35 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997

Paid Personal, Funeral,

Jury Duty, and Military

Leave: Highlights from

the Employee Benefits

Survey, 1979-95

BY HILERY SIMPSON

Hilery Simpson is an economist in the Division

of Compensation Data Analysis and Planning,

Bureau of Labor Statistics. Telephone (202)

606-6207.

More than half of the Nation’s nonagricultural employees receive

formal paid time off from work for funeral leave and jury duty, a

third are granted military leave, and one-fifth receive personal

leave. After 16 years of surveying these benefits, however, the

Employee Benefit Survey (EBS) will cease to collect and publish

their details with the release of its 1997 report on medium and

large private establishments. These data will be eliminated from

the survey due to budgetary constraints, lack of change over time

in the data, and limited public interest, among other factors.

S

ince its inception in 1979, the

EBS has significantly expanded its coverage and detail.

It originally studied a basic package

of employee benefits covering fulltime employees in medium and large

private establishments. The survey

has since grown to include data on

the majority of benefits covering

most civilian nonagricultural

employees in the U.S. economy.

1

Paid personal leave was part of

the original package of leave benefits

collected by the first EBS in 1979.

Funeral, jury duty, and military leave

were added when the medium and

large private establishments survey

was expanded in 1985. Soon

thereafter, the scope of EBS grew.

Other-leave2 benefits for full-time

employees were introduced in 1987

for State and local governments and

in 1990, for small private establishments (fewer than 100 employees).

As the scope of the survey

expanded, so did its detail. In 1981,

data on average days per year were

compiled for most leave benefits

surveyed for full-time employees.

Nine years later, part-time employee

data were included for the first time.

In 1992, data were published by

union status,3 and then, in 1993, by

census regions4 and for goodsproducing and service-producing

industrial sectors.5

After years of expanding the

amount of information available on
 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997 36

leave benefits, the Employee

Benefits Survey data will be pruned

to reflect user needs and the

Bureau’s budgetary realities.6

Provisions data7 for personal,

funeral, jury duty, and military leave

benefits, specifically information on

the number of days off, will not be

collected after 1997. However,

incidence data8 for full- and parttime employees, by union status, and

by certain geographic and industry

breakouts, will continue to be

available.9

This article presents a summary

of published data from the EBS since

1979 on personal, funeral, jury duty,

and military leave, known collectively as other-leave benefits. It also

presents some of the Bureau’s

reasons for eliminating these data.

It should be noted that in addition to

other-leave benefits, the EBS also

collects data on leave benefits for

vacation, holiday, and sick leave.

Data for these benefits are not

included in this article because the

Bureau does not anticipate changing

their published incidence or provision data in the near future.

Purpose and costs of leave

benefits

Employers generally provide paid

time off from work as a benefit to

their employees. The amount of

leave available can range from a

couple of days per year for sick leave

to an unlimited number of days for

jury duty leave. Paid leave from

work allows the employee time for

non-work activities while receiving

all or part of their pay. Leave

benefits are usually very specific

about the types of absences they

cover. For example, funeral leave is

an absence for a single reason;

personal leave, however, covers

absences for a variety of reasons.

A complete package of leave

benefits including vacation, holiday,

and sick leave is costly to employers;

however, other-leave benefit costs

are relatively small. The Bureau’s

Employer Costs for Employee

Compensation (ECEC) survey

estimated that in March 1996, leave

cost employers $1.24 per hour

worked representing 6.6 percent of

compensation costs for civilian

workers. However, only about 0.3

percent of total compensation was

accounted for by other-leave benefits, or $.06 per employee hour

worked.10 The relatively minor cost

of these benefits to employers is one

of the reasons these data will be

dropped from the survey.

The portion of an employee’s

compensation that was attributed to

other-leave benefits varied by

occupational category. White-collar

employees had the largest portion

(0.4 percent) of their compensation

costs accounted for by other-leave

benefits, while blue-collar occupations had the smallest portion, 0.2

percent. For service occupations,

these benefits accounted for 0.3

percent of compensation costs.

