I currently live in Vienna, Austria. Besides lots of public holidays you get 25 vacation days per year and unlimited sick days independent from the vacation day

I currently live in Vienna, Austria. Besides lots of public holidays you get 25 vacation days per year and unlimited sick days independent from the vacation days. If you don't take your vacation days your employer must pay you for them, so most (all) employers require their employees to take their vacation days. As your vacation days don't expire, you can also "add them up" and take a longer vacation in one of the following years. You typically work 38.5 hours per week, and while for some areas (paid) overtime is common, it is definitely not the norm for the generic employee. As for the "not very rich" part: According to Mercer's annual study Vienna is worldwide the most livable city - see: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/may2010/gb20100526_993227.htm http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/content/may2010/gb2010... - but yes - I guess that the quality-of-life would be much better without those vacation days. (Saying all that, I still plan to move to SF in the following months...)