With us (not that I can speak for the whole of the US, but every private section job I've ever had has been this way), the number of days on paper, once you throw in federal holidays, doesn't look that bad comparatively, it's always been the
attitude employers take toward vacation time,
which is an earned benefit, and holidays.
Every place I've ever worked, there's always cajoling, and sometimes downright bullying over taking time off. There have been restrictive policies (like the ones I described earlier), and other formalities that can make it actually difficult to take earned time off.
I've seen managers portray workers who take vacation as not contributing their all to the team, as being lazy, called "timeclock-punchers," called out in staff meetings upon their return ("Well, everyone, let's welcome TastyReuben back, who's been lazy for the last 10 days, while we were all here working...must be nice..."). I was once told to "go ahead and work from home" over Presidents' Day, and when I laughed and said, "Nice try, that's a federal holiday, I'm not working," my manager said, "It's not like anyone does anything for Presidents' Day, it's not a real holiday, like Christmas or Thanksgiving." Hey, it's a federal holiday! It's a day off! Deal with it!
Because of all that, over the years, I've developed into quite a d!ck when it comes to my holidays and vacation time. I've never lost a day of vacation or failed to take a federal holiday. I even use every last hour of my "personal absence" time (aka, sick time). Best thing in the world was when employers here finally agreed to quit tying it to actually being sick, and agreed to let it be used for any unforeseen emergency absence, scheduled appointment, etc. First line managers still try to pull the "I need to see a doctor's note" crap from time to time, though.
Comp time...being salaried, not eligible for that, and I've always found it funny how employers are a-ok with employers working 50...60...70 hours a week, but are never ok with an employee saying, "I need to leave a couple of hours early tomorrow."
Even though I'm salaried, I'm meticulous with my timekeeping, and I track my own time, so I know how much I really worked in a week, versus what my time report says (another joke, as we're strictly forbidden from ever reporting more than 40 hours a week, no matter how much we worked), and I find ways to get my time back.
I asked for a couple of hours off a few years ago, back when we were doing a major upgrade, and I was working between 60-70 hours a week, and my manager snapped, "What, you expect to get paid for f*****g off?!" Well, that's a two-way street. I don't expect to get paid for "f*****g off," and you shouldn't expect me to work for free. Simple as that.
I'd hate to try to drive something that size through some of the tiny English or French villages we've been too. Plus many of the nicest places to stay have a maximum size of around 8-10m - and even ones that don't have a maximum size are often limited by narrow roadways and overhanging trees.
I work for a global company and our functional teams have members located in many different countries and each is employed according to local employment laws (a real headache when trying to manage people!). I remember when my manager was based in the US....I'm not sure how many days holiday she got, but I do remember that she only got about 3 months maternity leave (which most of us in Europe found pretty shocking).