I sincerely hope you realize that a great deal of the fact EU has always gotten bosses first is because of the way employment works in the EU right? On average, in the US you get something like 1-2 weeks (for your typical worker) with SOME (and I mean a minority of places here) get an additional week after 5 or 10 years.
It is ALOT easier to get away from work in the EU than it is in the US.
I'm not saying skill doesn't play a factor, obviously it does, but you can't simply say "EU has more skill than the US" and that's 100% of the reason why.