Quick answer
The main source for PTO statistics is the Bureau of Labor Statistics National Compensation Survey. In March 2026, 80% of private industry workers had paid vacation and 81% had paid holidays, and the average private vacation allowance was 11 days after one year of service.
PTO statistics answer three questions every employer asks: how many workers get paid time off, how many days they get, and what it costs. The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) answered the first two in its Employee Benefits in the United States release of September 25, 2026: in March 2026, 80% of private industry workers could take paid vacation, 81% had paid holidays and 81% had paid sick leave. The typical private allowance started at 11 vacation days after one year. On cost, BLS put private employers' spending on paid leave at $3.54 per hour worked in June 2026. Below are the details by hours, employer size, pay, industry and tenure, each figure tied to the release it came from. For how PTO policies work in practice, see our guide to paid time off.
Paid time off access in 2026
BLS measures access: whether the employer offers a benefit to the worker, whether or not the worker uses it. All figures are for March 2026 from the National Compensation Survey (Table 6).
- 80% of private industry workers had paid vacation, 81% paid holidays and 81% paid sick leave.
- 51% of private workers had paid personal leave, and 49% had paid family and medical leave. (BLS release)
- For all civilian workers (private plus state and local government), access was 77% for vacation, 79% for holidays and 83% for sick leave.
- State and local government workers had less vacation access (61%) and holiday access (68%) but more sick leave access (93%). BLS cautions that teachers are generally not offered vacations, which pulls the government figure down; only 14% of state and local government teachers had paid vacation.
- Many employers fold leave into one bank. In private industry, 29% of union workers and 52% of nonunion workers had access to consolidated leave plans, where "different types of leave are combined and used interchangeably within a single plan," in the words of the BLS paid vacations fact sheet. That is what most employers call a PTO bank.
What this means for employers: Paid vacation and paid holidays are the norm in private industry, so a job with neither stands out to applicants. If you combine vacation and sick time into one PTO bank, you are in line with about half of nonunion employers. Check first whether a state or city sick leave law requires separate tracking or carryover, and what your state says about paying out unused PTO at separation.
Average PTO days by years of service
BLS publishes average vacation and sick days by length of service. These are the latest figures, for March 2026, from the BLS chart Average number of sick and vacation days by length of service requirement.
- Average paid vacation in private industry was 11 days after 1 year, 16 days after 5 years, 18 days after 10 years and 20 days after 20 years. Workzenly calculation: the biggest step, 5 days, comes between year 1 and year 5.
- In state and local government, the averages were 13, 16, 19 and 22 days at the same service levels.
- Paid sick days do not grow with tenure in private industry: the average was 7 days after 1, 5, 10 and 20 years. State and local government averaged 11 sick days after 1 year and 12 after 5 years or more.
- Averages hide a wide spread. In 2026, 32% of private industry workers received 10 to 14 days of paid vacation after one year of service, and after 10 years, 30% received between 15 and 19 days. (BLS fact sheet)
Workzenly calculation from the averages: a private worker with one year of service and both benefits averages 18 paid days a year (11 vacation plus 7 sick), before paid holidays. That is a rough benchmark, because the people who get vacation and the people who get sick leave are not always the same workers.
What this means for employers: If you offer two weeks of vacation in the first year, you match the private-sector average. A tenure step at year 3 or year 5 keeps you competitive with longer-serving staff, where the market average reaches 16 days. Write the steps into your policy and let a PTO tracker or software apply them automatically on each anniversary.
Full-time vs part-time and small vs large employers
Hours worked are the biggest single predictor of PTO access. Employer size matters too. The table shows private industry access for March 2026 from BLS Table 6.
| Private industry workers | Paid vacation | Paid holidays | Paid sick leave |
|---|---|---|---|
| All private industry | 80% | 81% | 81% |
| Full-time | 93% | 92% | 88% |
| Part-time | 38% | 47% | 59% |
| Union | 89% | 94% | 88% |
| Nonunion | 79% | 80% | 80% |
| 1 to 49 workers | 71% | 73% | 75% |
| 50 to 99 workers | 74% | 74% | 73% |
| 100 to 499 workers | 87% | 88% | 87% |
| 500 workers or more | 91% | 94% | 91% |
Source: BLS, National Compensation Survey, Employee Benefits in the United States, March 2026, Table 6. Establishment size counts workers at one location, not the whole company.