Employers also incur indirect

costs for providing time-off benefits.

An absent employee’s lost productivity and the need for employers to

hire replacement workers are not

easily measured. Employers may

also lose some flexibility in hiring

because they must keep positions

open for persons on extended leave.

These indirect costs are not included

in ECEC data but their impact can

be significant.

Establishment size

The incidence of other-leave

benefits can vary depending upon

the size of the establishment. The

data show that small employers, in

general, are less likely to provide

other-leave benefits than are larger

establishments and governments.

This difference is often attributed to

the fact that larger establishments

can generally contribute greater

resources toward their employees’

compensation. Another possible

reason is that the EBS only collects

data on formal plans where provisions are incorporated into company

policy and these plans are mostly

found in larger establishments.

Smaller establishments are more

likely to base time-off policies on

individual performance.11 Because

the EBS does not capture data on

informal plans, more employees in

smaller establishments may have

access to these benefits than the data

indicate.

Full-time employees

Incidence data for full-time

employees with personal leave are

available in every survey since 1979.

For funeral, jury duty, and military

leave, incidence data are available

since 1985. The percentage of fulltime employees in medium and large

establishments with personal leave is

illustrated in chart 1. Chart 2 shows

the incidence of funeral, jury duty,

and military leave for the same

employees.

The chart shows two patterns.

First, the incidence of these benefits,

with the exception of military leave,

falls within a narrow band. For

example, between 1985 and 1995,

the incidence of full-time employees

in medium and large private

establishments with jury duty leave

ranged from a low of 85 percent in

1995 to a high of 93 percent in 1986.

Considering the changes in survey

scope and data collection techniques,

the adjustments in the data over time

were relatively minor.

Second, there was a substantially

higher incidence of funeral, jury

duty, and military leave than of

personal leave. In 1985, the first

year that data were collected for all

four other-leave benefits, full-time

employees in medium and large

private establishments were more

than twice as likely to have funeral,

jury duty, and military leave than

personal leave. Ten years later, as

shown by the 1995 medium and

large private establishments survey,

the incidence data showed little

relative change.

The percentage of full-time

employees with personal leave varied

in each of the three surveys. Employees in medium and large private

establishments averaged just less

than 23 percent, ranging from a low
37 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997

of 19 percent in 1979 to a high of 26

percent in 1985. After peaking, the

percentage slowly fell for this group

of workers, and since 1989, incidence levels have remained at 21-22

percent. (See chart 1.) State and

local government employees had a

higher incidence of personal leave

(38 to 39 percent each year surveyed

from 1987 through 1994), while

small private establishment employees were less likely to receive the

benefit, with incidence rates of about

12 percent. (See charts 3 and 4.)

State and local government fulltime employees were more likely

than not to receive jury duty,

military, and funeral leave but were

less likely to receive personal leave.

The incidence rate for funeral leave

is lower for State and local governments than it is for medium and

large private establishments. A

possible reason for this is that

government workers are more likely

to have the option of using sick leave

for funerals than are their private

sector counterparts.12 Chart 3 shows

the percentage of full-time employees in State and local governments

with each benefit. Due to changes in

survey scope and collection techniques, 1987 data are not strictly

comparable with 1990 and later

data. Even so the data have remained remarkably consistent.

Chart 4 shows the incidence rate

of these benefits for full-time

employees in small private establishments. Note the higher incidence of

funeral and jury duty leave as

compared to military and personal

leave. These results are similar to

the results from the medium and

large private establishment surveys.

Average number of leave days

per year

Just as the incidence of personal,

funeral, and jury duty leave benefits

occurred within relatively narrow

bands, so too have the average

number of days per year that

employers provide in funeral and

personal leave plans. In 1981, the

first year data on the average number

of days per year were collected, fulltime employees in medium and large

private establishments with personal

leave averaged 4 leave days per year.

Since then, the average number of

personal leave days has fallen. In

the 1995 survey, they averaged just

over 3 days per year. (See table 1.)

