Basic workers' rights | British VS American!

growing up in the states i had to show up to work regardless of how sick i was i mean unless i was absolutely dying and even then i had to call around to find replacements which is why i'm not really surprised about this recent cnn report saying many americans show up to work very sick regardless of how far along omicron is now spreading doesn't surprise me in the slightest if you're from any other country and you're like why the heck are americans like that stripe yourselves what i'm in today's video we're going to be talking a little bit about the differences between us and uk culture in regards to leaving work and work benefits and if you're new to my channel hello my name is evan ediger and this is kind of what i do i'm british american i like making videos about these interesting differences and well recently last week i made a video about how i got my first job in the uk and a lot of you wanted to know more about those interesting differences between working for a us company in the us versus a uk company in the uk and also a little bit of intermingling so that's where this video came from now i wasn't joking in the intro no matter how sick i was when i was working at a pizza hut a food service restaurant i was expected to show up to work or find a replacement which is something that most people in the uk when i told them this said well isn't that what the hiring manager is supposed to do yeah i guess that makes a lot of sense he should be the one kind of balancing why is it down to the individual employee well it's because when you're sick in the u.s that is actually your fault you're guilty of this and you need to pay the company back by doing another job and finding someone else to replace that's just the culture whereas because i was brought up like this my first couple jobs in the uk i showed up incredibly ill during days in which i was sick and was told to go home which blew my mind what do you mean what i already showed up i'm coughing all over the place but i got work to do right no i was sent home and i could get healthy what but one of the most interesting aspects of this whole thing was that i was paid for when i was sick which was the first time i'd ever experienced that and most americans will tend to agree what happens is when you are ill and you have to ask the boss for the day off because you're sick a lot of times that comes out of holiday pay holiday holiday you see most uk companies have something in place for this in the inevitable likelihood that an employee is sick if you do get sick for longer than three days the government actually can step in and ensure you get a little bit under 100 pounds per week plus whatever your employer agrees to give you until you get better which is a nice little thing to fall upon now in the sad circumstance you are sick for a very long time you can go to get a doctor's note but as we have nationalized health care that doesn't cost anything on the other hand in the u.s the land of the free there is no federally mandated sick pay so regardless of if you're sick for one day one week one month you are unpaid for the most part which isn't really the best situation and especially if you're someone that is living paycheck to paycheck which as of march 2022 is 64 of americans nearly two out of every three americans is living paycheck to paycheck i don't really think you can blame someone for going to work when they're ill if financially they're just playing the cards that they've been dealt as best as they can also given the fact that a lot of american employers demand a doctor's note if you are ill for more than one or two days which is then an entire extra day you need to take off to go to your doctor and if you don't have great insurance for instance when i was working at different retail restaurants and things well that's 75 bucks a session so now i've lost essentially a day or two's wages plus i'm freaking ill still and i have to heal it's just not a good situation and the thing about this issue is it's really not political in the slightest in fact 94 of self-identified liberals and 81 percent of self-identified conservatives agree that paid sick days should be a basic human worker right but then if such a huge grouping of these two sides that usually war all the time finally agree on it why do we not have any change well there's an even bigger percentage of corporations and employers that really don't give a about what you think and well they have a lot of money and they'd like to keep it that way and so they've successfully lobbied to ensure that no change has happened does that sound familiar to any other part of the us law almost all of it actually yes it's sad and sadly as is the case in most of these things the people with the largest amount of money have the largest voice in u.s politics and so can shout down the massive majority of people who just want this basic right so that they can have more money which is of course the american dream now given that this is the sad state of affairs most americans have found a loophole on how to have paid sick leave and sadly you probably know where this is going well it comes out of their holiday pay one of the reasons why americans don't travel or go on holiday as much as anyone else in western civilization well they use them for sick days now regardless of whether or not you get paid time off during your next trip abroad or to the local shops today's video sponsor revolut can actually help you with that revolut is a global financial super app used by 18 million plus people around the world for all things money spending saving investing that's revolut now in terms of spending with a lot of different retailers out there there are massive discounts you can get up to 40 just by doing your daily shop and in terms of spending revolut has so many great budgeting tools so you can find out oh am i spending too much money on takeaway this month and possibly curb your spending there with revolut you can spend abroad like a local anywhere in the world thanks their excellent exchange rates and no hidden fees and even better it's so easy to send money to any revolut user with just a single tap you can pay anyone anywhere just like that that's revolut