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by seminole 4406 days ago
Sorry about the formatting.

* 40h workweek

* 5 weeks of holiday a year

* free/cheap health insurance

* free/cheap education up to university level for our daughter.

4 comments

Out of the 4 things listed here, in the US the only one that's "normal" is a 40h workweek.

5 weeks of vacation is a lot unless you are really senior or pulled a lot of strings. 2weeks is the average "base" here.

Solid health insurance is usually expensive.

Public schools are "free" but you are going to have to pay for college. I don't know of any completely free colleges anywhere in the country. (Not saying there aren't any, but I've never heard anyone talk about a good one.)

He can always send the daughter (and any other kids) back to Europe for college, it's (mostly) free (for citizens) here.
That was the cunning plan :-)
Go to the US for an extended vacation (month or so), interview with as many companies as you can, and find one that will sponsor an H1-B visa. It'll be hard, but it's worth it.
And then wait 5 or more years until your wife is allowed to work there legally, pay obscene amounts of money for child daycare and schools, all while waiting for a green card.
This matches the experience of the people I know that emigrated :-/
Generally you have up to 2 hours to edit your post, which is reasonable if you also add a line saying you've done so for formatting purposes.
Most US companies it's 2-3 weeks of vacation and 10 days a year of public holidays.
It's not really that far off from Belgium (20 + 10), but I think your US numbers do assume a competitive job market like programming.

His wife might not be so lucky.