The average number of funeral

and military leave days per year was

first published in 1985 for full-time

employees in medium and large

private establishments.13 Since then,

average funeral leave days for these

establishments have remained

relatively stable, ranging from 3 to

3.3 days per year. These changes are

relatively small considering the

changes in survey scope and collection techniques, as well as potential

sampling error.

The average number of military

leave days per year, on the other

hand, while stable in the first several

surveys at close to 12 days per year,

increased to just under 15 days per

year in 1991. An explanation for

this jump might be that the large

number of military reserves activated

during the Persian Gulf War put

more emphasis on this benefit. The

average number of military leave

days in the 1995 survey remained

historically high at 14.7 average

days per year.

In most instances, State and local

government employees received a

greater number of leave days than

did small private establishment

employees. (See table 2.) Military

leave for State and local government

employees averaged 17 days per year

in 1987 and 14 days per year in

1994, while their counterparts in

small private establishments

averaged 11 to 12 days per year.

Average funeral leave days per year

also varied between the two surveys.

State and local government plans

consistently provided an average of

3.7 funeral leave days per year, while

small private establishments

averaged close to a day less per year.

Personal leave days, on the other

hand, were comparable between the

Table 1. Average leave days per year for

full-time employees in medium and large

private establishments with selected

leave benefits, selected years, 1981-95

1981 .......... 4.0 - -

1982 .......... 3.8 - -

1983 .......... 3.7 - -

1984 .......... 3.6 - -

1985 .......... 3.7 3.2 11.5

1986 .......... 3.7 3.2 11.5

1988 .......... 3.3 3.2 11.5

1989 .......... 3.1 3.3 11.9

1991 .......... 3.3 3.3 14.8

1993 .......... 3.0 3.0 14.0

1995 .......... 3.3 3.3 14.7

Personal

leave

Funeral

leave

Military

leave Year

NOTE: A dash indicataes that data were

not collected.

Table 2. Average leave days per year for full-time employees in small private establishments and State and local

governments with selected leave benefits, selected years, 1987-94

1987 ............................................... 2.7 3.7 17.2 - - -

1990 ............................................... 2.9 3.7 17.0 2.8 2.9 11.1

1992 ............................................... 2.9 3.7 17.0 2.6 2.9 12.2

1994 ............................................... 3.0 3.7 14.0 2.6 3.1 12.0

NOTE: A dash indicates that data were not collected.

State and local governments Small private establishments

Personal

leave

Funeral

leave

Military

leave

Military

leave

Funeral

leave

Personal

leave

Year
 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997 38

two groups, ranging from 2.6 to 3

days, on average, per year.

Plan details

How representative are the

averages of the number of days of

paid leave employees may expect to

receive? This question can be

answered by examining the plan

details data published by the EBS.

The most common type of plan

details (or plan provisions) available

for other-leave benefits is the

distribution of employees by the

number of days provided, and the

method of determining that number.

Personal leave plans, for example,

generally provide a set number of

leave days, usually from 1 to 5 days

per year. However, some plans

provide leave as needed or grant

leave depending on the employee’s

tenure. Table 3 presents the provision data available for personal leave

days for full-time employees from

selected medium and large private

establishment surveys.14 Similar

data are available for funeral and

military leave since 1985. (Note that

the provision data are for employees

who participate in a personal leave

plan, not for a percentage of all fulltime employees surveyed.)

Table 3 also reveals that benefits

from personal leave plans have

changed slightly. Personal leave

plans have traditionally provided a

large majority of participating

employees with a fixed number of

leave days per year. Plans that

provide 2 days per year have

remained the most common type,

while plans that provide a fixed

number of days per year greater than

5 are less common. One visible

trend is the decline in the incidence

of plans that provide personal leave

days on an as-needed basis (or

unlimited plans). While 12 percent

of employees who participated in

personal leave plans were in asneeded plans in 1985, 10 years later,

only 3 percent participated in such

plans.

Similar types of data are also

available for funeral, jury duty, and

military leave. The following data

are for full-time employees from the

1993 survey of medium and large

private establishments.

Nearly all employees with funeral

leave benefits received a designated

number of days per occurrence.

