I’m a project manager for a small manufacturing company. I get 11 vacation days per year (going up to 16 next year, when I hit 5 years of service), plus 10 sick days. As far as holidays, we get 8 per year: New Year’s, President’s Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, 2 days at Thanksgiving, and Christmas.
Snivel…err…civil servant here.
Vacation: To quote - Employees accrue 12 days vacation annually for the first four years of employment; 15 days annually for the 5th through 9th years; 18 days for the 10th through 12th years; then one additional day per year of service to a maximum of 25 days/year. This is accumulated in hours/paycheck and can be taken in any subdivision down to the half-hour.
I think rollover is limited to a max of ten weeks ( after that I think you get paid out cash at the end of every fiscal year for the excess ).
Sick Leave: 13 days/year for all employees. This rolls over to a max of 1040 hours, which at retirement can be doubled and added to the retirement calculation ( we have a traditional pension plan as well as supplemental 401k, 401a and 457 plan options, depending on the class of employee ). If you use less than I think four days a year, they’ll also let you “buy back” a couple days every year as cash ( not generally a good option ).
Holidays: 13 set holidays ( which being government employees in CA includes Cesar Chavez Day 
). One floating holiday ( technically Colombus Day for one union local, Malcolm X’s birthday for the other - this is the Bay Area remember 
). Plus One floating holiday for your birthday for a total of 14.
In my unit it is slightly more complicated however. My job is 24/7, so days off and hours worked are non-standard. If my off-day falls on an observed holiday I get an day of pay or leave at my discretion. If my workday falls on an observed holiday I have to work, but get compensated to the tune of either double time and 1/2 in pay or time and 1/2, plus a day of additional leave. In addition overtime worked can be converted into leave ( up to some limit which I forget - maybe two weeks ). So eight hours overtime at the standard time and 1/2 = equals 12 hours of standard pay or leave.
We also get paid for meals while working overtime - $16 per four hours added to our checks :).
Administrative Leave: Salaried management only - 7 days a year to make up for the lack of overtime.
Other Paid Leave: Bereavement/funeral leave ( up to three or maybe five days a year I think ), jury duty ( full pay while serving on any jury of any length ), military duty ( don’t know how this one works ). Don’t know if there is formal maternal leave available or not ( I’d assume so, but never have checked and can’t seem to dig it up now ).
- Tamerlane
Oh, yes - we shut a half day early on Christmas Eve. If you work in continuous operations that translates into four hours of extra leave which can be taken within a two month window.
- Tamerlane
Me not so good at math. That should be 15.
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Technical Writer for a small software company.
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We get the usual federal holidays off (Christmas, Thanksgiving, Labor Day, etc.)
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It’s understood that everybody gets 2 weeks vacation a year. The reality is, vacation days, sick days, etc are not tracked at ALL. If you need some days off and its not an emergency, all that’s asked is that you give sufficient notice and make sure that your duties/projects for that period are completed, on-track or covered. We’re a pretty small company and so far this system has worked well and nobody has abused the privilege. We are growing and as we continue to grow, I’m sure this will change and we’ll eventually develop a more formal approach.
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I work for an print ad placement agency and have been here for five and a half years.
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For holidays … MLK day, Presidents day, Memorial Day, a couple days around July 4th, Labor Day, couple days around Thanksgiving, couple days around Christmas, and New Years.
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I often say that my company does few things right but the one thing they really got right was their time off. I have PTO instead of divided time, so I can take any day as whatever I want, but if I’m looking at each set of days separately, it breaks down like this:
Vacation: 15 days
Sick: 6 days
Floating Holiday: 2 days
Personal Days: 2 days
TOTAL: 25 days
This always makes it hard to go to a new job and know that your 25 days just got cut to 5 days.
You’re fortunate that you’re on the Right Coast. Last time I checked it was cheaper to go to Europe from there, and travel time is reduced as well.