and to make things even better revolut is giving away a 20 pound welcome bonus to any of you who download the app via my link in the description so thank you very much to revolut for sponsoring today's video go download it today and uh where were we oh yes holiday pay now most people realize that americans don't travel as much as many other european counterparts and a lot of americans will say well it's because the country is so big and there's not many places to visit outside of like mexico and canada but usually as soon as somebody makes this argument australia enters the chat but it has more to do with the fact that there are no federal protections for holiday pay in the states at all i don't know how many times i've told this story on this channel but i'll tell it again i worked five years at a pizza hut working 30 hours a week and i earned zero days paid holiday whereas i worked under 20 hours in london and managed to get two days a month i was blown away with how i was able to earn anything considering that i'd worked five years and hadn't even gotten a single raise from my two dollars and thirteen cents an hour they were paying me somehow legally they didn't have to how was that legal though well federally there aren't any laws about holiday pay the government thought it'd be better to just leave that up the employers and as we all know employers always have the best intentions they don't now my state decided to have it so that once you work over a certain amount of time in my case 30 hours you are entitled to some paid holiday however they made it a step function meaning you have to cross over that threshold of 30 there isn't a gradual increase like say the way we pay taxes and so that's just going to allow capitalistic companies to be capitalistic companies to ensure i never was allowed to work over 33 hours a week just so they can make sure i average out under that and they would never ever have to pay me a single day of paid holiday that's just what companies are going to do if you let them do that that's the point of government to step in and give people the basic rights that they're entitled i had a friend that worked at google in the uk and got 30 days of paid holiday moved to the u.s and lost half of them because 15 days that's quite a lot in the us well in the uk we are mandated to have at least 28 days of paid holiday that's 5.6 weeks of paid holiday including bank holidays if an employer wants to they can give you more than that or less but that's just how it is though to be fair the us department of labor has said that 76 of private sector employees got paid holiday and the average of that was 10. well as there's no federal law employers don't have to and so they won't unless they're forced to which is why it's good that in certain states they actually have in states like vermont for every 52 hours you work you get one hour of paid holiday and for those of you that enjoy math that means that working 40 hours a week in the state of vermont every single week at the end of the year you earn five days of paid holiday 40 hours that's horrible and of those five days if we know that the average american is sick 3.9 days of the year and they don't get paid sick days well of those five days in vermont you've got one left if you've got an average amount of sickness congratulations where you gonna go dorney park it's a bit far and all of these things together really show how the culture is in terms of when you ask your boss for a day off in the u.s and they act as if even though you're fully entitled to it you're hurting them and you are doing them a disservice to take the holiday that you're legally allowed to have in certain states it's just such a weird contrast to countries like germany in which their employers force them to go on holiday because they understand that a well-rested employee is going to be a better one make better decisions and be happier in general i mean the uk isn't the greatest thing but i'm thankful that we do have those 28 days of paid holiday so that people can take off people can enjoy their lives and not just work every single day of their lives now as a quick asterisk here there are some companies in the us and the uk that both employ this new magical thing called unlimited time off unlimited paid holiday that sounds like a dream i was offered a job like this once and that was the first thing i had a question about i went how does that work unlimited time off i can just take off and he was like yeah you have unlimited as opposed to like 28 days or 29 you have unlimited so i said so i'm just gonna get hired and then just start going on holiday and he went well you do have to make sure that you you work enough like you feel like you've gotten enough done i was like well that's not unlimited then now is it now truth be told i did go on holiday way more than any other employee but i was a rare case in fact the whole concept of unlimited paid holiday it is found means that people take off less because they don't realize how much they have if you have 28 days and you've spent 14 by the end of the year sometimes you want to just make sure you spend those final days if it's unlimited you don't actually have an end limit and so most people will spend less so there it is companies giving you something that looks like it's beautiful it is a trojan horse it's actually so you take off less classic capitalism now obviously sometimes people die wow we're getting real dark bereavement leave is something that you would really expect at the end of the day for both countries to have but they don't the uk does have a law however if you do lose a dependent which i'm thankful does include things like housemate which the us's does not but if you do lose a dependent in the uk the law states you're to be given a reasonable amount of time off to grieve reasonable that that's the law you must be reasonable and it's odd that this type of thing just works in the uk in the law it says be reasonable in the u.s that's not i don't think that would ever work as much as i don't really feel protected by a clause saying it has to be reasonable in the uk they do kind of follow through with that most of the time in the u.s though the only thing we really have is the family and medical