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36-year-old left the U.S. for China—now pays $1,000 rent and $100 for groceries for family of 4: It's my 'version of the American Dream’ (www.cnbc.com)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by schizoidman@lemmy.zip to c/world@lemmy.world

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[-] ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip 50 points 1 month ago

working at a chinese company would be fucking awful

I got floored when I was told they get 5 days of paid vacation (10 if you worked for 10-20 years and 15 days if you worked for 20+ years) , and no vacation for the first year in a new company, and they have like ~7 days of public holidays.

Oh, and no paid sick leave (for a flue etc - you will get it for operations and similar but they must be dona via public hospitals).

Meanwhile here in Poland we get 5 weeks + 13 public holidays, and if they happen to be during weekend you get an extra day free later, and it's considered rather low for the EU. And unlimited paid sick leave, including for fatigue etc.

[-] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 16 points 1 month ago

Those sound like fairly standard US vacation allowances, though there's that diabolical US practice of putting vacation and sick leave into one pot.

I'm in the UK. 37-hour work week, flextime, almost entirely remote working, 6.5 weeks vacation, 13 or 14 bank holidays, and essentially unlimited sick leave, though the employer can ask for proof (which, in my 11 years on my job, they never have). Pension provision is also excellent, not the US standard "defined contribution" bullshit where you have no guarantee of the payout. We get a defined monthly payout for life, annually adjusted for cost of living.

BTW, I've visited Poland quite a few times and I'm impressed at how much the living standards have improved since my first visit in the mid-1980s. The UK: not nearly as much. 14 years of underinvestment by the Conservatives, plus Brexit, has done a lot of damage, and Labour under Starmer has been too timid about rebuilding.

[-] ThirdConsul@lemmy.zip 4 points 1 month ago

Yup, we get lowballed with the paid vacation :( And the US abominable corporations are pushing more and more "freelancers", "gig workers" etc to suck us dry and remove those benefits.

Btw - last time I was in the UK I was honestly surprised how many immigrants I can see. You are like 20% of foreign born. Very new yorker of you :)

[-] driving_crooner@lemmy.eco.br 1 points 1 month ago

Those sound like fairly standard US vacation allowances,

Only if you work salarized in a good company. Minimum wage, hourly, contractors, don't get any of that.

Not from Poland, but can bet even McDonald's dishwashers get all those benefits

[-] nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com 14 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago)

they care more about the time you give them than they do about the quality of work that you deliver

they don't want someone who takes risks and cuts out projects for themselves and purposes ideas. they want someone who is around all the time making it look like things are running smoothly

[-] Jayjader@jlai.lu 10 points 1 month ago

Yeah, compared to the USA it's an improvement but compared to many places here in Europe it's almost appalling.

[-] SchwertImStein@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 1 month ago

5 weeks + 13 days is appalling?

this post was submitted on 25 Apr 2026

516 points (100.0% liked)

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