I remember several years ago that some low-budget airline (possibly now defunct) was offering $99 fares to London. I almost went. I should have done. But I didn’t have the vacation time. Shortly after of high school I went to Europe for five weeks. (I told my boss that if he didn’t approve LOA, that I’d quit. He gave me the LOA.) Since my friend and I wanted to attend the science fiction WorldCon in Chicago we had to get a one-way ticket from L.A. to London, and another one-way ticket from London to Chicago. IIRC the total airfare was $910. Plus a hundred bucks for a bus trip (Never again!) from Chicago to L.A. We stayed in hostels (and a pensione and one B&B) and I think the whole five weeks cost something like $2,000 including airfare and bus fare. Not too bad for a wonderful life experience.
I don’t know how much it would cost nowadays, but I can’t imagine a week or two would be terribly expensive. (Of course I’m not a five-star hotel type. Just give me a bed and access to a toilet and a shower and I’m happy.)
I have two very good friends who travel all the time. She’s a Travel Nurse. (Travel Nurses apply for 13-week postings in different cities, so they can sample a lot of places if they’re so inclined.) He takes whatever job he can get. They save their money for a year, and then take off for a month or six. They have few material items and keep what they have in storage while they’re gone. After moving from L.A. to the PNW I’ve discovered how unhandy it is to have too much ‘stuff’. My best fiend sold almost all he had (his stuff would fit into two Astro vans) and can now move about at will. I’m still trying to divest myself of the bulk of my belongings. That will give me cash that I can use to travel (or to live on if I don’t get a job 
). I’ve changed my credit card to one that earns airline miles. (Admittedly, I did inherit a lot of miles from my mom.)
Once the film is completed and marketing is underway, I think I just may use some of those miles to get the hell out of Dodge for a week.
Right now, the cost – and my coast – are irrelevant: short of a $50 round-trip to Europe, I’m not hopping the pond any time soon.
Well, it ain’t Europe, but there’s always DC. 
I work for a non-profit agency
24 vacation days a year, plus 4 discretionary per year, but there is almost no difference between the two. The first 24 of those days are paid out if you leave, so I consider them “banked” and will avoid using those 24. I have 60 days saved up after 7 years here, so thats 36 days to spend before I leave. I find it difficult to use up all those days. Two weeks in Europe will spend 10 days, but earn another while there, for a total of 9 spent. Two weeks in Europe will bankkrupt me for 6 months, so its a vicious circle really.
I work for a government agency
20 days per year annual leave- carries over, but I must be below 300 hours on April 1, or I lose the excess. I’ll get paid for up to 30 days at retirement.
5 days personal- credited on my anniversary date each year, and must be used before my next anniversary.
13 days sick - carries over with no limit and the balance at retirement will be converted to a monthly monetary amount used to pay for part of my health insurance payment.
12 holidays- 10 for which the office closes and two floaters, for which I am credited holiday leave. When a holiday falls on Sun, it’s observed Mon , when it falls on Sat , I get holiday leave. Holiday leave must be used within a year of being earned.
The differences between types of leave mostly have to do with approval requirements and reasons to take it. Sick leave , for example, is for illness (my own or a family members) or medical appointments. Not the sort of thing that advance approval can be required for, and generally no one is required to provide documentation for a day or two of sick leave. Except when a person consistently calls in sick on Fri, Mon, the day after a holiday etc. Or when my coworkers pull a favorite stunt " I didn’t request Christmas Eve (day after Thanksgiving, etc) off early enough to have it approved ( because the maximum number of vacations have already been approved) , so I’ll just call in sick"
Not quite 13 years at a factory, driving a forklift.
From original hire date to the end of the calendar year, no vacation, but 4 hours of sick time per month, up to 5 days. The next calendar year, 5 sick days, 2 vacation days per month you worked the year before. Then 2 weeks a year until 5 years, 3 weeks a year until 15 years, 4 weeks a year until 25 years, topping out after that at 5 weeks a year.
If we don’t use any sick days, we get a small amount of money, that increases each consecutive year we don’t use any. I have never recieved it. 
12 paid holidays, the typical Federal holidays with the extra days to put them with weekends.
We can miss more than 5 days sick in a year, but we need to use vacation days or not get paid for them. And if we miss too much in too short of a period, we start getting in trouble unless a doctor okays an absence. Right now I have been on Short Term Disability for the last month and a half, and getting paid my full wage for that period. This is really nice when I can’t work. The bad news is after a full month on Short Term Disability, I started losing vacation days for next year. I don’t know how many I will have since I don’t know how much longer I will be off.