Almost three-fourths received 3 days

per occurrence; substantially less

common were plans that provided 5

days (13 percent). For about onequarter of employees with a designated number of days per occurrence, amounts varied depending

upon the employee’s relationship to

the deceased.15

Eighty-seven percent of employees with jury duty leave plans were

provided as much leave as needed,

while 11 percent were in plans that

specified a maximum amount.

Military leave plans, however, were

far more likely to have a set number

of leave days per year, with over half

of all employees receiving 10 days per

year, and only 20 percent receiving as

many days as needed. The remaining

participants in military leave plans

received a set number of days per year

(other than 10), with 11 to 15 days

being very common.

Occupational data

In the most recent surveys for

full-time employees, the incidence of

jury duty and funeral leave was

similar among occupational groups,

while personal and military leave

varied considerably.

16 (See table 4.)

The largest occupational variation

was found with personal leave.

Among medium and large private

establishments, clerical workers

were the most likely to receive the

benefit (34 percent), followed by

professional and technical workers

(24 percent), and blue-collar workers

(15 percent). Similar results were

also found with small private

establishments, where blue-collar

workers were even less likely to

receive personal leave than the other

two occupational groups. In general,

white-collar workers in private

establishments received more otherleave benefits than did blue-collar

workers.

No such consistency was found in

the State and local governments

survey. Teachers were more likely to

have personal leave, while bluecollar workers were more likely to

have funeral leave. Teachers were

less likely than the other two

occupational groups to receive

military leave. Each occupational

group, however, had roughly the

same incidence of jury duty leave.

Part-time employees

As is generally the case with

employee benefits, the incidence of

other-leave benefits, without

exception, is lower for part-time

employees than it is for full-time

employees. Since 1990, when data

on part-time employees were first

collected, EBS has found that parttime employees in small private

establishments are as much as 5

times less likely to have other-leave

benefits than are full-time employees. Part-time employees in large

private establishments and State and

local governments, however, were

half as likely to participate as were

their full-time counterparts.

Part-time employees, like fullTable 3. Percent of full-time employees

in medium and large private establishments with personal leave benefits,

selected years, 1979-95

1979 1985 1993 1995

1 day ......... 11 8 12 16

2 days ....... 37 23 32 34

3 days ....... 11 15 18 17

4 days ....... 11 15 17 11

5 days ....... 11 15 9 10

More than

 5 days ..... 11 8 5 8

As needed . 11 12 6 3

Varies by

 length of

 service .... - 8 7 -

Not

 available .. - - (

2

) 1

1 The maximum number of days

provided was included in the distribution of

personal leave days.

2 Less than 0.5 percent.

NOTE: Because of rounding, sums of

individual items may not equal 100 percent.

A dash indicates no employees in category.

Number of

personal

leave days

1
39 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997

time employees, were often more

likely to receive jury duty benefits

than the other three benefits. Next,

they were more likely to receive

funeral leave followed by military

and personal leave. (See table 5.)

Data from the 1995 medium and

large private establishments survey

for part-time employees is a good

example. Forty-two percent had jury

duty leave, followed by 37 percent

with funeral leave, 14 percent with

military leave, and 13 percent with

personal leave. (See chart 5.)

Coverage rates in medium and large

private establishments were relatively unchanged from 1991 to 1995.

Since 1990, the proportion of

part-time employees in State and

local governments with other-leave

benefits has declined slightly.

Declines were most notable in

military leave, where the percent of

covered workers fell from 39 percent

in 1990 to 32 percent in 1994. (See

chart 6.) The opposite trend

occurred in small private establishments, where jury duty leave

increased from 13 to 25 percent

during the same period.

A possible explanation for this

convergence in the incidence of

other-leave benefits between parttime private establishment employees and part-time State and local

government employees could be a

result of tightening labor markets

between 1990 and 1994. Private

establishments may have felt the

need to provide more generous

employee benefits in general, as

opposed to government establishments that already provided a more

generous benefit package to parttime employees.

