The SHRM survey found that 52% of organizations offer paid time off plans, which combine vacation, sick, and personal time. 41% offer separate paid vacation plans, while 34% and 22% offer paid sick leave and personal leave respectively. Most organizations provide a set number of paid leave days per year. Leave accrues most commonly by calendar year or pay period. Paid leave days increase with employee tenure at most organizations. The survey provides insights into various types of paid leave plans offered by organizations.

1. SHRM Survey Findings: Paid Leave in the Workplace
November 13, 2013

2. Definitions
• Paid time off plans: a paid time off (PTO) plan includes sick, vacation and personal days all in one
plan. This excludes paid holidays such as Labor Day, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving.
• Paid vacation plans: a paid vacation plan is a stand-alone plan that provides employees with paid
leave from work, which is typically taken in increments of days or weeks. This excludes paid
holidays such as Labor Day, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving.
• Paid sick leave plans: a paid sick leave plan is a stand-alone plan providing employees with paid
leave for absences from work caused by illness for injury, appointments, and travel time to and from
health care facilities. These plans sometimes provide paid leave for employees to care for
immediate family members.
• Paid personal leave plans: a paid personal leave plan provides employees with paid leave for any
purpose an employee chooses or any purpose that may not be covered by a paid vacation or paid
sick leave plan. This excludes paid holidays such as Labor Day, Memorial Day and Thanksgiving.
• Paid sabbatical leave: Sabbatical leave is paid time from work to accomplish professional
development objectives.
• Paid civic leave: Paid civic leave refers to paid time away from work to perform civic obligations
such as jury duty, military service or voter participation.
• Paid parental leave: paid parental leave refers to paid time away from work to care for a child. This
leave can include maternity, paternity or adoption leave.
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3. Key Findings
• What types of paid leave do organizations offer to their full-time employees?
Overall, 52% of the organizations offer paid time off (PTO) plans to their full-time employees. Twofifths (41%) of organizations offer paid vacations plans, roughly one-third (34%) offer paid sick
leave plans, and 22% offer paid personal leave to their full-time employees.
• Do organizations provide employees with a set number or an unlimited number of paid leave
days per year?
The vast majority of the organizations provide employees with a set number of PTO (94%), paid
vacation (98%), paid sick leave (88%) and paid personal (95%) days per year.
• How does paid leave accrue?
Methods of leave accrual vary by types of paid leave and among organizations. However, across
various types of paid leave, the most frequent methods of leave accrual are by calendar year and
pay period.
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4. Key Findings
• Is the paid leave provided to employees based on their length of service?
The majority of the organizations offer PTO plans (88%) and paid vacation plans (92%) to
employees based on their length of service at the organization. However, an employee’s length of
service has no impact on paid sick leave and personal leave plans. The majority of the
organizations offer a set of number of paid sick leave (86%) and personal leave (89%) plans to their
employees, regardless of their length of service with the organization.
• How many paid leave days per year are offered based on years of service?
Among organizations offering paid leave based on employees’ length of service, paid leave days
increase with employee tenure. For instance, the average days per year offered in PTO plans range
from 14 days for employees with less than a year of service to 26 days for employees with 20 or
more years of service.
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5. What do these findings mean for the HR profession?
• Workers today are placing increased importance on flexible scheduling and greater autonomy in
managing their time away from the office. HR professionals are responding to this trend, with 52%
saying that their organization offers paid time off, or PTO, plans for their full-time workers. PTO
plans include vacation, sick and personal time under one umbrella. HR professionals developing
new leave plans at their organization or updating current plans are increasingly considering the
PTO option.
• There is a new trend in child care benefits that HR professionals should acknowledge. Research
has shown that fathers have become more active in caring for infants, and the SHRM paid leave
study confirms this trend: roughly one in five organizations (18%) offer paid maternity leave, and
now nearly as many (16%) provide paid paternity leave for their workers.
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6. Paid Leave Plans
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7. What type of paid leave plan(s) does your organization offer to its
employees?
Paid time off plan
52%
Paid vacation plan
41%
Paid sick leave plan
Paid personal leave plan
34%
22%
n = 518
Source: 2013 Employee Benefits Report
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8. Does your organization provide a set number or an unlimited number of
days per year for each paid leave plan?
Paid vacation plan (n = 1,132)
Paid personal leave plan (n = 615)
Paid time off plan (n = 1,009)
Paid sick leave plan (n = 1,281)
98%
2%
95%
5%
94%
6%
88%
12%
Set number
Unlimited number
Note: Only respondents whose organizations offer respective paid leave plans to their full-time employees were asked this question.
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9. How does leave accrue in your organization’s paid leave plan(s) for fulltime employees?
Paid time off plan
(n = 949)
39%
Paid vacation plan
(n = 1,113)
31%
Paid sick leave plan
(n = 1,121)
27%
30%
Paid personal leave plan
(n = 580)
Pay period
7%
31%
25%
25%
38%
Calendar year
Anniversary date
5%
18%
64%
3% 7%
4%
15%
Fiscal year
8%
10%
12%
2%
Other
Note: Only respondents whose organizations offer a set number of days for respective paid leave plans to their full-time employees were asked this
question. Percentages may not equal 100% due to rounding.
