 15 years of service, It goes up to 30 days for annual leave.

[bob smith]

Forgot to add:

Another 40 days of what I call "in-house" leave reading financial websites such as this one.

[FMF]

Bob --

:-)

[craig]

Usually 2 weeks. I don't consider national holidays as part of vacation time, that is standard.

[Mike]

Crystal,
I understand your concern about coming in to work sick. Trust me, I don't like it when the guy in the next cube is coughing up a phlegm storm either, but I don't blame him--I have to live with the same system that penalizes those who get sick and take time off for it.

Would you rather take a day off to go to the beach on vacation or take the day off to lie sick in bed?

[Mailgerl]

26 days annual leave (can carry-over up to 50 days from one yr. to the next w/o losing any)

13 holidays

13 sick leave (unlimited carry-over---and Obama just signed a law allowing FERS participants to apply their sick leave toward their annuity on retirement)

Total of 52 days of paid leave per year---I have 15 yrs seniority.

[Hal]

Work in higher ed, as a staff, not faculty:

0-5 years, 240 hours (30 days) PTO
5+ years, 288 hours (36 days) PTO

+9 holidays per year (8 fixed, 1 floating).

Not too bad of a gig.

[Crystal]

Mike,
Of course I'd rather go on vacation, but I do take my sick days (even the unexcused ones) as sick days so I don't give whatever I have to everybody else. I think it's just mature, polite behavior. I usually end up having to use most of my sick days every year since I'm married to a teacher who brings everything home...that sucks, but at least I'm not infecting everybody...

[JoeTaxpayer]

I get the 8 holidays plus 2 floaters (which are same as vacation)
4 weeks vacation plus 2 weeks sick time which go into one PTO bucket.

So the above is really 6 weeks, two days, plus holidays.

[In The Money]

17 PTO and 8 Holidays. Wish I could get some more since I have to accrue these, but I can't complain. I've saved up 9 days and will likely make sure to keep 4-5 days in the bank in case I need to take an unexpected vacation.

[Jclimber]

I get 40 total days at a high-tech firm, which I think is pretty generous. Breakdown:

32 PTO days (new hires get 15 PTO days)
8 paid holidays

No sick time. You are supposed to take it out of your PTO time. But if I'm sick and not completely incapacitated I'll just work from home and not take PTO.

We are only allowed to carry-over 20 hours of PTO time from one year to the next so December is mostly a lost month as many people take the last of the PTO days (unless you have a project due and in that case you either lose it or work out some kind of deal with your manager).

On the good side we are allowed to go negative at any time during the year as long as your balance is back to zero by the end of the year.

[Alex]

I'm looking to go to work for the federal government. From what I understand, they get 10 Holiday days off, 13-26 vacation days (depending on seniority), another 13 days of sick leave, and if you work 9 hour days- you can take every 9th day off. That sounds like its more than 3 months off (Am I missing something here?)

Would love to hear what anyone who works for the federal government's experience is....

[Chris]

4 weeks paid vacation (20 days)
12 federal holidays
Sick leave on the honor system
Ability to take half days for doctors apts/travel etc. without penalty to vacation time.

So thats at least 32.

[Chris]

As a side note, I don't work for the federal government and I started work august 31st this year. Fresh out of school.

[aaktx]

As much as I want. Usually 6-7 weeks per year. Being the boss is a good deal

[guinness416]

I have twenty vacation days and will be requesting an additional five in my review next week. Use every last one of 'em every year, cash in lieu is of no use to me. Not sure how many public holidays .... ten-ish? .... but I've never counted that as a benefit, it's standard for my industry.

I hate this defined-number-of-sick-days business. Where I work if you're sick you either stay home or you come in, grab paperwork from your desk and bring it home; we're treated as adults in other words, and this to me is the way it should be. If anyone suddenly is phoning in sick every monday (nobody does) you'll likely get a talking-to. Personal hours for dentists and things are just taken as needed, a fair trade for putting in the 5am starts and weekend time when the workload calls for it. Again if you were to abuse it someone would probably notice.

This is the first place I've worked which doesn't keep summer hours though :(

[Old Limey]

When I was working one of the problems my company (a large aerospace company that advertises all the time on PBS) faced was that many of the top level managers were so insecure about having someone else take over their responsibilities that they never took their vacation, they would just let it keep accruing year after year. Finally the company decided 'enough was enough' and forced them to take vacation time until they had reduced the accrued amount down to a reasonable amount, I believe it was 10 weeks, the same amount that non supervisory personnel could acrue.

[JerryB]

20 days vacation
3+ days personal leave*
5 sick days
9 holiday
37 days total

*As a non-sales employee I earn an additional personal leave day (plus a $200 bonus) for every 5 new customers I bring in.

[Alan]

I'm pretty lucky...

24 vacation days, 12 holidays (two are floating holidays) , and 25 sick days a year. Vacation can be banked to a total of 48 days. The floating holidays have to be used during the fiscal year or they expire. Of the 25 sick days, 12 are carried forward each year and the other 13 expire.

Doctors visits, family illness etc. can be counted against sick time, and any leave (vacation, sick, floating) under 4 hours is not counted.