Quick answer
The standard source for paid sick leave statistics is the BLS National Compensation Survey. In March 2026, 83% of civilian workers, 81% of private industry workers and 93% of state and local government workers had access to paid sick leave.
Paid sick leave statistics answer a simple question: if a US worker gets sick tomorrow, will they be paid to stay home? For most, yes. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported in its Employee Benefits in the United States release of September 25, 2026 that 83% of civilian workers had access to paid sick leave in March 2026. That is up from 70% in 2016. But the average hides a split workforce. A restaurant server, a part-time cashier or a worker in the lowest pay band is far less likely to have paid sick days than an office employee. This page sets out the latest figures, each linked to its original source, and what they mean if you run a team.
Access to paid sick leave nationally
BLS measures access: whether the employer offers the benefit to the worker. All figures below are for March 2026, from the National Compensation Survey (NCS) Table 6, Selected paid leave benefits.
- 83% of civilian workers (private industry plus state and local government) had access to paid sick leave.
- 81% of private industry workers had access, the same share as for paid holidays (81%) and just above paid vacation (80%).
- 93% of state and local government workers had access.
- Workzenly calculation from those rates: about 17% of civilian workers and 19% of private workers had no access to paid sick leave, roughly one private worker in five.
- Union membership matters less than you might think in private industry: 88% of union and 80% of nonunion private workers had access.
- Among private occupational groups, access ranged from 97% in management, business and financial jobs to 67% in service occupations.
The federal picture explains why access is not universal. The U.S. Department of Labor states on its sick leave page: "Currently, there are no federal legal requirements for paid sick leave." Access comes from employer policy and from state and city laws.
What this means for employers: Paid sick leave is the norm, not a perk. Four in five private workers have it, so a job ad without it competes against most of the market. If you offer a single paid time off bank instead of separate sick days, make sure employees know it covers illness.
Paid sick leave trend since 2016
BLS publishes annual NCS series for sick leave access. The figures below come from the BLS time series for private industry and civilian workers, each for March of the year shown.
| Year (March) | Civilian workers | Private industry |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 70% | 67% |
| 2017 | 72% | 68% |
| 2018 | 74% | 71% |
| 2019 | 76% | 73% |
| 2020 | 78% | 75% |
| 2021 | 79% | 77% |
| 2022 | 79% | 77% |
| 2023 | 80% | 78% |
| 2024 | 81% | 79% |
| 2025 | 82% | 80% |
| 2026 | 83% | 81% |
Source: BLS, National Compensation Survey time series NBU10700000000000033087 and NBU20700000000000033087. Standard errors are 0.7 to 0.8 points for civilian and 0.8 to 1.0 points for private estimates.
- Private access rose 14 percentage points in ten years, from 67% to 81% (Workzenly calculation). Civilian access rose 13 points, from 70% to 83%.
- Access rose or held steady in every year of the series. The only flat stretch was 2021 to 2022, at 77% for private workers.
- Since 2023 the gain has been about 1 point a year, slower than the 2 to 3 point jumps of 2017 to 2021. Small year-to-year moves sit close to the survey's margin of error, so read the ten-year direction rather than any single year.
What this means for employers: The steady climb tracks the spread of state and city mandates, and it is not reversing. Each new law pushes more competitors to offer sick time, so plan as if paid sick leave will be expected of every employer you hire against.
Sick leave statistics by industry and occupation
Industry is the widest divide in access to paid sick leave. The release states that private industry access "ranged from 58 percent for the leisure and hospitality industry to 98 percent for both the information industry and finance and insurance industry." Other industry figures come from the BLS Industries at a Glance pages, which report the same March 2026 NCS data.
- In leisure and hospitality, which covers restaurants, bars and hotels, 58% of private workers had paid sick leave, 45% had paid vacation and 37% had employer health care benefits in 2026. (BLS Leisure and Hospitality)
- Retail trade was at 74% (BLS Retail Trade) and construction at 76% (BLS Construction).
- Workzenly calculation: a private worker in information or finance and insurance was about 40 percentage points more likely to have paid sick leave than one in leisure and hospitality.
