I'm employed at a university in the US and have what we consider a "cushy" job: i.e. good benefits and a short work week. Just for comparison, here's what my employer offers.

vacation = 2 weeks

personal time = 6 days (sick time is considered personal time)

holidays = 7

We have also time off that I don't know how to categorize. It's specific to universities.

university shutdown between Christmas and New Year's = 7 days

Memorial Day until Labor Day we leave at 1pm on Friday, assuming no critical work needs to be completed.

University tuition ranges and often includes housing, which is necessary in less urban areas. $1000/class would be on the low end.

Day care for our 4.5 year old is about $250/week.

My work week is 40 hours but we're strongly encouraged to take a 1 hour lunch. However, with the exception of one other person in my social circle, everyone else works 45+ hours weekly.

EDIT: Applied line breaks again.

"University tuition ranges and often includes housing, which is necessary in less urban areas."

Really? I'd think campus housing would be more necessary in urban areas, just to provide subsidized living space in often expensive areas. I go to a rural university, and there are more than enough apartments around--just living by myself, I'm paying less than half for a studio apartment than I would for a bed in a dorm room.

My thought pattern was more along the line of urban areas have plenty of apartments available off campus. Rent fluctuates according to the local market: my own city is a steal for students right now. Some markets are always ridiculously high, e.g. NYC and Boston. In less urban areas where land is available, universities can easily build dormitories. Of course, I haven't seen more than a handful of universities so I'll admit to a small sample size.

In less urban areas where land is available, developers can easily build apartments--but in urban areas where land is unavailable, my theory was that students just increase demand on the existing housing market with supply less able to react.

Here in Pullman, Washington, student housing is cheap and readily available just because there's so much room to expand. There's always a wheat field you can turn into an apartment complex somewhere.

I can see your scenario happening. Around me, the housing market crashed just after some large condo and apartment building projects got underway. The developers dropped prices/rents, which caused the owners of smaller, older apartment buildings to drop rents by as much as 50%.

Developing in non-urban areas would be really subject to local zoning.

In any event, remove housing from the university cost - e.g. a student living at home - and you're still looking at a low of $10K per year. ($1K/class * 5 classes/semester * 2 semesters) That's not accounting for probably another $300 in miscellaneous fees. Factor in books and it could easily add another $500/semester.

You can probably find some scenarios in which the cost is lower, but $10K is really "bargain basement" nowadays in the US.

Yes, $10K per year is in-state tuition at my school.

There is a legal minimum amount of vacation though - IIRC it's something like 25 days/year.