I

t is common for U.S. employers

to offer paid leave to their 

workers in forms such as 

holidays, vacations, sick leave, and 

personal leave. Employers typically 

incur substantial costs in doing so. 

As of early 2008, State and local 

government workers averaged 11 holidays per year while workers in private-sector establishments averaged 

8 days. Paid-leave costs were higher 

for government employers than for 

employers in private industry, both in 

number of dollars and as a percentage of total compensation. In March 

2008, the average cost per hour 

worked for paid leave in the public 

sector was $3.12, which accounted 

for 8.2 percent of total compensation. 

The cost per hour in the private sector 

was $1.80, which accounted for 6.7 

percent of total compensation.

This is the second issue of BLS’s 

Program Perspectives. The first issue 

featured health benefits, and the next 

will feature retirement benefits.

Access to paid leave 

Paid holidays were available to 77 

percent of private-industry workers 

as of March 2008, and paid vacation 

leave was available to 78 percent 

of the workers. (See table 1.) Sixtyeight percent of State and local 

government workers received paid 

holidays, and 60 percent received 

paid vacation leave. Government 

workers’ access to paid holidays and 

vacation leave was lower than that 

of their private-sector counterparts, 

primarily because workers in education occupations typically work 9 or 

10 months per year and many do not 

receive paid holidays. For example, 

29 percent of public-sector primary, 

secondary, and special education 

schoolteachers received paid holidays and only 9 percent received 

paid vacation leave. Compared with 

access to holidays and vacation 

leave, access to sick leave was less 

frequent in private industry but 

HEALTH

PAID LEAVE

RETIREMENT

PAID LEAVE

continued inside►

Vacations, holidays, and 

personal leave: access, 

quantity, costs, and trends

F E B R U A R Y 2 0 0 9 ON PAID-LEAVE BENEFITS

PERSPECTIVES

ROGRAM ISSUE 2

NATIONAL

COMPENSATION

SURVEY

Benefits Series

www.bls.gov/ebs

Welcome to

the second issue of

Program Perspectives,

a new publication from

the U.S. Bureau of Labor 

Statistics in which BLS

programs showcase

their latest data.

U . S . B U R E A U O F L A B O R S T A T I S T I C S
2 PROGRAM PERSPECTIVES • FEBRUARY 2009

from cover page►

U.S. BUREAU OF LABOR STATISTICS

more frequent in State and local government. (A future issue of 

Program Perspectives will cover 

sick-leave benefits in more detail.) 

Fifty-nine percent of State and local 

government workers received paid 

personal leave, compared with 37 

percent of workers in private industry.

Paid-leave benefits varied by 

worker characteristics. Paid-leave 

provisions for full-time workers were 

more generous than those for parttime workers. Differences in holidays 

and vacation leave for union workers 

compared with nonunion workers 

were most pronounced in privatesector establishments. Eighty-five 

percent of private-sector union workers received paid holidays, compared 

with 76 percent of nonunion workers. 

Eighty-four percent of union workers 

received paid vacation leave, compared with 77 percent of nonunion 

workers. For personal leave, the difference between union and nonunion 

workers was greater in State and local government, in which 72 percent 

of union workers received personal 

leave, in contrast to 49 percent of 

nonunion workers.

Leave benefits in private-sector 

establishments also varied by establishment characteristics—that is, by 

establishment size and by whether 

the establishment was in a goodsproducing industry or a service-providing industry. Eighty-six percent 

of private-sector workers in goodsproducing industries received paid 

holidays and vacation leave, compared with about three-quarters of 

workers in service-providing industries. Sixty-nine percent of workers 

in establishments employing 1–99 

workers received paid holidays, and 

71 percent received paid vacation 

leave. This contrasts with workers 

in establishments employing 100 

or more workers, where 86 percent 

received both holidays and vacation 

leave. Twenty-six percent of workers in the smallest establishments 

(those with 1–99 workers) received 

personal leave, compared with 50 

percent of workers in establishments 

employing 100 workers or more.

Holidays and

vacation leave

In private-sector establishments, the 

number of paid holidays varied by 

worker and establishment characteristics. (See table 1.) Union workers, for 

example, averaged 10 paid holidays, 

whereas nonunion workers received 8 

days on average. Private-sector work

TABLE 1

Paid leave: percent of workers with access to benefits and number of paid holidays per year, March 2008

Worker or

establishment

characteristic

Percent of workers with access

Number of holidays

Private industry State and local government

Holidays Vacations Personal 

leave Holidays Vacations Personal leave

Private 

industry

State and local 

government

All workers 77 78 37 68 60 59 8 11

Worker characteristics

Full time 89 90 42 75 68 65 8 11

Part time 40 39 21 31 20 30 6 11

Union 85 84 47 70 57 72 10 11

Nonunion 76 77 36 67 62 49 8 11

Establishment characteristics

Goods-producing

 industries 86 86 33 - - - 9 -

Service-providing

 industries 75 76 38 68 60 59 8 11

1–99 workers 69 71 26 70 66 46 7 11

100 workers or more 86 86 50 68 59 61 9 11

Note: Dash indicates datum not available. Source: National Compensation Survey. 
www.bls.gov/ebs

ers in management, professional, 

and related occupations averaged 

9 paid holidays; by contrast, workers in service and natural resources, 

construction, and maintenance occupations averaged 7 days. Workers 

in private establishments employing 

100 workers or more averaged 9 paid 

holidays, while workers in smaller 

establishments averaged 7 days.