- In hospitals, 94% of private workers had access; across private health care and social assistance it was 87%. (BLS Table 6)
- By occupation, private sales and related workers were at 74% and construction, extraction, farming, fishing and forestry workers at 71%, against 88% for office and administrative support.
What this means for employers: If you run a restaurant or a shop, your industry's norm is far below the national figure, and many of your workers handle food or serve the public. Offering sick time is one of the cheaper ways to stand out when hiring in restaurants or retail, and it is the law in many states regardless.
Access by wage level
Pay level predicts paid sick leave almost as strongly as industry. BLS groups occupations into wage categories by their average wage (Table 6, March 2026, civilian workers).
- Fewer than half (48%) of civilian workers in the lowest-paid 10% of occupations had paid sick leave, against 97% in the highest-paid 10%.
- In private industry, access was 61% in the lowest wage quarter and 95% in the highest. BLS does not publish a private figure for the lowest 10%.
- The steepest step is between the lowest and second wage quarters: civilian access jumps from 63% to 85%, a 22-point gap (Workzenly calculation).
- State and local government narrows the gap: 73% of the lowest-paid 10% of government workers had access.
What this means for employers: Workers without paid sick leave are concentrated among the lowest earners, the group least able to lose a day's pay. For an hourly employee earning near the minimum, an unpaid sick day is a real cut to the paycheck, which is why many come to work ill.
Employer size and part-time workers
Smaller employers and part-time jobs offer paid sick leave less often. Private industry figures are from BLS Table 6, March 2026.
| Group (March 2026) | Private industry | Civilian workers |
|---|---|---|
| 1 to 49 workers | 75% | 75% |
| 50 to 99 workers | 73% | 75% |
| 100 to 499 workers | 87% | 88% |
| 500 workers or more | 91% | 92% |
| Full-time workers | 88% | 90% |
| Part-time workers | 59% | 59% |
Source: BLS, Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2026, Table 6. Size is establishment size, not company size.
- 74% of private workers at establishments with 1 to 99 workers had access, against 89% at those with 100 or more, a 15-point gap (Workzenly calculation).
- The size cliff sits at 100 workers. Establishments with 1 to 49 and 50 to 99 workers look alike (75% and 73% in private industry); 100 to 499 jumps to 87%.
- Only 59% of part-time private workers had paid sick leave, 29 points below full-time workers (88%). The gap is wider in government: 54% of part-time versus 99% of full-time state and local workers.
- Paid sick leave is still the paid leave benefit part-timers are most likely to get: part-time private access was 38% for vacation and 47% for holidays.
What this means for employers: Most state laws ignore both of these divides. They cover part-time staff and usually small employers too, accruing by hours worked. If you employ under 100 people and many part-timers, check whether your state's law already applies before you assume sick leave is optional. The employee benefits statistics page shows the same size and hours gaps for retirement and health coverage.
Workers without paid sick leave by region and state law
Geography is where the law shows up most clearly. BLS reports access by census region and division. The 2026 figures are from Table 6; the 2025 figures are from the BLS Economics Daily article of February 10, 2026.
| Census division (private industry) | March 2025 | March 2026 |
|---|---|---|
| Pacific | 98% | 97% |
| New England | 89% | 90% |
| Middle Atlantic | 88% | 90% |
| Mountain | 87% | 88% |
| West North Central | 75% | 80% |
| East North Central | 76% | 78% |
| South Atlantic | 72% | 71% |
| West South Central | 71% | 71% |
| East South Central | 63% | 59% |
| All private workers | 80% | 81% |
Source: BLS, Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2026, Table 6; BLS, The Economics Daily, February 10, 2026 (March 2025 data). Small changes between years may fall within sampling error.
- In March 2026, private access ranged from 97% in the Pacific division (Alaska, California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington) to 59% in East South Central (Alabama, Kentucky, Mississippi, Tennessee).
- By region, the West was at 94%, the Northeast 90%, the Midwest 79% and the South 69%.
