[clintjm]

Originally Posted by Nyororin

And my relatives` company has zero days off a year - they even go in for half a day on New Years.
Of course I don`t speak for a whole country, but neither do you. REPORTED days off are different than ACTUAL days off.

I'm just going by the report I posted... like I said: Averages.
Okay fine fine... the people you speak of have no time off...
Japan is no-vacation nation too.

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I would LOVE to know how this misconception pops up all the time.
You are salaried for 8 hours work a day and a 1 hour break for every workday in a month. You will get the same base salary regardless of the number of work days in each month. Depending on the company, some include Saturday as a work day, some do not.

Anything beyond that is overtime, and by law you are required to be paid overtime pay. Being salaried has nothing to do with whether you receive overtime.

Yes.. perhaps I didn't spell this out completely... In the states its different from state to state and different company to company... but the general rule is you have to work so many hours of overtime * consistently in a time period * to start being paid overtime. 50-60 hours week as a salaried employee without overtime is the norm for most companies unless it violates the state law...

i.e. if I worked five 10,10,8,10,8 hour weekdays and work two 5 hour days on the weekend, a total of 56 hours, I wouldn't be paid overtime because the overtime can only be paid out if the overtime is consistant over three days.... i.e. 10,10,10 companies do have insane laws just enough not to violate the state or prefecture law.

But I think we both agree in these posts, even though a company has to pay overtime, they will keep you away from reaching the point when overtime pays out.

Also the norm today isn't the 8 hour day anymore in the states, its usually 9 hour minus your 1 hour break to make sure you get the 8 hours in. Again depends on the job and the company I'm sure.

Again though to work that many hours back to back to reach that overtime threshhold is uncommon because right before you reach it, the company will scold you for working even though they are the ones requesting you to.

In any case your soul is the property of the company basically. Myself, I don't care for overtime... I rather be less rich and have more free time...
The comp time thing never really works... kinda of like the overtime... looked down upon.

Originally Posted by Nyororin

Do companies try to get around this by offering other things instead of overtime pay? Yes. Do companies illegally ask people to work without paying them overtime? Yes. But those are illegal practices and can be reported.

Nice and clean cut right to report those... huh..

Originally Posted by Nyororin

This is sort of like saying that no one is off on Christmas in the US. Of course there are going to be holidays the majority of people DO take off - that doesn`t reflect on the whole of days taken off over a whole year.

I think we agree more than we disagree... my point was the US has caught up to Japan in regards to hours worked, but at the same time they simply have more national holidays. Yes every company is different. In my case an American company that is doing business internationally

Originally Posted by Nyororin

I think what I am trying to point out is that stats alone do not reflect reality. The government can say that a company HAS to provide so many days off a year and put a law in place saying this, with fines for companies that do not follow it and tax breaks for companies that do. When the government goes around to the tops of companies with a survey asking them how many days off they gave their workers that year - with all the reporting being in-company... How many places do you think are going to say they didn`t give everyone all the days? And this is the info being used to form charts...

Yes these stats from the report on vacation of countries don't fit everyone perfectly. Thats why they write *average*. In my company's case, like the average, Japan and every other country we are in have more days off from vacation and required national holidays than its native country (the US).

I just wanted to propose that a no-vacation and 50-60 hour week catches up in different ways in conjunction with the society and culture of each country. In the US case I think it plays a role in the waist size. How big of a role... no one really knows.

Does anyone know the current ratio of two income families with kids with the US and Japan? I know more two income families are growing in Japan everyday, but I know it hasn't caught up to the US. Two income familes with kids surely has some affect on waist size.