Although we in the UK are part of the European economy, it appears many of our working practices are shifting more to a U.S. system.

In France, for example, workers appear to have all of the rights of the State on their side.

We only have to look back over the past year to remember all the different times French workers have gone on strike or forced their government to give concessions to different groups - both in working conditions and workers' rights.

However, over in the U.S., the employer has much more power.

The right to statutory redundancy payments is unheard of.

In fact, workers in the U.S. have very little social rights compared to their counterparts on this side of the Atlantic.

Employees' rights and benefits here in the UK seem to be moving more to the U.S. system as we see more and more of us working on short-term contracts, often for the multinational companies.

Only a few years ago, this would have been considered a "job for life" if you were lucky enough to be employed by them.

This change to working on contracts obviously benefits the employer.

Although in many cases the contract worker would actually earn more than a colleague employed on a full-time basis, the contract worker is usually not entitled to the perks, such as a pension, life insurance, hospital plan, sickness payments or redundancy payments.

These benefits which are usually taken for granted can be quite costly.

For a start, death in service, which could be up to four times an employee's salary and which is free to those employees who have it, would cost a 35-year-old male smoker earning £25,000 a year about £30 per month.

Plus there is the extra pension payments you will have to make just to cover the loss of employer's contributions, which would often mean more than doubling your payments.

It appears on the face of it the benefits European workers on the whole enjoy makes life much easier than for some of our American counterparts.

It is therefore a little surprising how well the American economy is doing and also how good the standard of living appears to be for the average American compared to the average Briton.

Maybe being forced to be more responsible for their own welfare pushed the Americans to expect higher standards.

Maybe the more you have to achieve, the more you do achieve.

For us in the UK with reducing state benefits, only time will tell.

Wilbury Financial Management is a member of IFA Network Ltd, which is regulated by the Personal Investment Authority.