5 ms·

Legit question, don't EU have by law, very generous unemployment benefits compared to the US?

by bratao 4y ago

melenaboija 4y ago
It depends on what you understand with very generous unemployment benefits. Te me just the fact that there is universal healthcare makes the unemployment benefits way better. I am a EU citizen having lived in the US for almost a decade and I still can't overcome the stress of losing my job because of this.
- prottog 4y ago
  With the higher salary in the US, especially as a software engineer, you could easily put a little bit aside to pay for a healthcare exchange plan for a while if you do ever lose your job.
ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Depends on the EU country. Where I live you get 60% of your pay for something like 6 months, plus the public healthcare coverage. Though, it's not exactly a vacation, as you're expected to prove to the unemployment office you are actively looking for a job and interviewing and you're not allowed to leave the country during that period. I mean you can leave the country, nobody will stop you, but you'll not receive unemployment or healthcare coverage for the period you're out of the country. You can make it a vacation if you're system savvy enough and know how to game the system and aren't risk averse.
- lnsru 4y ago
  You can leave easily and officially Germany during unemployment. Just bring the proof, that you sent your weekly applications and tell the Arbeitsamt officer that you’re leaving. They don’t really care about white collar workers making much more money than they do anyway. Their focus were blue collar workers and special cases like illiterate foreigner anyway. At least 5 years ago in Baden-Württemberg.
habosa 4y ago
The scale of benefits generally looks like: Average US worker << Average EU worker < US Big Tech Worker
- ChuckNorris89 4y ago
  Depends how you define average. Statistically, the average US workers has a much higher purchasing power than the average EU worker. Unless by average you meant poor people or workers on minimum wage in which case you'd be correct, but that's in no way average anymore.
  - habosa 4y ago
    I was talking purely about “benefits” by which most people mean things outside of standard monetary compensation. EU workers have much better vacation, healthcare, parental leave, severance pay, etc than US workers on average.
    - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
      And I was only talking about the unemployment benefits of laid off big-tech workers. I'm not contradicting you about the rest.
- _huayra_ 4y ago
  I wonder where EU tech workers (big or not) fit in this. Certainly pay is less than US, but when I worked in Europe, everyone took all of their vacation time and generally did not work beyond regular business hours. Where I work today in the US, even junior devs (i.e. no on-call or general need to fight fires outside of regular hours) are grinding away on nights and weekends. The only way I can basically take a half-day here and there during the week to ski is because my team would be screwed without me, but it's still a pressure cooker compared to my last job in Europe; "I'm going to be bikepacking in Sweden all of August and won't be reachable" -> guess which OOO notice that job came from? xD
  - coldpie 4y ago
falcor84 4y ago
The "continued vesting of stock awards for six months" piece specifically is, as far as I know, not mandated by law anywhere, and is really generous.

Legit question, don't EU have by law, very generous unemployment benefits compared to the US?

by bratao 4y ago

Legit question, don't EU have by law, very generous unemployment benefits compared to the US?

It depends on what you understand with very generous unemployment benefits. Te me just the fact that there is universal healthcare makes the unemployment benefits way better. I am a EU citizen having lived in the US for almost a decade and I still can't overcome the stress of losing my job because of this.

prottog 4y ago
With the higher salary in the US, especially as a software engineer, you could easily put a little bit aside to pay for a healthcare exchange plan for a while if you do ever lose your job.

ChuckNorris89 4y ago

Depends on the EU country. Where I live you get 60% of your pay for something like 6 months, plus the public healthcare coverage. Though, it's not exactly a vacation, as you're expected to prove to the unemployment office you are actively looking for a job and interviewing and you're not allowed to leave the country during that period. I mean you can leave the country, nobody will stop you, but you'll not receive unemployment or healthcare coverage for the period you're out of the country. You can make it a vacation if you're system savvy enough and know how to game the system and aren't risk averse.

lnsru 4y ago
You can leave easily and officially Germany during unemployment. Just bring the proof, that you sent your weekly applications and tell the Arbeitsamt officer that you’re leaving. They don’t really care about white collar workers making much more money than they do anyway. Their focus were blue collar workers and special cases like illiterate foreigner anyway. At least 5 years ago in Baden-Württemberg.

habosa 4y ago

The scale of benefits generally looks like: Average US worker << Average EU worker < US Big Tech Worker

ChuckNorris89 4y ago
Depends how you define average. Statistically, the average US workers has a much higher purchasing power than the average EU worker. Unless by average you meant poor people or workers on minimum wage in which case you'd be correct, but that's in no way average anymore.
- habosa 4y ago
  I was talking purely about “benefits” by which most people mean things outside of standard monetary compensation. EU workers have much better vacation, healthcare, parental leave, severance pay, etc than US workers on average.
  - ChuckNorris89 4y ago
    And I was only talking about the unemployment benefits of laid off big-tech workers. I'm not contradicting you about the rest.
_huayra_ 4y ago
I wonder where EU tech workers (big or not) fit in this. Certainly pay is less than US, but when I worked in Europe, everyone took all of their vacation time and generally did not work beyond regular business hours. Where I work today in the US, even junior devs (i.e. no on-call or general need to fight fires outside of regular hours) are grinding away on nights and weekends. The only way I can basically take a half-day here and there during the week to ski is because my team would be screwed without me, but it's still a pressure cooker compared to my last job in Europe; "I'm going to be bikepacking in Sweden all of August and won't be reachable" -> guess which OOO notice that job came from? xD
- coldpie 4y ago

falcor84 4y ago

The "continued vesting of stock awards for six months" piece specifically is, as far as I know, not mandated by law anywhere, and is really generous.