A quick question: for those of you scared of losing holiday time by moving jobs, why don’t you make the holiday allowance part of your contract negotiations?
Haaahaaahaahaaahaaa!
Most of the time, there is simply a company policy on who gets how much vacation time. Don’t like the policy? Fine. Don’t take the job.
I’m a community college prof, so I don’t get specified vacation days. They are simply not built into the contract. Vacation means the time between semesters, unless we choose to teach during the summer sessions. We are going to have a winter intersession as well, starting next fall.
Spring break is also vacation time for some of us.
So, vacation time is what we choose to make of it, outside of the normal semester.
People do that sometimes but it isn’t that common and if you have several weeks of vacation it is unlikely that someone else will give you all of it. Vacation allowances are really an employee loyalty incentive and most companies see that way. They reward longevity at that particular company.
Simply because the vast majority of American workers are not under a contract of any kind. They can quit at any time without notice, and their employers can fire them at any time without notice for (almost!) any reason or no reason whatsoever. As a rule, if you don’t like the benefits offered by an employer, you don’t take the job – and the benefits aren’t usually open to negotiation. There are of course exceptions for employees who are contracted, such as in unionized organizations.
My day job is Database Administrator. Our firm’s vacation and holiday policy, taken straight out of the handbook:
F. VACATIONS
Policy and Eligibility. The Firm provides vacations with pay for all full-time
personnel in accordance with the following accrual schedule:
• Upon completion of 6 months of continuous service, a full-time employee is
entitled to 5 days vacation. Note: There is no accrual of vacation time prior to
completion of 6 months of service. Should an employee terminate their
employment prior to completing 6 months of service they will be entitled to no
paid vacation time upon termination.
• Upon completion of the first year of continuous service, a full-time employee is
entitled to 5 days vacation.
• Upon completion of each year after the first year, a full-time employee is
entitled to 10 days vacation, plus 1 day for each year after the first.
• Example, if you have been employed for 4 years, you are entitled to 13 days
vacation.
• Upon completion of 5 years of continuous service, a full-time employee is
entitled to 15 days vacation.
• Upon completion of each year after 5 years, but less than 10 years, a full-time
employee is entitled to an additional day of vacation per year, plus the 15 days
vacation.
• Upon completion of 10 years, and each year thereafter, a full-time employee is
entitled 20 days vacation.
The official office holidays are as follows:
• New Year’s Day
• Good Friday
• Memorial Day
• Independence Day
• Labor Day
• Thanksgiving Day
• The Day After Thanksgiving
• Christmas Day
• The Day Before or After Christmas
I work at a law firm.
Days off are generally 2 weeks vacation, one week sick and one floating holiday (to be used whenever your little heart desires) for the first year, for years 2 - 10 it’s three weeks vacation, one sick, two floaters. 10+ it’s four weeks, one and two.
Because my boss is a freaking nutjob and the entire firm and the vast majority of anyone he’s ever contacted knows it, my position carries (as a perk) one extra week of vacation. Therefore, I get (at the moment) four, one and two.
In practice, nobody really makes a distinction between vacation, sick and personal days. They prefer you schedule the vacation time when you take it, but nobody really gets their panties in a twist if you just call in twenty-seven random days. It only really makes even a marginal difference because the firm will purchase back to you (at your hourly rate) every day of “sick” time you have unused at the end of any calendar year. There are a few people (of whom I am, rather unfortunately, one - see above comment regarding my boss’ disposition) who the firm strongly recommends planning time off ahead if at all possible. If you should happen to exceed your allotment of days off (for whatever reason), the firm just docks your pay that amount of time - corresponding with the paycheck in which you get your yearly bonus so that nobody feels the sting of missed income as much.
If you have a chronic problem with attendance, generally speaking, unless you’ve made special arrangements to accomodate (and the firm is actually really quite accomodating) the issue, you’ll be having a chronic problem with attendance elsewhere.
We are not allowed to carry over time. It’s all use it or lose it. For this reason, virtually everyone uses every single day (except the sick days). The firm, however, generally deducts time off from (in order) floaters, vacation and only then sick time.