What would you choose - more pay or more days off?

It would depend on the basic salary. I am leaning towards the higher holiday entitlement.  It's not really less pay, is it, it's less increase and if I was coping on the current salary and could manage cost of living increases, I'd prefer the time off.

Here, our full time minimum entitlement is 28 days paid each year, more if the employer wishes.  Doesn't really apply to me now as I'm self employed but my answer is based on when I was in full time employment. 

More time off.

Truthfully I am not sure what I would take, and I have flip flopped my answer a few times.  At this time I am at take less days and more money.  I guess it would depend if the 4 weeks includes holidays and sick time or if it is just annual holiday/vacation days off.  4 weeks is a pretty good hunk if it is just for vacation.  

I just did the rough math on our leave/days off for my company…which I think is generous .  I get about 36 days off a year…but that includes sick time, holidays, and vacation time.  We do combined time off and it is all put into one ‘bucket’ and you can use it as you please.  For example I work at least half of the holidays so I can use those days as regular vacation time. 

I have over 400 hours in my ‘bank’ and can only keep 432 hours, so I obviously don’t even use what I get…therefore I think I would go for the money as I do think 4 weeks is plenty, except for an odd year here or there.

I'd definitely take more time off if we could use those 6 days with no restrictions (which is how things are now).

That could give us a 3 day weekend every other month or a 4 day stretch of days off if attached to a current one day holiday. Or just an additional week off somewhere. And any of those would be really great.



This would all be dependent on me being able to reconsider the choice with each new year. After a few years of a taking the smaller pay increase I could imagine at some point I might want to say "You know what, we've gotten a lot done with the extra time these past few years, let's see if we can't tuck away a bit more money for a year, now." Or if inflation keeps on as it is, that we might simply feel that we needed the larger pay increase after awhile.

In my last permanent employment, I got 30 days of annual leave, 12 days of public holidays, 6 months of sick leave on full pay, and a further 6 months on half pay. I also accrued annual leave while on sick leave! Despite all that, I would still have chosen the extra days’ leave. 
My DD exchanged a portion of her salary this year for an extra six days off. She can change that every year which I think is a great idea. 

I agree that is a good idea.  At my company, they do the opposite, you can sell back CTO for money.  I am always prompted to do that and I always respond that I would prefer to keep the days in my bank.  So in that instance I am doing the opposite and picking days over money. I am such a confused person.  😆

I want to go work for your company 😁!

Well, this year, I would take the extra 6 days off as those would be permanent, correct?
And then next year Id go back to my normal raise.

The reasoning? Who knows if they will ever make the extra 6 day offer again! Take it now, then get back to raises.

Yeah I misread it. And of course as a teacher I had time off and would have taken the raise. But for corporate workers who might only get a week or two of paid time off, I’d think they might like having the extra time.

Your post points out another problem with American work culture, though. Why don’t you use all of your four weeks each year? I know in many places it’s frowned on to actually use your vacation. It’s sad, really.

It would depend on my current situation. With small kids at home I needed time. When putting kids through college I needed money. And after that money was nice for taking vacations I had never had a chance to take before. (but time was a factor there, too)

Do you have a pension plan, AussieMeg ? Many of those depend on your average salary the final five years of employment. If you cut your salary now, will it affect that amount?

When you return from vacation now are you able to keep up with your work, or do you end up putting in extra hours to catch up? Is taking the extra time off worth that extra unpaid time?

Im not sure how Meg’s company operates, but sick leave is *usually* a separate leave bank in Australia. As are paid company holidays - so it could be all leave on top of those.

At my current job it is our family owned business. I don't want employees thinking that I am taking a lot of time off while they are working.  Also, I am constantly worrying if there are any problems, etc so it is not like I am really getting away.  However, I was the same way at my previous job.  It was also 4 weeks/year but can carry over but you couldn't have over 6 weeks banked. It was use it or lose it so my boss would force me to take a few days off. Idk I just don't like taking time off if I am not going on a trip. I get bored and feel lazy. 

I get it! When I was the president of a company, I had a generous leave policy - more than the rank & file staff - but I felt very uncomfortable taking time above what the rest of the team had. Financially, the company wasn't in a position to offer everyone the same leave package I had, so I while I did bump up everyone's leave to some degree, I still had more (board's decision, not mine). I just let my time in excess of what senior members of staff had go to waste.

As A senior leader but not THE senior leader in a larger company, I don't hesitate to take all my time. There are more coverage options and the overall structure of the company is better and more equitable. The company I ran was an acquisition from a retiring owner who ran the place for decades as his own personal fiefdom, paying himself handsomely and underpaying and overworking all the staff, while leaving a ton of deferred maintenance - physical and technological - across everything. Soooo much had to be invested to get things up to snuff, including increasing employee wages and cross-training staff for coverage when people were out. I was able to give them raises but couldn't ALSO give them a bunch more leave at the same time. It was just a very complicated situation that required careful leadership and a good bit of sacrifice on my part. But we made a ton of progress and I'm super proud of where they all where when I left compared to when I started.

I feel like if you would ask a different demographic, then the one on here, it would be totally different. Most men I feel would say more pay.