SHRM 2016 Survey on Paid Leave in the Workplace

By the Society for Human Resource Management

The purpose of this survey is to explore the details of different types of paid leave benefits that organizations offer to their employees. Topics such as the number of days awarded, waiting periods and eligibility are discussed. Some of the key findings are included below:
  • The majority of organizations offered PTO plans (87%) and paid vacation plans (91%) to employees based on their length of service at the organization. For PTO plans, the average leave days awarded per year based on employee’s length of service ranged from 13 to 26 days, and eight to 22 days for paid vacation plans.
  • An employee’s length of service, however, seemed to have little impact on paid sick leave (9%) and personal leave plans (14%). On average, paid sick leave plans not based on length of service awarded 11 sick days for full-time employees and seven sick days for part-time employees. An average of four personal days were awarded to full-time and part-time employees for plans not based on tenure.
  • On average, organizations gave mothers 41 paid days of maternity leave, compared with 22 paid days of paternity leave for fathers. The average amount of paid adoption leave and paid surrogacy leave was 31 and 36 days, respectively. Not surprisingly, very few parents left any parental leave unused.
  • Whereas nearly nine out of 10 organizations offered bereavement leave, very few offered paid or unpaid sabbatical programs. Furthermore, less than one-half (37%) provided paid leave to vote that was beyond what’s required by law.

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