>>> 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.

FWIW : I agree that the world does not end and that what you list is quite reasonable for an employee who has been with the company for a number of years. I have a problem with it being mandated and I suspect that those types of mandates, like minimum wages and others have a detrimental effect on employment. It is not a matter of greed but a matter of simple profitibility. People are in business to make money, not to provide jobs. The vast majority of business owners are small scale and most will fail. Making the entry to business ownership that much harder with regulation which directly affects the bottom line ensures that fewer small businesses are started, fewer people are hired and a higher percentage of employers are big business. The very ones who have the money and connections to buy their legislative way out.

As of July 2013, the official US's unemployment rate was 7.4. While I am well aware that this number is a joke and the real number is in the teens, I'm operating under the assumption that the published employment rates in other countries take similar bias.

Instead of being ridiculous and looking at Zimbabwe, how about we look at the EU:
There are 8 member countries with a lower unemployment rate than the US.
Austria - 4.8
Germany - 5.3
Luxembourg - 5.7
Malta - 6
Denmark - 6.7
Czech Republic - 6.8
Netherlands - 7
Sweden - 7.3

There are 20 higher.
Belgium - 8.9
Bulgaria - 12.7
Croatia - 16.7
Cyprus - 17.3
Estonia - 10.8
Finland - 7.9
France - 11
Greece - 27.4
Hungary - 10.1
Ireland - 13.4
Italy - 12
Latvia - 9.7
Lithuania - 12.1
Poland - 10.6
Portugal - 17.7
Romania - 7.5
Slovakia - 14.3
Slovenia - 11.2
Spain - 27.2
United Kingdom - 7.7