Hi
Just clearing some things of the Finnish life;)
An employee earns 2,5 days vacation every month which makes 5 weeks paid vacation plus vacation money 50 % of the vacation salary which is paid if the worker comes back to work after the holidays.
It is a crime if a worker does not keep his/hers vacation or does too much overtime. There are controllers who give heavy fines for companies when these laws are violated. Some exceptions, of course, are accepted.
Pension is paid by the employer and the eployee together. The employer pays abt. 16,8 % and the employee abt 4,7 % yearly salary before any deductions to certain insurance companies who handle the huge pension money the best they can.
On top of that money a Finnish employee pays unemployment tax (0,4 %) and all the other taxes which for a regular job makes about 18-55 % of the total salary depending on the amount of the salary.
But then, a Finnish worker gets paid also during sick leaves and gets free health care (incl. surgeries and so on), free education, free university, a long maternity leave and 2 weeks paternity leave and all kind of help when the things go wrong.
And then we pay 23 % VAT on clothes and stuff and 13 % VAT for food.
So to total taxation is about 60 %
)
I dont know what system is the best.. yours or ours;))
Happy 4th of JULY to
By the time you pay all these taxes, there is not much left for your personal use. Homes are costly and then there are all kinds of taxes and insurances, interest that have to be paid. We pay a hefty state and federal taxes also depending on what you earn, Social security, medicare, unemployment and for those who have medical, dental and eye coverage that gets paid too. So when all is said and done, our taxes and insurances are also fairly high. Then there are cars, utilities, more insurances...food and the VAT cna e anywhere between 6-13 percent. So we in the US are heavily taxed and insured to death. However the one thing is that is not equal for all.