>> Who benefits from the leave if there's less chance of being employed in the first place?
If you care about standard of living, compare to Switzerland and Germany rather than Zimbabwe.
IMHO Tamar is right. English-speaking First World nations have a terrible habit of becoming so certain that they have the best /whatever/ that it takes a decade to notice when the others surge past. In this case the US seems great for employers, not so great for employees. Having recent experience in more than one jurisdiction I'd say that 4 weeks holiday plus 10 statutory holidays plus maternity leave plus sick leave always is resisted by employers, but the world does not end. The US could have better conditions for employees and a more active economy if the 1% wasn't so greedy.
"... They ne'er cared for us
yet: suffer us to famish, and their store-houses
crammed with grain; make edicts for usury, to
support usurers; repeal daily any wholesome act
established against the rich, and provide more
piercing statutes daily, to chain up and restrain
the poor. If the wars eat us not up, they will; and
there's all the love they bear us."
-- Shakespeare: Coriolanus, Act 1, scene 1