- As of November 2026, 20 states and Washington, D.C. require most private employers to provide paid sick leave, according to our paid sick leave by state review. Missouri's voter-approved law took effect May 1, 2025 and was repealed effective August 28, 2025.
- Connecticut's law reaches employers with 1 or more employees on January 1, 2027, the last step of its phase-in.
The pattern lines up with the laws: Alaska, California, Oregon and Washington all mandate paid sick leave, while none of the four East South Central states has a statewide law. The regional data does not prove the laws caused the difference, but the divisions with the most mandates have the highest access.
What this means for employers: Your obligation depends on where each employee works, not where you are headquartered. Remote staff in another state are usually covered by that state's law, and cities such as New York, Chicago and Philadelphia add their own rules.
Sick days statistics: how much leave workers get
Access is only part of the story. BLS also measures how many days workers get and how plans are built (BLS chart, March 2026 and the BLS paid sick leave factsheet).
| Length of service | Private industry sick days | State and local government sick days | Private industry vacation days |
|---|---|---|---|
| After 1 year | 7 | 11 | 11 |
| After 5 years | 7 | 12 | 16 |
| After 10 years | 7 | 12 | 18 |
| After 20 years | 7 | 12 | 20 |
Source: BLS, Paid leave benefits: Average number of sick and vacation days by length of service requirement, March 2026. Averages cover workers with a fixed number of sick days.
- Private workers with paid sick leave averaged 7 days a year whether they had 1 year of service or 20. Vacation, by contrast, grew from 11 to 20 days.
- For 63% of civilian workers with paid sick leave, the plan gives a fixed number of days a year, averaging 8 days after 1 year of service.
- 34% had sick leave as part of a consolidated leave plan (a single PTO bank), and 2% had an as-needed plan with no set limit.
- Among workers with fixed-day plans, 68% could carry unused days into the next year: 19% without limit and 49% up to a cap. The other 32% had no carryover.
The BLS chart reports private sick days as 7 while the factsheet gives 8 days after 1 year. The factsheet figure covers civilian workers, including government employees, who average more days, so the two do not conflict.
What this means for employers: A typical private sick leave plan gives about a week and a half of workdays and caps it there. Most state laws set a minimum of 40 hours (5 days) a year, below the private average, so many employers already exceed the legal floor. If you use a consolidated bank, as a third of workers' plans do, check it against your state's PTO payout rules, because sick hours inside a PTO bank can become payable at separation in some states.
Sick absences and working while sick
Two federal data sets show how sick leave plays out on the job.
- In 2025, 2.2% of full-time wage and salary workers were absent from work in an average week because of their own illness, injury or medical problem, out of a 3.2% total absence rate. (BLS CPS Table 46)
- Illness and injury accounted for 1.1% of hours usually worked, out of a total lost worktime rate of 1.7%. BLS notes its 2025 annual estimates are 11-month averages that exclude October.
- A CDC study of 800 foodborne illness outbreaks at retail food establishments in 2017 to 2019 found contributing factors tied to ill workers in 41.0% of outbreaks with an identified factor. (CDC MMWR, June 2, 2023)
- In the same study, fewer than half (43.6%, 316 of 725) of managers said their establishment provided paid sick leave to any workers, and only 23.0% of written policies listed all five symptoms workers had to report.
The CDC figures come from establishments that had outbreaks, mostly restaurants, so they describe that group rather than all food businesses. They are the most recent federal data we found on this question.
What this means for employers: A sick employee who works because a day off costs a day's pay can spread illness to customers and coworkers. A clear sick leave policy, a written list of symptoms that keep staff home and an attendance policy that does not punish protected sick days all reduce that risk. Longer absences for serious conditions may also fall under FMLA leave.
About this data
Most paid sick leave statistics here come from the BLS National Compensation Survey, which BLS publishes once a year in Employee Benefits in the United States; the latest covers March 2026 and was released September 25, 2026. Industry figures come from the BLS Industries at a Glance pages, which repeat the same NCS data. Absence rates come from the Current Population Survey, published annually. The CDC outbreak study is a one-time report covering 2017 to 2019. State law counts come from Workzenly's review of state labor department sites and statutes, updated November 12, 2026.