It is difficult to assess trends of

Table 4. Percent of full-time employees with other-leave benefits, by occupation, 1994-95

Professional, technical, 24 21 White collar, 30

 and related except teachers

Clerical and sales 34 17 Teachers 58

Blue collar and 15 7 Blue collar and 31

 service service

Professional, technical, 83 58 White collar, 59

 and related except teachers

Clerical and sales 85 55 Teachers 58

Blue collar and 75 45 Blue collar and 70

 service service

Professional, technical, 91 74 White collar,

 and related except teachers 94

Clerical and sales 89 66 Teachers 94

Blue collar and 79 48 Blue collar and 93

 service service

Professional, technical, 59 23 White collar, 80

 and related except teachers

Clerical and sales 45 19 Teachers 61

Blue collar and 35 13 Blue collar and 82

 service service

Medium and large private

establishments,1995

Small private

establishments, 1994

State and local

governments, 1994

Occupation Occupation

 Personal leave

 Funeral leave

Table 5. Percent of part-time employees

in small private establishments with

other-leave benefits, selected years,

1990-94

Benefit 1990 1992 1994

Personal leave .. 4 3 4

Funeral leave .. 11 12 15

Jury duty

 leave.............. 13 15 25

Miltary leave .... 3 4 3

benefit participation for part-time

employees because the number of

part-time employees, and the

proportion of the workforce that they

represent, increased considerably

during the period surveyed. This

has been particularly true in small

private establishments where the

number of part-time employees has

increased by over 50 percent, from

8.2 million in 1990 to 12.7 million

in 1994. Their share of the work

force increased from 20 to 26

percent during this period. During

the same period, the number of partMilitary leave Military leave

 Jury duty leave Jury duty leave

 Funeral leave

Personal leave
 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997 40

Table 6. Percent of full-time employees with other-leave benefits, by union status, 1994-95

Union 20 52 16

Nonunion 23 24 12

Funeral leave

Union 86 70 57

Nonunion 78 55 50

Union 87 94 59

Nonunion 84 93 58

Union 42 74 13

Nonunion 45 76 17

NOTE: Employees who had not met eligibility requirements at the time of the survey were also counted as participants.

Medium and large private

establishments, 1995

State and local

governments, 1994

Small private

establishments, 1994 Union status

Personal leave

Jury duty leave

Table 7. Percent of full-time employees with other-leave benefits in private establishments, by industrial sector,

1994-95

Goods-producing Service- producing Goods-producing Service- producing

Personal leave ................................ 16 26 09 14

Funeral leave .................................. 82 79 42 53

Jury duty leave ................................ 83 86 48 62

Military leave ................................... 53 39 11 19

NOTE: Employees who had not met eligibility requirements at the time of the survey were also counted as participants.

Medium and large private

establishments, 1995 Small private establishments, 1994

Benefit

Military leave

time employees in State and local

governments also increased, rising

from 1.5 to nearly 2 million.

Union status

Since the EBS first collected this

data in 1992, full-time union

employees have generally had a

higher incidence of other-leave

benefits than have nonunion

employees. While several benefits

displayed significant differences, the

incidence of union employees with

other-leave benefits was usually only

slightly greater than for nonunion employees. For example, the incidence

of jury duty benefits between union

and nonunion employees ranged no

more than 3 percentage points in any

recent EBS survey. (See table 6.)

Union employees in larger private

establishments, in general, were

more likely to receive other-leave

benefits than were union employees

in small establishments. The

difference was greatest for military

leave, in which union employees in

large establishments were more than

twice as likely to receive the benefit

than were their counterparts in small

establishments. (The same pattern

was observed for nonunion employees). For each of the other-leave

benefits, employees in larger

establishments were more likely to

receive the benefit than were

employees in small establishments.

Although union employees still hold

a slight advantage, the incidence of
41 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997

both union and nonunion employees

with other-leave benefits has fallen

in recent years. This decline

occurred in both of the private

establishment surveys and in the

State and local governments survey.

Geographic areas

Private establishment employees

in the Northeast were generally more

likely to have other-leave benefits

than were employees in the other

regions of the Nation. (See chart 7.)

