Leave
Leave Benefits Are Here to Stay
Leave benefits have once again been rated as one of the top three most important benefit types by employers. As areas such as mental health leave, personal time off, and family leave continue to permeate the desires of prospective employees, some organizations are staying ahead of the curve by ensuring they provide various forms of time off that prioritize well-being and family care.
Some employers have begun investing in more specified time off such as granting floating holidays, time off to care for grandchildren, and menopause leave. In addition, with increased advocacy for mandated paid sick leave across the United States, it’s evident that employers and employees both know the organizational value that leave has when it comes to helping workers recover as well as mitigating fatigue and potential burnout.
Continue below to explore leave benefits and what organizations like yours are offering in 2024.
Paid Vacation Leave
Paid Sick Leave
Paid Time Off (PTO)
including both vacation and sick time
Paid Open/Unlimited Leave
How Do Your Benefits Stack Up?
Use the tool below to explore benefit categories by industry, organization size or location
Significantly Down
Down
No Change
Up
Significantly Up
How Leave is Determined
A significant majority of organizations – 77% – use an employee’s service time (i.e., their tenure at the organization) when determining the amount of leave granted, down 3 percentage points from 2023. Meanwhile, 45% of organizations use number of hours worked, while 28% use employee level.
Average Paid Time Off
New this year, organizations were asked about their paid-leave policies, in particular the specific amount of time granted to employees. This was asked to organizations that grant time off based on service time, as this is the most common factor used to determine paid leave. Organizations are grouped by those that provide either paid vacation or paid sick leave as separate and unique offerings, as well as those that offer a combined bank of paid time off (PTO) including both vacation and sick time.
Leave for New Parents
While leave for new parents expanded greatly last year, with an average increase of 4.5 percentage points across the six different types, 2024 seems to be a year of stabilization. These benefits remaining at their previously elevated levels suggests that organizations which began allowing more comprehensive parental-leave packages last year have decided to keep them in their policies, seemingly understanding the importance and value that offering leave for new parents brings to their workforce.
2023
2024
Percentages represent the number of employers who offer each type of leave for new parents beyond what is covered by short-term disability and/or the law.
Well-Being Leave
Paid Bereavement Leave
91%
Paid Mental Health Days*
*Separate from regular sick leave
16%
Unpaid Sabbaticals
6%
Paid Sabbaticals
8%
Civic Leave
With 2024 being an election year, organizations can promote civic duty among their employees by offering time off for voting, volunteering, community action events, or even protests. Interestingly, however, paid time off to vote and unpaid time off to vote beyond what is required by law both decreased this year (4 percentage points and 3 percentage points, respectively).
Paid Time Off to Vote
Unpaid Time Off to Vote*
*Beyond what is required by law
Paid Time Off for Volunteering
Paid Time Off to Attend a
Protest/for Activism