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10. Is the leave provided by your organization’s paid leave plan(s) based on
an employee’s length of service with your organization?
Paid vacation plan (n = 1,132)
92%
Paid time off plan (n = 951)
Paid sick leave plan (n = 1,129)
Paid personal leave plan (n = 615)
88%
14%
11%
Note: Only respondents whose organizations offer a set number of days for respective paid leave plans to their full-time employees were asked this
question. Only “yes” responses to this question are shown.
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11. Excluding paid holidays, how many days per year are offered in your
organization’s paid leave plan(s) based on employee’s length of
service?
Less than
One year
one year
Paid time off
plan
(n = 839)
Paid vacation
plan
(n = 1,044)
Two
years
Three
years
Four
years
Five to
nine
years
10 to 19
years
20 or
more
years
14
15
16
17
17
21
25
26
8
10
11
12
12
16
19
21
Paid sick plan
(n = 153)
4
6
7
7
7
8
9
9
Paid personal
plan
(n = 56)
1
2
2
3
3
3
3
4
Note: Number of days shown in table is the average. Only respondents whose organizations offer respective paid leave plan to their full-time employees
based on their length of service were asked this question.
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12. Does your organization offer paid bereavement and sabbatical leave to
your full-time employees?
Paid bereavement leave
(n = 2,238)
Paid sabbatical leave
(n = 2,231)
89%
4%
Note: Only “yes” responses to this question are shown.
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13. Does your organization offer paid civic leave to your employees?
Paid jury duty leave
(n = 2,225)
59%
Paid leave to vote
in elections
(n = 2,224)
Paid military leave
(n = 2,221)
39%
23%
Note: Only “yes” responses to this question are shown. Paid jury duty and military leave in this question indicate paid leave beyond what is required by
law.
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14. Does your organization offer paid parental leave to your employees?
Paid maternity leave
(n = 2,222)
Paid adoption leave
(n = 2,223)
Paid paternity leave
(n = 2,215)
18%
17%
16%
Note: Only “yes” responses to this question are shown. Paid maternity leave in this question indicates leave other than what is covered by short-term
disability or state law.
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15. Demographics
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16. Demographics: Organization Industry
Percentage
Manufacturing
19%
Professional, scientific and technical services
19%
Health care and social assistance
17%
Finance and insurance
12%
Administrative and support and waste management and remediation services
10%
Educational services
9%
Information
6%
Transportation and warehousing
6%
Accommodation and food services
5%
Retail trade
5%
Government agencies
4%
Note: n = 2,258. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options.
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17. Demographics: Organization Industry (continued)
Percentage
Religious, grant-making, civic, professional and similar organizations
4%
Utilities
4%
Construction
3%
Wholesale trade
3%
Agriculture, forestry, fishing and hunting
2%
Arts, entertainment, and recreation
2%
Mining
2%
Real estate and rental and leasing
2%
Repair and maintenance
2%
Personal and laundry services
1%
Note: n = 2,258. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options.
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18. Demographics: Organization Sector
Privately owned for-profit
52%
Nonprofit
21%
Publicly owned for-profit
Government
20%
7%
n = 2,258
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19. Demographics: Organization Staff Size
1 to 99 employees
32%
100 to 499 employees
38%
500 to 2,499 employees
18%
2,500 to 24,999 employees
25,000 or more employees
10%
2%
n = 2,258
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20. Demographics: Other
What is the HR department/function for which you responded throughout this survey?
Corporate (companywide)
75%
Business unit/division
13%
Facility/location
12%
n = 2,258
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21. SHRM Survey Findings: Paid Leave in the Workplace
Survey Methodology
• Response rate = 13%
• 2,258 HR professionals from a randomly selected sample of SHRM’s membership participated in
this survey
• Margin of error +/-2%
• Survey fielded June 5-July 13, 2012
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22. Additional SHRM Resources
• Paid Time Off Benefits Resource Page
• How to Develop and Administer Paid Leave Programs
• How to Create a Leave Donation Program
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23. About SHRM Research
For more detailed analyses by industry or organization size, please contact SHRM’s
Customized Benchmarking Service or visit www.shrm.org/benchmarks.
For more survey/poll findings, visit www.shrm.org/surveys.
For more information about SHRM’s Customized Research Services, visit
www.shrm.org/customizedresearch.
Follow us on Twitter @SHRM_Research
Project leader:
Christina Lee, researcher, SHRM Research
Yan Dong, research intern, SHRM Research
Project contributors:
Alexander Alonso, Ph.D., SPHR, vice president, SHRM Research
Evren Esen, manager, Survey Research Center, SHRM Research
Copy editor:
Katya Scanlan, SHRM Knowledge Center
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24. About SHRM
The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the world’s largest
association devoted to human resource management. Representing more than
250,000 members in over 140 countries, the Society serves the needs of HR
professionals and advances the interests of the HR profession. Founded in
1948, SHRM has more than 575 affiliated chapters within the United States and
subsidiary offices in China, India and United Arab Emirates.
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