In contrast, there was diversity

among State and local government

employees. Compared to their

counterparts in other parts of the

country, State and local government

employees in the Northeast were

more likely to receive personal leave

benefits, while those in the North

Central States and Western States

were more likely to receive jury duty

and military leave benefits, respectively. Incidence data have been

published for employees in the four

geographic regions, as determined

by the Bureau of the Census, since

1993.

Certain other-leave benefits had

greater regional variation than

others. For example, the proportion

of State and local government fulltime employees with personal leave

ranged from a high of 68 percent in

the Northeast to a low of 18 percent

in the South. By comparison,

personal leave for full-time employees in medium and large private

establishments ranged from a high

of 40 percent in the Northeast to a

low of 13 percent in the West.

Goods-producing and serviceproducing industrial sectors

Data for full-time employees with

other-leave benefits in the goodsproducing and service-producing

industrial sectors have been published since 1993. As table 7

illustrates, the incidence varied

considerably by benefit, establishment size, and industry. For

example, the percentage of goodsproducing and service-producing

private industry employees with

other-leave benefits varied by

establishment size. In medium and

large private establishments employees in the goods-producing industries were more likely to have

funeral and military leave benefits

than were their service-producing

counterparts. The situation, however, was statistically different for

small private establishments, where

employees in the service-producing

establishments had a higher incidence rate in all of the other-leave

categories.

Other available data

In the private sector, BLS has also

tabulated the incidence of employee

benefit plans in small independent

establishments as well as in small

establishments that were part of a

larger establishment.17 Although

sharp differences were noted for

some types of employee benefit

plans, the incidence of personal and

jury duty leave benefits in small

independent establishments was

similar to that in small establishments as a whole. Military leave,

however, was more common in small

establishments that were part of

larger establishments.

In the public sector, BLS examined benefit incidence among State

as well as local governments in 1992

and 1994. The data revealed that

employees of State governments

were much more likely to receive

military leave plans (96 percent)

than were employees of local

governments (67 percent). The

situation was reversed for personal

leave, where local government

employees were more likely to have

this benefit (41 percent) than were

State government employees (30

percent). Similarly, local government employees were more likely to

have funeral leave (67 percent) than

their State colleagues (48 percent).

Employees in both government

entities received almost total

coverage for jury duty. With few

exceptions, State and local government data from 1994 were similar to

1992 data.

Differences in other-leave

incidence between State employees

and local government employees are

partially due to the influence of

teachers. Teachers represent a large

proportion of the local government

work force, and they are more likely

to receive personal and funeral leave

but less likely to receive military

leave.

Reasons for eliminating otherleave benefit provision data

The EBS is a study of individual

benefits and benefit provisions. As

such, considerable latitude exists in

the choice of data to study. In spite

of this, strict guidelines are followed

and considerable care is taken when

survey data changes are made. The

choice of benefits and provisions to

be studied is based on the benefit’s

cost, the timeliness of the topic, the

presence of varying characteristics,

and the degree to which the incidence and details of the benefits

change over time. It is the Bureau’s

responsibility to balance the usefulness of the data against the costs of

assembling the data and the burden

placed on survey participants.

Personal, funeral, jury duty, and

military leave benefit provisions are

being dropped from the survey

because they do not meet the

necessary criteria. First, other-leave

benefits are not a significant cost to

employers, and they are not as

highly valued by employees as some

other benefits. Therefore, there has

been little public interest in the

data.18 Second, provision data from

these benefits are infrequently

discussed among policy makers and

are rarely newsworthy. Third, with

rare exceptions, data for other-leave

benefits have been consistent over

time. Finally, by freeing resources

used to collect other-leave provision

data, more useful data on benefits or

benefit provisions can be collected

and published.

Conclusion

As the Employee Benefits Survey
 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997 42

tries to maximize the value it gives

to its customers, the survey must

constantly evolve to reflect changing

needs. The Bureau of Labor

Statistics is streamlining the EBS in

preparation for its inclusion in the

new National Compensation

Survey.