Definitions: access means the employer offers paid sick leave to the worker, whether or not they use it. Civilian workers are private industry plus state and local government workers; federal and self-employed workers are excluded. Percentages are as published and rounded by the agency. Where we subtract or compare figures, the text labels it as a Workzenly calculation.
We review this page when new releases come out. Journalists, students and bloggers are welcome to cite it with a link to this page.
More workforce statistics: PTO statistics · Absenteeism statistics · Employee benefits statistics · Restaurant industry statistics.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2026 (release USDL-26-1534, September 25, 2026). bls.gov/news.release/ebs2.nr0.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Table 6. Selected paid leave benefits: Access, March 2026. bls.gov/news.release/ebs2.t06.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Percent of private industry workers with access to paid sick leave, series NBU20700000000000033087, 2016 to 2026. data.bls.gov/timeseries/NBU20700000000000033087
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Percent of civilian workers with access to paid sick leave, series NBU10700000000000033087, 2016 to 2026. data.bls.gov/timeseries/NBU10700000000000033087
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Paid leave benefits: Average number of sick and vacation days by length of service requirement, March 2026. bls.gov/charts/employee-benefits/paid-leave-sick-vacation-days-by-service-requirement.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Paid sick leave: What is available to workers? (factsheet, March 2026 data, updated September 25, 2026). bls.gov/ebs/factsheets/paid-sick-leave.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Industries at a Glance: Leisure and Hospitality, Retail Trade, Construction, Manufacturing, Trade, Transportation and Utilities, Information, Professional and Business Services, Education and Health Services, Other Services (2026 benefits data). bls.gov/iag/tgs/iag70.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily, "Paid sick leave was available to 80 percent of private industry workers in 2025," February 10, 2026. bls.gov/opub/ted/2026/
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Current Population Survey, Table 46. Absences from work of employed full-time wage and salary workers, 2025 annual averages. bls.gov/cps/cpsaat46.htm
- Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, "Foodborne Illness Outbreaks at Retail Food Establishments, National Environmental Assessment Reporting System, 25 State and Local Health Departments, 2017–2019," MMWR Surveillance Summaries 72(SS-6), June 2, 2023. cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/72/ss/ss7206a1.htm
- U.S. Department of Labor, Sick Leave. dol.gov/general/topic/workhours/sickleave
Frequently asked questions
What percentage of US workers have paid sick leave?
In March 2026, 83% of civilian workers had access to paid sick leave, according to the BLS National Compensation Survey. Access was 81% for private industry workers and 93% for state and local government workers. That leaves about 17% of civilian workers and 19% of private workers without it (Workzenly calculation from the BLS figures).
Which industry has the lowest access to paid sick leave?
Leisure and hospitality, which includes restaurants and hotels. BLS reports that 58% of private workers in the industry had access to paid sick leave in March 2026, against 98% in information and in finance and insurance. Retail trade was 74% and construction 76%.
How many paid sick days do workers get?
BLS data for March 2026 show private industry workers with paid sick leave averaged 7 sick days a year after 1 year of service, and still 7 after 20 years. State and local government workers averaged 11 days after 1 year and 12 after 5 years. Sick days rarely grow with seniority in the private sector.
Has access to paid sick leave increased?
Yes. BLS data show private industry access rose from 67% in 2016 to 81% in 2026, a gain of 14 percentage points (Workzenly calculation). Civilian access rose from 70% to 83% over the same period. Access has increased or held steady every year since 2016.
How many states require paid sick leave?
As of November 2026, 20 states and Washington, D.C. require most private employers to provide paid sick leave, and cities such as New York, Chicago and Philadelphia add their own rules. Missouri's 2025 law was repealed. The U.S. Department of Labor states there are no federal legal requirements for paid sick leave.
Do part-time workers get paid sick leave?
Less often. In March 2026, 59% of part-time private industry workers had access to paid sick leave, compared with 88% of full-time private workers, according to BLS. Most state sick leave laws cover part-time employees, so employers in those states usually must provide it regardless of hours.