American reacts to: Working in Germany VS Working in America

Thank you for watching me, a humble American, react to Working in Germany VS Working in America

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[fewtube]

If you get 1 US dollar for 93 euro cents, the euro is worth more. So €12.50 is $13.44

[alexnd]

Bro is really struggling with the right Euro-Dollar conversion

[tosa]

He forgot to mention that he acquires pension entitlements and also pays into unemployment insurance and long-term care insurance.

[TackerTacker]

That's the thing, it's not benefits, it's mandatory.
Don't you think for a second that companies here are any nice than in the US, we just have better labor laws and powerful unions.

[Casanisl]

Also keep in mind, if you get sick (certified by a doctor) during your planned vacation, this time doesn't count as vacation days and it would be transfered to the "unlimited" sick days.

[bmkmymaggots]

he should have at least 20 days paid vacation, so 4 weeks, not only 3 weeks....

[sleepy]

To make things a little clearer:

- he messed something up with his paid vacation. You have 4 weeks by law but in a lot of jobs you have 6 weeks. i "only" work in a retail store and have the 6 weeks. In my case, there are also the 15 public holiday days from Bavaria (differs slightly from state to state) which adds :)

- If you get sick for longer, your employer pays your full salary for the first 6 weeks, after 6 weeks the health insurance company takes over. If you have children you get 67% of your last salary, if you are single only 60% from the health insurance.

[ini]

20 days payed vacation days are mandatory by law in Germany.. but 25-30 days are more common

[fbahr]

Minimum wage in Germany (2024) is 12, 41€.

[martynevans]

I had a stroke, and I had 1½ years off! And then come back to work and they wanted to know when I would like to take my holidays for the last 1½ 80 days!!

And €12.50 is the minimum wage, but will go up this year.

[hxbbefm]

Ryan, you are not right.
0, 93 € = 1$, so 1€ is 1, 075 $ .12, 50€ =13, 44$
I hope you agree

[kReels]

Watching americans react to germany -the work-life-balance, the culture, the people- had me appreciate Germany sooo much more!

[DanielMalefitz]

Ryan for the second video in a row not reading the currency conversion rate chart correctly....
It's the other way around: 12€ is roughly $13 right now.
A few more insights:
He has 4 weeks of paid vacation, which is minimum in Germany. It's clarified in the video's comments, he just got it wrong. 6 weeks is pretty standard I would say, at least for jobs with average salary and above.
Also 12€ (since 2024 12.41€) is minimum wage in Germany. He says himself it's unskilled manual labor work in a warehouse with no prior experience, are you sure he would be paid significantly more than minimum wage for this kind of work in the US?
The job market for skilled workers is still pretty good in my experience, especially with prior experience. 70 rejections sounds crazy, but this is most likely due to him not being German and maybe his German skills are not great either. This is indeed something to keep in mind in Germany, most companies won't hire you unless you actually speak German on a certain level.
I think for the average citizen the salary disparity between the US and Germany isn't that big of a deal, ~$54k in Germany vs $60k in the US. You get less and pay more taxes but you get more for your taxes (especially social security) and depending on the location the living expenses are lower. A significant difference is in the higher paying jobs. According to some statistics I found a gross salary of ~$86, 000 a year already puts you in the top 5% in Germany whereas the top 5% in the USA is at ~ $340, 000 which is almost unheard of as a salary in Germany. The top 1% earners only make ~$160, 000 in Germany.
I think this is the most significant difference between the US and Germany in terms of pay. If you have a high paying job in Germany the potential pay in the US for the same job is significantly higher, even if you consider factors like ridiculous rents in the areas where you get these salaries (hey silicon valley) and the lack of social security/need for saving up for bad times yourself.

[SeanHuggins]

Hey dude, thanks for the reaction! 😄 As I'm sure you'll find out from your comment section I got some of the details in my video incorrect, but my overall thoughts on the experience are still the same. Either way, nice video keep it up! 😁

[blablubb]

In Germany, an employer has the duty by law to take care of their employees and only assign them tasks that do not endanger their health. Manual labor under extreme temperatures is considered a health risk that needs to be avoided. If you faint on the job, and someone finds out that your employer made you do heavy lifting in a 90°F warehouse, that's grounds for a lawsuit.

[axell]

For a german, this is actually a pretty shitty job offer, both on payment and holidays.
The wage is as the absolut minimal wage allowed by law and if 3 weeks holidays for him mean 20 days, its also the minimal allowance by law. Most jobs in Germany offer something between 25-30 days of fully paid holidays.
If he has experience in Tech, he should easily find a MUCH better paid job with around 25€/hour.
The difference in Germany to the USA is that the low end is higher then in the US and the top end is lower in Germany. And you can have a halfway decent life at the lower end in Germany instead of simple survival like in the states.
In Europe, most people work to live, while in the states most people live to work.

[alanpotter]

I already mentioned in another video that €2500 after taxes earned in Germany is more than €4500 after taxes earned in USA when you take into consideration that with the German pay you get free healthcare and education, and that your rent isn't in the thousands of dollars per month, the quality of groceries is quite higher and you get at least 20 vacation days by law.

[andreadee]

He is wrong about his own holiday. He has 20 days and he counts the weekends, then it is three weeks. But only the five working days are counting, 4 x 5, so he has 4 weeks.

[TheOnlyOneSpeedfreak]

I have a fridge like that for over 14 years now. They are not that rare in germany.

[quaipau]

"you need time to recover from sickness, so you get time"
Ryan: "that's