7 mind-blowing facts that show why employment in the US is the worst in the developed world

Federal law does not require companies provide breaks for lunch or coffee.

US law surrounding lunch breaks is starkly different from other countries. Italy and China go so far as to give workers two-hour lunch breaks.

Americans also eat lunch at their desks at higher rates than other employees, despite studies that say taking breaks to eat boost team cooperation and spur creativity.

Italy offers new parents 21 weeks of paid leave to moms after giving birth. The UK offers 39 weeks. Greece offers 43 weeks.

The US, meanwhile, offers zero.

The federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) gives American parents 12 weeks of family leave to care for a new child, but the law does not require companies to pay for the time off.

The policy is also restricted to full-time employees who have been with the company for more than a year, which comprises just 60% of workers countrywide.

Other UN states that don't guarantee paid leave for new parents include Papua New Guinea and the South American nation Suriname, NPR reports.

The US does not have guidelines for companies on how to provide flexible work hours. Perhaps consequently, a 2018 survey of employers found only 23% of companies offer flexible or remote working options.

European countries give employees the right to more flexible work hours, Kent University social policy professor Heejung Chung told Slate. UK workers, for instance, have the right to request flexible work, so long as they worked for at least 26 weeks. The Netherlands, too, allows employees to request flexible hours.

Low-wage workers in the US earn just a fraction of the average salary for all full-time workers. If you make the federal minimum wage of $7.25, that's just 34% of what the average American employee makes, according to data from the OECD.

Other developed countries have a much higher wage for the lowest earners relative to full-time worker pay. In France, for instance, minimum-wage workers make 62% of what average full-time workers make. In the UK, low-wage workers make 54% of the average full-time pay.

When taking buying power into account, however, the US does have a slightly better wage compared to countries with higher costs of living, such as Australia and France.

Many states have higher minimum wages than the average. Earlier this year, 21 states increased minimum wages, some to as high as $15. Some economists say increasing the minimum wage to $15 across the board would reduce jobs, yet also bring more Americans out of poverty.

The US does not require companies pay extra for night work. In turn, Americans work night and weekend shifts more often than Europeans, according to a paper published by the National Bureau of Economic Research published in 2014.

One in four Americans works a graveyard shift — between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. — compared to just one in 14 in France and Holland.

Unlike European countries, employment in the US is "at will," meaning companies can let go of their workers at any time, so long as it's not discriminatory.

Because of this at-will relationship between employers and employees, the US does not mandate companies to give compensatory pay.

"There is no requirement in the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) for severance pay," the US Department of Labor website states. "Severance pay is a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee (or the employee's representative)."