Maternity + paternity leave: 480 days combined, per child, + 10 days unannounced allowed for the parent not giving birth, immediately following the birth.
Sick leave: almost ♾️ as far as I know, too…?
🇸🇪🥇❓
Edit: I’m curious about the other Scandinavian countries regarding this topic (including Finland). If anyone from those countries wants to contribute here, please feel free!
pretty much the same in Denmark. I still don’t know how to spend all of the vacation days. We just used up Mandatory 3 summer weeks, and I’m kinda tired of resting this year, but I still have 3 weeks left
I had a similar situation last year after being on paternity leave 5 months and then still having 30 days of PTO.
Solution: 4 day work week. Either Wednesdays or Fridays off. I took Wednesdays. You have two “Fridays” per week and Friday is never more than one working day away. You get one day a week completely for you, kids in school, partner at work, every shop and office open. You can do any delayed paperwork, any repairs around the house, take a jew hobby, or just watch TV for 6 hours straight (wouldnt recommend every week but it took me back to my days of being sick from school).
If you are single and like traveling probably Fridays would be better.
We usually use a day or two here and there to get long weekends where there are one-off holidays. It helps spend the days, and gives you some needed rest during the working period of the year. 👍
I’m sorry, I felt like bragging, but I really don’t know what to do with all that time, and one of the reasons is that I tend to spend money on vacations, and I don’t like to spend money, I like to save.
But really, it’s not Denmark or Sweden that good, it’s US laws are bad. Ok, in Denmark I have 5 weeks by law and one more from my company (which is a usual perk). But I moved there from Russia, where the working culture sucks (overtime, envelope salary, etc), and overal situation with any human rights is not that funny, but people still have 28 calendar day paid vacation.
There are possibilities of shitty company’s behaviour though: in case of said “envelope” salary, you still get some part of it officially (like minimum wage), so if the place is shitty enough, they can pay you only the official part, so you have a “not-so-paid” vacation. Or they come up with some reasons to not sign your vacation: “why July? Look at the schedule and better take February! We’re family and family needs you now!”
It’s not everywhere like that - usually low-skill and/or blue-collar stuff. But I encountered that in IT when I was starting out (and didn’t have much choise with tetail jobs in my cv)
Isn’t it nowadays also grandparents can get some of the parental leave if they help with the child?
Sick leave is not infinity, but you would need to get a long period of illness before anything happens I guess.
Yep, I believe so. And you can also even transfer parental leave to a friend, if they help with the child. We did this for a friend of ours who is a single mom and needed help with her child.
In Germany your employer has to pay for all sick leave up to continuous 6 weeks. After that insurance pays you 60% of your last paycheck.
There are a lot of exceptions, for example if it’s a work related accident your employer has to pay 100% of your last paycheck indefinitely until you go into early/disability retirement.
Day 15-90: “barely” 80% from Försäkringskassan, up to a relatively low ceiling (disfavours those with high incomes, doesn’t really affect the common worker). With a collective agreement from a union you could also get an additional 10-15%(?) from your employer
Day 90-: pretty much the same, the 10% from the employer is replaced by insurance instead. If you’re sick this long it’ll be a bit of a bureaucratic PITA
In Belgium There’s a social security system that pays your wage when you’re sick up a certain maximum.
The first month(4 weeks) you get sick is fully paid by the employer. After that you get paid by social security for 60% of your wage up until a certain maximum.
If you are absent from work for 8 months ( cancer, surgery, burn out, … ) you would be paid for every day you are absent, albeit less after a month.
While sick you are also protected from being fired. So employers can’t fire you because you’re out fighting cancer. It is mostly adhered to. If an employer would fire somebody who got cancer or because they got a burn-out/depression I’d probably find a different employer.
It’s a good system, but with its own challenges ( abuse ). I honestly can’t imagine having a fixed amount of paid sick days.
your employer can always “challenge” your sickness by sending a company physician, which they’d have to pay for. Some companies do it per definition, others never, some only when they suspect abuse.
At one of my previous jobs (in the US) we had unlimited Paid Time Off. In practice, you’re still under the same pressure to get shit done or get canned so you don’t really take any more time off than you would have otherwise. And when you’re eventually canned anyway in order to boost the stock price, you don’t have any accrued time off that has to be paid out in a lump sum.
480 days are not paid are they? Because in Finland and Germany you get about one year paid that you can distribute between the parents. And up to two more years unpaid.
480 days, paid. You can’t distribute between the parents here however you like though. Only 45 days are transferable between partners, to encourage equal time spent with the child.
Also some amount of days out of the 480 are of one level of compensation, and the rest are of another level. I don’t recall the specifics of that off the top of my head, though.
Sweden:
🇸🇪🥇❓
Edit: I’m curious about the other Scandinavian countries regarding this topic (including Finland). If anyone from those countries wants to contribute here, please feel free!
pretty much the same in Denmark. I still don’t know how to spend all of the vacation days. We just used up Mandatory 3 summer weeks, and I’m kinda tired of resting this year, but I still have 3 weeks left
I had a similar situation last year after being on paternity leave 5 months and then still having 30 days of PTO.
