Typical vacation entitlement

["Mark L. Levinson" <mark -at- MEMCO -dot- CO -dot- IL>]

Thanks to all who responded to my question regarding
vacation.  There were fifty-nine responses from inside
the USA.  The responses from outside the USA weren't
statistically significant, but things there seem to be
more standardized.  Lars Helge Semb reported that in
Norway four weeks and a day is what's mandated, or five
weeks and a day if you're over sixty.  Margaret Gerard
says that a twenty-day entitlement is part of the
general Australian labour laws.  Twenty is also the
Irish norm, according to Fionnuala Broughan.  John
Cornellier writes that "*Everyone* in France gets 5
weeks. I get six 'cause I work for a company that cares
about its employees."

It seems that in America things vary more.  First-year
entitlement ranges anywhere from five days up to
twenty-four.  Imponderables include sabbaticals, sick
leave, the Xmas/NewYear interval, and the accruability
of entitlements.  "Another point that should be made
here," remarks David W. Locke. "is that all of these
issues are negotiable when you are being hired."

I asked how much vacation each writer gets, and as a
further question I asked whether seniority is a factor.
Seniority turned out to be a big factor and almost all
writers provided a description of how vacation time
increases over the years.  Some tables ran longer
than others, and the number of responses ranged from 59
covering the first year down to only 36 whose companies
seemed to have a known policy covering more than twelve
years of employment.

Here are the results-- entirely rough and unscientific,
of course-- showing how the vacation entitlements of
the responding US writers (excluding national holidays)
average out over the years.

Year 1 - 12.3       Year 11 - 18.3       Year 21 - 19.2
     2 - 12.5            12 - 18.4            22 - 19.2
     3 - 12.7            13 - 18.5            23 - 19.2
     4 - 13.3            14 - 18.6            24 - 19.2
     5 - 13.9            15 - 18.9            25 - 19.2
     6 - 16.3            16 - 19.0
     7 - 16.5            17 - 19.0
     8 - 16.7            18 - 19.0
     9 - 16.7            19 - 19.1
    10 - 17.0            20 - 19.1


--
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- Mark L. Levinson - Memco Ltd. - Wallenberg 24 - 69719 Tel Aviv
- work:  mark -at- memco -dot- co -dot- il / tel. +972-3-6450049 / fax +972-3-6450001
- home:  nosnivel -at- netvision -dot- net -dot- il / tel. +972-9-9552411 or 9555720
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