paid leave

SHRM Survey Findings: Paid Leave in the Workplace

November 13, 2013

Paid Leave in the Workplace ©SHRM 2013 2

• 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.

Definitions


• 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. Two-fifths (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.

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.

Key Findings


• 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.

What do these findings mean for the HR profession?


Paid Leave Plans


What type of paid leave plan(s) does your organization offer to its employees?

n = 518 Source: 2013 Employee Benefits Report

Paid personal leave plan

Paid sick leave plan

Paid vacation plan

Paid time off plan

22%

34%

41%

52%


Does your organization provide a set number or an unlimited number of days per year for each paid leave plan?

Note: Only respondents whose organizations offer respective paid leave plans to their full-time employees were asked this question.

Paid sick leave plan (n = 1,281)

Paid time off plan (n = 1,009)

Paid personal leave plan (n = 615)

Paid vacation plan (n = 1,132)

12%

6%

5%

2%

88%

94%

95%

98%

Set number Unlimited number


How does leave accrue in your organization’s paid leave plan(s) for full-time employees?

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.

Paid personal leave plan

(n = 580)

Paid sick leave plan(n = 1,121)


Paid time off plan (n = 949)

7%

30%

31%

39%

64%

38%

31%

27%

15%

18%

25%

25%

12%

4%

5%

3%

2%

10%

8%

7%

Pay period Calendar year Anniversary dateFiscal year Other


Is the leave provided by your organization’s paid leave plan(s) based on an employee’s length of service with your organization?

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.

Paid personal leave plan (n = 615)

Paid sick leave plan (n = 1,129)



11%

14%

88%

92%


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?

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.

Less than one year

One year

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


Does your organization offer paid bereavement and sabbatical leave to your full-time employees?

Note: Only “yes” responses to this question are shown.

Paid sabbatical leave(n = 2,231)

Paid bereavement leave(n = 2,238)

4%

89%


Does your organization offer paid civic leave to your employees?

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.

Paid military leave(n = 2,221)

Paid leave to vote in elections(n = 2,224)

Paid jury duty leave(n = 2,225)

23%

39%

59%


Does your organization offer paid parental leave to your employees?

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.

Paid paternity leave(n = 2,215)

Paid adoption leave(n = 2,223)

Paid maternity leave(n = 2,222)

16%

17%

18%


Demographics


Demographics: Organization Industry

Note: n = 2,258. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options.

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%


Demographics: Organization Industry (continued)

Note: n = 2,258. Percentages do not equal 100% due to multiple response options.

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%


Demographics: Organization Sector

n = 2,258

Privately owned for-profit

Nonprofit

Publicly owned for-profit

Government

52%

21%

20%

7%


Demographics: Organization Staff Size

n = 2,258

1 to 99 employees

100 to 499 employees

500 to 2,499 employees

2,500 to 24,999 employees

25,000 or more employees

32%

38%

18%

10%

2%


Demographics: Other

Corporate (companywide) 75%

Business unit/division 13%

Facility/location 12%

What is the HR department/function for which you responded throughout this survey?

n = 2,258

21

• 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

SHRM Survey Findings: Paid Leave in the Workplace

Survey Methodology


• Paid Time Off Benefits Resource Page

• How to Develop and Administer Paid Leave Programs

• How to Create a Leave Donation Program

Additional SHRM Resources

http://www.shrm.org/hrdisciplines/benefits/Pages/PaidTimeOff.aspx

http://www.shrm.org/templatestools/howtoguides/pages/howtodevelopandadministerpaidleaveprograms.aspx

http://www.shrm.org/templatestools/howtoguides/pages/howtocreatealeavedonationprogram.aspx


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

About SHRM Research

Project leader:Christina Lee, researcher, SHRM ResearchYan Dong, research intern, SHRM Research

Project contributors:Alexander Alonso, Ph.D., SPHR, vice president, SHRM ResearchEvren Esen, manager, Survey Research Center, SHRM Research

Copy editor:Katya Scanlan, SHRM Knowledge Center

http://www.shrm.org/benchmarks

http://www.shrm.org/surveys

http://www.shrm.org/customizedresearch

http://twitter.com/SHRM_Research


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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