Solution: 4 day work week. Either Wednesdays or Fridays off. I took Wednesdays. You have two “Fridays” per week and Friday is never more than one working day away. You get one day a week completely for you, kids in school, partner at work, every shop and office open. You can do any delayed paperwork, any repairs around the house, take a jew hobby, or just watch TV for 6 hours straight (wouldnt recommend every week but it took me back to my days of being sick from school).
If you are single and like traveling probably Fridays would be better.
Oh boy.
Wow, as far as typos go, that one was one of the more unfortunate ones… (I meant new!)
We usually use a day or two here and there to get long weekends where there are one-off holidays. It helps spend the days, and gives you some needed rest during the working period of the year. 👍
Why isn’t there an emoji for rage-filled weeping of blood and gnashing of teeth?
Emojis are the only way I can express emotion.
I’m sorry, I felt like bragging, but I really don’t know what to do with all that time, and one of the reasons is that I tend to spend money on vacations, and I don’t like to spend money, I like to save.
But really, it’s not Denmark or Sweden that good, it’s US laws are bad. Ok, in Denmark I have 5 weeks by law and one more from my company (which is a usual perk). But I moved there from Russia, where the working culture sucks (overtime, envelope salary, etc), and overal situation with any human rights is not that funny, but people still have 28 calendar day paid vacation.
Wow, that’s something I didn’t know before, or expected. TIL. 👍
There are possibilities of shitty company’s behaviour though: in case of said “envelope” salary, you still get some part of it officially (like minimum wage), so if the place is shitty enough, they can pay you only the official part, so you have a “not-so-paid” vacation. Or they come up with some reasons to not sign your vacation: “why July? Look at the schedule and better take February! We’re family and family needs you now!”
It’s not everywhere like that - usually low-skill and/or blue-collar stuff. But I encountered that in IT when I was starting out (and didn’t have much choise with tetail jobs in my cv)
Isn’t it nowadays also grandparents can get some of the parental leave if they help with the child? Sick leave is not infinity, but you would need to get a long period of illness before anything happens I guess.
Yep, I believe so. And you can also even transfer parental leave to a friend, if they help with the child. We did this for a friend of ours who is a single mom and needed help with her child.
How does infinite sick leave work?
In Australia an employer pays 12 or so days a year for personal leave, (+ 12 public holidays + 20 days annual leave).
Any additional sick leave is unpaid.
An employer couldn’t really be expected to pay sick leave indefinitely. Is it paid by some kind of insurance or social security?
You can claim a govt pension for illness. It’s difficult to qualify long term though.
In Germany your employer has to pay for all sick leave up to continuous 6 weeks. After that insurance pays you 60% of your last paycheck. There are a lot of exceptions, for example if it’s a work related accident your employer has to pay 100% of your last paycheck indefinitely until you go into early/disability retirement.
Oh shit. Somebody quick come pour that vat of frying oil over me so I can live my best life.
Let’s say I get sick
Day 1: 0% pay Day 2-14: 80% pay from my employer
Day 15-90: “barely” 80% from Försäkringskassan, up to a relatively low ceiling (disfavours those with high incomes, doesn’t really affect the common worker). With a collective agreement from a union you could also get an additional 10-15%(?) from your employer
Day 90-: pretty much the same, the 10% from the employer is replaced by insurance instead. If you’re sick this long it’ll be a bit of a bureaucratic PITA
Edited to fix formatting
In Belgium There’s a social security system that pays your wage when you’re sick up a certain maximum. The first month(4 weeks) you get sick is fully paid by the employer. After that you get paid by social security for 60% of your wage up until a certain maximum.
If you are absent from work for 8 months ( cancer, surgery, burn out, … ) you would be paid for every day you are absent, albeit less after a month.
While sick you are also protected from being fired. So employers can’t fire you because you’re out fighting cancer. It is mostly adhered to. If an employer would fire somebody who got cancer or because they got a burn-out/depression I’d probably find a different employer.
It’s a good system, but with its own challenges ( abuse ). I honestly can’t imagine having a fixed amount of paid sick days.
your employer can always “challenge” your sickness by sending a company physician, which they’d have to pay for. Some companies do it per definition, others never, some only when they suspect abuse.
At one of my previous jobs (in the US) we had unlimited Paid Time Off. In practice, you’re still under the same pressure to get shit done or get canned so you don’t really take any more time off than you would have otherwise. And when you’re eventually canned anyway in order to boost the stock price, you don’t have any accrued time off that has to be paid out in a lump sum.
Yeah US style unlimited PTO is a joke, it was so transparent what it was really trying to achieve when my American colleagues got it at my old job.
Ok, Sweeden is better than Russia(at least 28 days). After Pu goes to Hauge(or Russian prison) things may change.
Wait, we were comparing to USA? Yeah, we know it’s a corpse.
480 days are not paid are they? Because in Finland and Germany you get about one year paid that you can distribute between the parents. And up to two more years unpaid.
480 days, paid. You can’t distribute between the parents here however you like though. Only 45 days are transferable between partners, to encourage equal time spent with the child.
Also some amount of days out of the 480 are of one level of compensation, and the rest are of another level. I don’t recall the specifics of that off the top of my head, though.