19 The elimination of otherleave benefit provision data reflects

both changing user needs and a

focus on streamlining.

However, one of the goals of the

emerging National Compensation

Survey is to monitor developments

in the compensation field. In pursuit

of this, the Bureau may survey personal, funeral, jury duty, and military leave benefits periodically to determine if benefit provisions change

in prevalence or in characteristics.

Technical note

The Employee Benefits Survey

was initially designed to provide

data for comparing Federal benefits

with those in private industry. Since

then, its uses have expanded. The

EBS data are now used in policy

formulation, developing compensation packages, and in academia.

1

 Employee Benefits Survey Technical Note,

Compensation and Working Conditions, December 1996, p. 73.

2

 “Other-leave” is a Bureau term that relates

to paid personal, funeral, jury duty, and military

leave benefits and is used only in this article to

describe the four benefits. Data for paid otherleave benefits were last published in the small private establishments and the State and local governments surveys in 1994 and in the 1993 medium and large private establishments survey.

While information as far back as 1979 is available, the preponderance of data presented in this

paper are for full-time employees from these most

recent surveys.

3

 In the EBS data collection process, occupations are categorized as union or nonunion. To be

categorized as union, occupations must meet all

of the following conditions: (1) A labor organization must be recognized as the bargaining agent

for workers in the occupation, (2) wage and salary rates must be determined through collective

bargaining or negotiations, and (3) settlement

terms must be embodied in a signed, mutuallybinding collective bargaining agreement. For additional information regarding employee benefits

for union workers, see William J. Wiatrowski,

“Employee Benefits for Union and Nonunion

Employees,” Monthly Labor Review, February

1994, pp. 33-36.

4

 Geographic regions are defined as follows:

Northeast—Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts,

New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont; South—Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, District of Columbia,

Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland,

Mississippi, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South

Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, West Virginia; North Central—Illinois, Indiana, Iowa,

Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin; West—Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New

Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming.

5

 Goods-producing industrial sectors include

manufacturing, mining, and construction. Serviceproducing industrial sectors include transportation,

communications, and public utilities; wholesale

trade and retail trade; finance, insurance, and real

estate; and other services. Goods-producing and

service-producing breakouts are not published in

the State and local government bulletins.

6 These data will be published in the 1995

and 1997 medium and large private establishment surveys and the 1996 small private establishment survey. The 1996 State and local government survey was canceled due to budgetary

concerns.

7

 Provision data deal with the characteristics

of a benefit, such as the number of days a paid

leave benefit provides per year or the amount of a

deductible in a health care plan.

8

 Incidence data relates to the percentage of

employees or groups of employees with a benefit.

9

 Data for State and local governments will be

available for reference year 1998; and for the private sector for reference year 1999. Once the National Compensation Survey is fully implemented

in the year 2000, incidence estimates will be available every year for the entire economy.

10 Of the 6.6 percent of compensation that is

leave related, vacations represent the largest portion of the cost (45 percent), followed by holidays

(33 percent) and sick leave (15 percent).

11 For additional analysis of paid leave benefits for smaller establishments, including holidays

and vacations, see Michael Miller, “Time-off Benefits in Small Establishments,” Monthly Labor

Review, March 1992.

12 In 1994, 45 percent of full-time employees

in State and local governments could use sick leave

to attend funerals compared to 9 percent of their

counterparts in medium and large private establishments in 1995.

13 Since close to 9 out of 10 employees with

jury duty leave are provided as many days per

occurrence as needed, data for the average number of days provided by all jury duty leave plans

is largely irrelevant.

14 These years were selected for the following

reasons: 1979 was the first year of the EBS and

the first year personal leave benefits were published; 1985 was the first year paid funeral, jury

duty, and military leave benefits were published;

and 1993 is the most recent year that medium

and large private establishment data are available.

15 The EBS reports the maximum number of

days available to these employees.

