As much as I like my vacations, I would rather prefer US salary over it.
Does the US salary hold up against the benefits you get in a well-off EU country? Namely free healthcare, automatic payments into pension fund, strong social system if you're ever in trouble, etc.? It seems to me that, as high as US salaries are, they arent that much higher compared to European salaries when you factor all this in, plus the face that a month of that work youre paid for youre OOO
>automatic payments into pension fund
This is trivial to do if you spend a few hours researching. It's your money they are putting in at the end of the day, but now it's inaccessible to you until you're old. God forbid if you are an exceptional case (e.g. moving outside the EU), since the systems are getting more rigid by the day to save on labor costs.
>as high as US salaries are, they arent that much higher compared to European salaries when you factor all this in
Depends entirely on your job. High-skilled workers are higher at the end of the day. It's almost entirely a cultural/mentality issue for high-skilled workers, who have the money to take months off but are trained to be workaholics. The same way most Europeans are trained to do this '1 month off 11 months on with Xmas and a few random days free' dance, without realizing they can take off more if they have the money for it.
It's primarily to the benefit of low-skilled workers, who are guaranteed a better minimum in most of the EU rather than being at the mercy of the 'free market' in the US. And even that is debatable and case-by-case.