leave act which allows for 12 weeks of leave protected unpaid leave which is good you can come back to your job at the end of it and ta-da you've still got it however there's so many asterisks revolving around this fmla or my life america act there's a big chance it doesn't even apply to you to get this unpaid leave and you're going to have to work regardless of what you're going through do you work for a company with fewer than 50 people well congratulations you do not qualify you have to keep working through your grief did one of your loved ones wait to pass away until after you got your new job you're also not entitled to any leave protected unpaid leave nope you've gotta come to work grieving because you have to stay at the same company for at least a year before that can happen which is a reason why i'm assuming most people are afraid to leave jobs because that transitionary period there are so many benefits the government is no longer giving you so if you work for a company with fewer than 50 people or you've recently switched jobs the fmla just does not apply to you and in fact on the official website for the fmla it states if you know ahead of time that you'll be taking leave for a new child or a planned medical treatment for yourself or a family member you are required to give your employer 30 days advance notice in the case of planned medical treatment you must try to schedule the medical treatment when it will not unduly disrupt your employer's business so next time you plan on being sick or plan on having someone die or birthed or anything else make sure it does not inconvenience your employer that is in the u.s law and so the difference here being that in the uk employers are asked to give a reasonable time off to their employees when they're going through grief and in the u.s employees are asked to give their employer reasonable time off when the employee is going through grief it's just a country for the haves not the have-nots the employees have so little protection you have to ask for permission for one of your relatives to die what the and the last of the big leaves we're gonna be talking about today the big one the elephant in the room no offense to your mother but maternity leave and paternity leave what was that we've all seen the map before the fact that the u.s has zero days of paid maternity leave is still disgusting how it's not protected at all is disgusting in the uk employees can take up to 52 weeks of maternity leave and their jobs are protected for when they come back and of those 52 weeks the first six are paid at 90 of their salary the next 33 are paid at 90 or 156 pounds 66 whichever is smaller and then the next weeks are actually unpaid but of that period you still have your job protected you still have some money coming in and you can take care of your child during the moments in which it needs you most now when it comes to paternity leave the uk definitely falls flat here only providing fathers with one to two weeks of paid paternity leave and of that it's that 156 pounds 66 or 90 of your salary whichever is smaller but it is two weeks that you're allowed to take off and you also get two prenatal appointments before the birth of your child so if you need to take off to check on how the baby's doing in the mama's belly you can do that now when it comes to the us do you remember that family and medical leave act we were talking about earlier that's the only thing the u.s has in place for expectant mothers unpaid leave this means as soon as employees are finished going into labor they need to go back into the labor force because there's no other way of affording to take care of that child there's nothing there to protect them and with just how expensive u.s hospital bills can be when it comes to having a child there it's no surprise how many reports are coming out of mothers going back to work within a couple days after just having a child in america so wrapping this up sick pay holiday pay bereavement pay and maternity leave are basic workers rights that people in the uk and around the world get to enjoy whereas people in the u.s just don't the only way an american worker can hope to get any of these basic workers rights is if by chance their employer just happens to out of the goodness of their heart provided which doesn't happen very likely which is why it's good to see that there's a large resurgence in the states of workers unions coming back into fashion starbucks amazon apple everyone is fed up with the fact that they're not given the rights the government isn't protecting them and so people are demanding they protect themselves forming unions and demanding the rights they deserve how long did we have to put up with people clapping their hands for essential workers and now that covet is for the most part cut and dried we're seeing people go oh well you're not that essential no pay raise for you what do you want to get paid more than fifteen dollars to flip a burger well considering the cost of living has gone up yes i think they do it is really horrible that at the end of the day in the us we have to fight for those basic freedoms at the bottom but that's the case when people with a lot of money don't want things to change and i don't think they do genuine question do you think within our lifetime you will see the us government step in and provide these basic rights that every other country's citizens have had for many years i'd like to be hopeful and say yes but the way that most american politics is run by money it's looking very doubtful but regardless of your stance on these different types of leave leave me a comment tell me what your thoughts are love to hear from you in the comments section below or if you'd like you can watch another research video over here on my channel thank you very much for watching i hope you have a nice day i am sweaty i'll see you next sunday goodbye [Music] you

Channel: Evan Edinger

Views: 362,137

Keywords: workers' rights, british vs american, evan edinger, workers, rights, paid time off, holiday, maternity leave, bereavement leave, sick days, britain, american, us vs UK, UK vs usa, evan, edinger, 2022

Id: 7Okb9RSYuLI

Length: 15min 59sec (959 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 26 2022