- Workzenly calculation: paid vacation access was 55 percentage points lower for part-time private workers (38%) than for full-time workers (93%).
- For part-time workers, paid sick leave (59%) was more common than paid vacation, the reverse of the full-time pattern. Many states and cities require paid sick leave; see paid sick leave by state for the rules where you operate.
- Private establishments with 1 to 99 workers offered paid vacation to 72% of workers, compared with 89% at establishments with 100 or more, a 17-point gap (Workzenly calculation).
- Across all civilian workers, paid personal leave showed the widest size gap: 38% at establishments with 1 to 49 workers versus 69% at those with 500 or more. (BLS chart, March 2026)
What this means for employers: At private establishments with 1 to 49 workers, 29% of workers have no paid vacation (Workzenly calculation from the 71% access rate), so a small employer that offers any is already ahead of many local competitors. For mixed full-time and part-time teams, a pro-rated accrual (hours of PTO per hour worked) closes much of the part-time gap at a predictable cost. Define your part-time hours threshold in writing so eligibility is consistent.
PTO access by pay, occupation and region
Paid time off follows pay. BLS sorts occupations into wage groups by their average wage. Private industry vacation access in March 2026 (Table 6):
- The lowest-paid quarter of private workers had paid vacation at 55% and paid holidays at 60%. In the top 10% of wages, access reached 96% and 97%.
- By occupation, 98% of private management, business and financial workers had paid vacation, compared with 57% of private service workers, the group that includes food service, cleaning and personal care jobs. Sales and related occupations stood at 68%.
- Production occupations (90%) and installation, maintenance and repair (93%) had high vacation access. BLS reports 96% for manufacturing workers and 95% for financial activities workers. (BLS fact sheet)
- Among private hospitals, access was 91% for vacation and 93% for holidays.
- By region, private vacation access varied little, from 78% in the West to 81% in the Midwest. Paid sick leave varied far more, from 69% in the South to 94% in the West. Sick leave access, unlike vacation, depends heavily on where you are.
What this means for employers: In hourly, service-heavy businesses such as restaurants and retail stores, many competitors offer little or no paid vacation, so even a modest accrual is a recruiting edge. Paid holidays are another lever; see how holiday pay and a floating holiday work.
What paid leave costs employers
The BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation survey reports paid leave (vacation, holidays, sick and personal leave combined) in dollars per hour worked. Figures are for June 2026 from the release of September 9, 2026 (ECEC Table 4).
- Across private industry, paid leave cost $3.54 per hour worked, 7.5% of total compensation of $46.89.
- Full-time private workers' paid leave cost $4.40 an hour (8.1% of compensation), against $0.90 (3.6%) for part-time workers. (BLS ECEC release)
- Paid leave was 3.4% of compensation in leisure and hospitality and 3.2% ($0.63 an hour) in accommodation and food services, versus 10.2% in information. Retail trade stood at 5.0%.
- Workzenly calculation: information employers spent about 12 times as much per hour on paid leave as leisure and hospitality employers ($8.63 versus $0.72). Part of that gap is pay itself, since an hour of leave costs more for a higher-paid worker.
- In health care and social assistance, paid leave cost $4.12 an hour (8.3%); in nursing care facilities, $2.29 (6.4%).
What this means for employers: Paid leave is a cost you carry whether or not you plan for it, because covering an absent worker often means overtime or an extra shift. Budget it per hour worked, as BLS does, and track accrued balances as a liability, especially in states that require payout at termination. The employee benefits statistics page puts paid leave alongside insurance and retirement costs.
Unused PTO statistics
Federal surveys measure what employers offer, not what employees use. For use, the most recent survey we could open at its source is a consulting firm's poll. Treat it as a single survey with its own method, not as federal data.
- In the 2024 Eagle Hill Consulting Worker Vacation Survey, conducted by Ipsos on October 4 to 9, 2024 with 1,387 US employees, 48% said they did not expect to take all of their allotted vacation days by the end of the year.
- 36% of respondents said they had gone the past year without a vacation.
- The top barriers were expense (44%), self-imposed pressure (28%), heavy workload (24%), having no paid time off (24%), no colleagues to cover their work (21%), pressure from managers (14%) and organizational culture (12%).
- On their last vacation, 58% fully disconnected, 24% checked email or messages and 5% kept working.
