Britain - worst quality of life in Europe

marklv

kennyboy66 wrote: »

And you point is ?

The table for all of Europe included bank holidays.

If the minimum in the UK is 28 (inc bank holidays) then how can the average by 28 ?

I don't believe the table included bank holidays.

kennyboy66_2

marklv wrote: »

I don't believe the table included bank holidays.

Yes it does.

See notes on Uswitch report.

They are not averages at all, but statutory holiday.

Holiday Allowance - Based on Mercer 'Holiday entitlements in EU countries' 2007data:

http://uk.mercer.com/pressrelease/details.htm?idContent=1267495.

marklv

kennyboy66 wrote: »

Yes it does.

See notes on Uswitch report.

They are not averages at all, but statutory holiday.

Holiday Allowance - Based on Mercer 'Holiday entitlements in EU countries' 2007data:

http://uk.mercer.com/pressrelease/details.htm?idContent=1267495.

Fari enough. Thanks for pointing it out.

One other figure seems inaccurate to me - £35,730 as the average UK household after tax income seems very high to me - that's £2,977 a month. Maybe they got muddled up and took the pre-tax figure instead, or they just ignored those on benefits and pensioners.

kennyboy66_2

marklv wrote: »

Fari enough. Thanks for pointing it out.

One other figure seems inaccurate to me - £35,730 as the average UK household after tax income seems very high to me - that's £2,977 a month. Maybe they got muddled up and took the pre-tax figure instead, or they just ignored those on benefits and pensioners.

My guess is that its a crude household average, and skewed up by high earners.

A 'median' income would be much better.

marklv

I doubt it. It seems very high to be even a mean average income, let alone a median. And other figures I've seen always put the Scandinavians as having higher cash incomes than in the UK or anywhere else in Europe.

This is from November 2007 and puts UK average family income before tax as £32,779: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7071611.stm

Proves my point I think.

jamesd

kennyboy66 wrote: »

I also see that the number of days holiday in UK is 28. As that is the statutory minimum now, it would seem somewhat improbable that its also the average.

marklv wrote: »

You are wrong about the average number of days of holiday - the 28 exclude bank holidays! The statutory minimum is 28 including bank holidays.

marklv wrote: »

I don't have a clue as to what you're on about!

You're right that you didn't have a clue what he was on about. When the statutory minimum is 28 days the only way it is possible for the average number of taken holiday days to be the same as the statutory minimum is if nobody gets more than the statutory minimum.*

Your problem here is the same as for your comment about the state pension: you're ignoring the extra that people get above the minimum provided by the law and state. In the UK the higher income is used to provide for things like more retirement income, by those who want to do that, or for a higher day to day standard of living who prefer that instead of a higher pension.

The report also seems to have ignored the reality and concentrated only on the minimum, so it's not so surprising that you got caught out if you didn't notice that 28 was the minimum permitted so it's impossible in practice for it to also be the average.

*it could also be possible if those with employers ignoring the law got enough fewer days to match the extra days the rest get but that's not possible in practice.

marklv

The holiday issue has already been cleared up and I admitted I was mistaken, so stop making a song and dance about it.

jamesd

I see that it's mostly a complete load of rubbish. Take a look at the original uswitch report.

For example, the average household income is simply a made up figure: "Net household income after taxes (in GBP) based on two-earner married couple, one at 100% of average earnings and the other at 33%, with 2 children", not the real average household income at all.

And the UK number for holidays is simply wrong, they claim it's "Holiday entitlements are a sum of statutory minimum holidays and public holidays in days per year" but it's really only the statutory minimum for the UK, ignoring all the extra bank holidays that many people get. If the others count the bank holidays that explains why they are higher. Comparing holidays actually available to employees should give a very different number for the UK because of all the people who get the minimum plus the bank holidays.

jamesd

The problem is not solely you, it's a report that is using bogus numbers.

marklv

jamesd wrote: »

The problem is not solely you, it's a report that is using bogus numbers.

Indeed. And even their explanation of average earnings is wrong, as average individual earnings are around £26k a year before tax. The figure is obviously gross, not net of tax.

The figures for gas and electricity are not based on prices per unit of energy, but household expenditure. Well, hardly surprising that in Spain they don't need to spend much on gas, with the Mediterrenean climate! Do they even need central heating there?