The numbers of paid vacation 

days available by length of service 

are shown in chart 1. Private-sector 

workers in establishments employing 100 workers or more received 

significantly more vacation days 

than workers in smaller establishments. The difference becomes more 

pronounced after 10 and 20 years of 

service, when workers in the larger 

establishments generally were receiving about a week more vacation time 

than workers in the smaller establishments. Workers in State and local 

governments received more vacation 

days at nearly all lengths of service 

than their private-sector counterparts.

Employer costs for 

paid leave

Employer costs of providing 

paid-leave benefits to workers can 

be determined by computing the 

cost per hour worked (CPHW). 

The CPHW can be calculated for 

workers as a whole and also can be 

calculated for separate groups of 

workers, which provides important 

opportunities for comparison. The 

CPHW is simply the annual cost 

of a benefit divided by the number 

of hours worked during the same 

period. The mean cost of paid leave 

for private-sector employers was 

$1.80 per hour (6.7 percent of total 

compensation) and was higher for 

employers in State and local governments, at $3.12 (8.2 percent). 

The higher costs in State and local 

government held for all the individual benefits that make 

6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23

CHART 1

Paid vacations: mean number of days per year, by length-of-service requirement, March 2008

Mean number of vacation days per year

1

This refers to employees who work in an establishment of the stated size. Source: National Compensation Survey. 

www.bls.gov/ebs FEBRUARY 2009 • PROGRAM PERSPECTIVES 3

continued on back page►

Number of years of service 1 5 10 20

Private industry    

State and local government    

All workers

Full time

Part time

Union

Nonunion

1–99 employees1

100 or more employees1
Paid holiday. A day for which 

employees who are not required to 

work receive pay for the day off, 

or for which employees who are 

required to work get premium pay 

or compensatory time off. A holiday 

is usually, but not necessarily, a 

day of special religious, cultural, 

social, or patriotic significance.

Paid vacation. Leave from work 

(or pay in lieu of time off) provided 

on an annual basis and normally 

taken in blocks of days or weeks. 

Paid vacations are commonly 

granted to employees only after 

they meet specified service requirements. The amount of vacation 

leave received each year commonly 

varies by length of service.

Paid personal leave. Also called 

general purpose leave, it can be used 

for any purpose or purposes that an 

employee chooses. Personal leave is 

designed as a “catch-all” to provide 

the employee with time off from 

work for miscellaneous purposes 

that may or may not be covered by 

other types of leave plans.

Paid family leave. Paid leave 

given to an employee to care for 

a family member. It includes paid 

maternity and paternity leave. 

The leave may be used to care 

for a newborn child, an adopted 

child, a sick child, or a sick

adult relative. Paid family leave

is granted in addition to any

disability benefits or sick,

vacation, or personal leave that

is available to the employee.

GLOSSARY

For additional assistance on 

benefits, contact one of our 

information offices:

NATIONAL: WASHINGTON, DC

(202) 691-6199 TDD: (800) 877-8339

NCSinfo@bls.gov www.bls.gov/ebs

REGIONAL:

ATLANTA

(404) 893-4222

BOSTON

(617) 565-2327

CHICAGO

(312) 353-1880

DALLAS

(214) 767-6970

KANSAS CITY

(816) 285-7000

NEW YORK

(646) 264-3600

PHILADELPHIA

(215) 597-3282

SAN FRANCISCO

(415) 625-2270

up the paid leave category. Vacation leave was the most costly of 

the paid-leave benefits, with a cost 

of 92 cents in private industry and 

$1.08 in State and local government. The cost of holidays was 59 

cents in private industry and $1.02 

in State and local government. 

Sick leave averaged 22 cents in 

private industry and 78 cents in 

State and local government, while 

personal leave averaged 6 cents 

in private industry and 23 cents in 

State and local government.

Private-industry occupations 

that pay higher compensation 

incur higher paid-leave costs. For 

example, the average worker in 

management, professional, and 

related occupations, in which total 

compensation averaged $47.55, 

received $3.96 in paid-leave benefits; this was equal to 8.3 percent 

of total compensation. In contrast, 

service workers, who averaged 

$13.27 in total compensation, 

received 58 cents in paid-leave 

benefits, or 4.4 percent of total 

compensation.

Trends in paid leave

Access to paid holidays and paid 

vacation leave has remained stable 

for the past 2 decades. The average number of paid holidays and 

vacation days provided during the 

period has also remained relatively 

stable. In contrast, access to paid 

personal leave for private-industry 

workers has increased significantly since the early 1990s. About 

14 percent of workers received 

paid personal leave according to 

the 1990–91 Employee Benefits 

Surveys, and that number increased 

to 37 percent by March 2008. State 

and local government workers 

with access to paid-family-leave 

benefits swelled from 1 percent to 

15 percent of all State and local 

government workers during the 

same period. (The 1990–91 surveys separated “paid family leave” 

into two subcategories—maternity 

leave and paternity leave.) Employer costs for paid leave, which 

historically have tended to increase 

along with wages and salaries, have 

remained essentially the same as a 

percent of total compensation. ●

from page 3►