Whether it’s a family road trip with fruit snacks and beef jerky, getting another stamp or two on your passport, or enjoying your own community with a staycation, time off is a hot topic for many employees across the United States as summer quickly approaches. Data from the International Foundation shows what workers across the U.S. can expect for vacation and paid-time-off (PTO) benefits.
According to the 2022 Employee Benefits Survey report, 48 percent of organizations provide a paid vacation plan and 42 percent combine vacation time, sick time and personal days into one PTO bank. Only eight percent of organizations offer unlimited vacation time and, inversely, two percent offer no vacation time or PTO at all.
Many workplaces base their offered vacation days on years of service the employee has contributed:
- One year of service—12% offer nine days or fewer; 40% offer ten days; 39% offer 11-15 days; 5% offer 16-19 days; 5% offer 20 days or more.
- Five years of service—0% offer nine days or fewer; 8% offer ten days; 55% offer 11-15 days; 25% offer 16-20 days; 10% offer 21-25 days; 2% off 26 or more days.
- Ten years of service—Less than 30% offer 19 days or fewer; 40% offer 20 days; 23% offer 21-25 days; 3% offer 26-29 days and less than 5% offer 30 days or more.
- 20 years of service—8% offer 19 days or fewer; 35% offer 20 days; 9% offer 21-24 days; 31% offer 25 days; 14% offer 26-30 days; and less than 3% offer 36 or more days.
PTO also varies based on service, growing with each five-year milestone: for one year of service, 15 days is the most common offering. For five years and ten years, 21-25 days were offered most often; and for 20 years, 25 days.
Almost 70 percent of employers allow carryover for earned vacation/PTO to subsequent years. Almost one in five employers (19%) offer leave donation, allowing employees to donate time off to employees in need. Sixteen percent of employers allow employees to buy additional or sell excess time off with a buy and/or sell vacation/PTO policy in place. Ten percent of organizations offer additional vacation/PTO days to midcareer hires.
Paid floating holidays are another way organizations are providing employees with added flexibility, allowing employees to choose their own day(s) throughout the year aside from the widely recognized holidays. One in five employers offer at least two floating holidays per year. However, nearly half offer no paid floating holidays.
Organizations are getting more tactical than ever in offering a vacation structure that meets the unique demands of their specific workforce, providing added flexibility and work-life integration for employees wherever they can. A newer trend is offering “Work From Anywhere” (WFA) weeks that allow employees to work remotely to visit family, travel or simply type up their report on a beach. Most organizations are offering between two and four WFA weeks as they begin the return to in-office work this year.
For more information, or to access a copy of the report Employee Benefits Survey: 2022 Results, visit Employee Benefits Survey – 2022 Results.
Andrew Watson
One thing that I think this article missed is the distinction of PTO, Sick-time, and vacation time, since this concept is handled different at different companies.
My company does PTO with no ‘designated’ sick leave. Sick leave is a part of our PTO. Heck, they have gone so far as to lump holidays into PTO as well. As such, we appears to be the cream of the crop in PTO; we start out with 30 days (basically 10 days vacation, 10 days sick leave, and 10 holidays).
However, I am willing to bet that many of the companies that only offer 1-2 weeks of PTO also offer sick leave as well. And, as you indicated, we are in a rare miniority with totally flexible holidays. While most people don’t use all their sick leave, to ignore that piece of the equation leaves out a key point in this discussion.
Anne Patterson
Thanks Andrew! Great inspiration for a future blog post topic on the distinction between different time off benefits.