Americans, you definitely want to be sitting down before progressing. I have just learned something about Australia's "annual leave" (i.e., vacation days) and it absolutely floored me. I suggest proceeding if and only if you are currently quite happy with your life and not at all prone to envy.
When Australians are on their vacation days, they get paid 17.5% more than when they're at work.
Seriously. Based on how contracts are written, it's sometimes worked in slightly differently, but the concept is definitely there. I've been told that the reason stems from ages past when workers would, as a general principle, work overtime regularly to make ends meet and the government realized they couldn't make up that overtime work while on holiday with just their normal hours accounted for -- so unions eventually forced it to incorporate the 17.5% into law and no government since could possibly revoke it. Go figure.
Friday, January 28, 2011
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The way I heard it was that people were accumulating annual leave because they couldn't afford to go anywhere. Because they still had to pay the regular bills, they didn't have enough extra to pay for a holiday away from home so they didn't bother.
Although, I have since heard that it was something originally brought in for paid-by-the-hour contractors (so people on wages rather than salary) to enable them to have holidays, which accords with what you've heard.
These days, if you are a paid-by-the-hour contractor, you really need to take the figure you think your work is worth and add 25% to account for the fact that you don't get annual leave, sick leave or accrue long-service leave.
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