16 Due to changes in the way occupational

groups were defined in the survey, it is difficult to

compare occupational data through 1989 with

data published after that year. Until 1990, the EBS

private establishment data were published according to the following three occupational breakouts:

(1) professional and administrative employees, (2)

technical and clerical employees, and (3) production employees. Starting in 1990, the three occupational breakouts became (1) Professional, technical, and related employees, (2) clerical and sales

employees and (3) blue-collar and service employees. Additionally, occupational data are difficult

to compare between private establishments and

State and local governments surveys. This is because the government surveys combine professional and clerical employees into one occupational group so that teachers, a significant portion

of State and local governments’ total employment,

can be published separately.

17 The survey of small private establishments

includes two types of businesses, those that are

independent, for example, a dry cleaners, and those

that are a segment of a larger organization, for

example, a sales office for a large national manufacturing firm. In general, the incidence of all benefits for small independent establishments was

lower than the incidence of benefits in businesses

that were part of a larger organization.

18 A 1996 survey conducted by the Employee

Benefit Research Institute and the Gallop Organization, Inc., found that 64 percent of all employees value their health benefits more than any other

benefit, while less than one-half of one percent

placed such value on other-leave benefits.

19 For an overview of plans for the National

Compensation Survey (formerly titled

COMP2000); see Beth Levin Crimmel,

“COMP2000: Designing a New Wage Survey,”

Compensation and Working Conditions, December 1996, pp. 9-11.

—ENDNOTES—

Data users reach beyond the Federal

government to include the business

community, State and local governments, and research organizations.

Since 1990, the EBS has studied

small private establishments and

State and local governments in evennumbered years, and medium and

large private establishments in oddnumbered years. These benefits

were most recently published for

medium and large private establishments in 1995 and for small private

establishments and State and local

governments in 1994.
43 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997

198 5 198 6 198 8 198 9 199 1 199 3 199 5

0

2 0

4 0

6 0

8 0

1 0 0

Funera l J u ry du ty Milita r y

197 9 198 0 198 1 198 2 198 3 198 4 198 5 198 6 198 8 198 9 199 1 199 3 199 5

0

1 0

2 0

3 0

4 0

5 0

Chart 1. Percent of full-time employees in medium and large private

establishments with paid personal leave, selected years, 1979-95

Chart 2. Percent of full-time employees in medium and large private

establishments with selected paid leave benefits, selected years, 1985-95

Percent

Percent

 1979 1980 1981 1982 1983 1984 1985 1986 1988 1989 1991 1993 1995

Funeral Jury duty Military
 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997 44

Perso n al Funera l J u ry du ty Milita r y

0

2 0

4 0

6 0

8 0

1 0 0

199 0 199 2 199 4

Perso n al Fune r al J u ry du ty Milita r y

0

2 0

4 0

6 0

8 0

1 0 0

198 7 199 0 199 2 199 4

Chart 3. Percent of full-time employees in State and local governments with

selected paid leave benefits, by geographic region, 1993, by selected years,

1987-94

Percent

Chart 4. Percent of full-time employees in small private establishments with selected

paid leave benefits, selected years, 1990-94

Percent

Personal Funeral Jury duty Military

Personal Funeral Jury duty Military
45 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997

Chart 5. Percent of part-time employees in medium and large private establishments with selected paid leave benefits, selected years, 1991-95

Percent

Percent

Chart 6. Percent of part-time employees in State and local govenments, with

selected paid leave benefits, selected years, 1990-94

Perso n al Fune r al J u ry du ty Milita r y

0

2 0

4 0

6 0

8 0

1 0 0

199 1 199 3 199 5

Per s on a l Funera l Ju r y du ty Mili ta ry

0

2 0

4 0

6 0

8 0

10 0

1 99 0 1 99 2 1 99 4

Personal Funeral Jury duty Military

Personal Funeral Jury duty Military

1990 1992 1994
 Compensation and Working Conditions Winter 1997 46

Chart 7. Percent of full-time employees by geographic region, medium and large

private establishments, 1993

Percent

Perso n al Fune r al Jur y D u ty Milita r y

0

2 0

4 0

6 0

8 0

1 0 0

No rthea st Sout h N or t h Ce n tral W e st

Personal Funeral Jury duty Military

Northeast South North Central West