- Respondents described their current policy as a set number of paid days off (43%), combined sick and vacation days (32%), unlimited time off (10%) or no paid time off (14%).
- 85% said requiring employees to take a minimum number of vacation days each year would benefit employers.
The survey's 32% on combined plans and BLS's consolidated leave figures (29% union, 52% nonunion) measure different things: one is what employees report, the other is what employers offer by worker group in private industry, so the numbers should not be compared directly.
What this means for employers: When 21% of workers say no one can cover their work, the fix is partly scheduling. Approve time off early, show balances where employees can see them, and plan coverage before peak seasons. For hourly teams, a shared work schedule with approved leave on it removes most of the guesswork.
Paid vacation trend since 2016
BLS publishes annual access series for civilian workers. The figures below come from the BLS series for paid vacation and paid holidays (March of each year).
| Year | Civilian workers with paid vacation | Civilian workers with paid holidays |
|---|---|---|
| 2016 | 73% | 75% |
| 2018 | 75% | 77% |
| 2019 | 76% | 78% |
| 2020 | 76% | 78% |
| 2021 | 77% | 79% |
| 2022 | 77% | 79% |
| 2023 | 77% | 79% |
| 2024 | 77% | 79% |
| 2025 | 77% | 80% |
| 2026 | 77% | 79% |
Source: BLS, National Compensation Survey, series NBU10500000000000033030 and NBU10600000000000033073. 2017 values were 74% (vacation) and 76% (holidays).
- Civilian paid vacation access rose from 73% in 2016 to 77% in 2021 and has held at 77% through 2026.
- Paid holiday access rose from 75% to 79% over the same period, with a one-year reading of 80% in 2025.
- BLS reports standard errors of 0.4 to 0.8 points for these series, so one-point moves from year to year are within normal survey variation.
What this means for employers: PTO access is stable, not expanding. The share of workers with paid vacation has not moved since 2021, so a competitive policy today is measured against the averages above rather than a rising tide. Plan your policy around where the averages sit today, and check calendars such as federal holidays in 2027 when you set next year's paid holidays.
About this data
These PTO statistics come from two BLS programs and one private survey. The BLS National Compensation Survey Employee Benefits in the United States is published once a year; the figures here are for March 2026, released September 25, 2026. The BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation is quarterly; the figures here are for June 2026, and BLS has scheduled the September 2026 data for December 16, 2026. The Eagle Hill Consulting Worker Vacation Survey was fielded by Ipsos in October 2024.
Definitions: access means the employer offers the benefit; it does not mean the worker used it. Average days come from the BLS chart on days by length of service. Private industry and state and local government figures should not be compared directly, BLS notes, because the industry mix differs (government includes most teachers). A Pew Research Center survey on how much offered time off workers take is often cited for unused PTO; we could not open the original report, so we left its figures out.
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: Paid sick leave statistics · Employee benefits statistics · Burnout statistics · Absenteeism 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, Paid leave benefits: Average number of sick and vacation days by length of service requirement, March 2026. bls.gov/charts/employee-benefits/
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Who receives paid vacations? (fact sheet, 2026 data). bls.gov/ebs/factsheets/paid-vacations.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Percentage of civilian workers with access to paid leave benefits by establishment size, March 2026. bls.gov/charts/employee-benefits/
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Percent of civilian workers with access to paid vacation, 2016 to 2026 (series NBU10500000000000033030). data.bls.gov/timeseries/NBU10500000000000033030
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Percent of civilian workers with access to paid holidays, 2016 to 2026 (series NBU10600000000000033073). data.bls.gov/timeseries/NBU10600000000000033073
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employer Costs for Employee Compensation, June 2026 (release USDL-26-1494, September 9, 2026), including Table 4. bls.gov/news.release/ecec.nr0.htm
- Eagle Hill Consulting, 2024 Worker Vacation Survey, conducted by Ipsos October 4 to 9, 2024 (1,387 US employees), published November 21, 2024. eaglehillconsulting.com
Frequently asked questions
What percent of US workers get paid vacation?
In March 2026, 80% of private industry workers had access to paid vacation, according to the BLS National Compensation Survey. The figure was 77% for all civilian workers and 61% for state and local government workers, where many teachers are not offered vacation.
What is the average number of PTO days in the US?
BLS data for March 2026 put average paid vacation in private industry at 11 days after one year of service, 16 days after five years, 18 after ten and 20 after twenty. Private workers also averaged 7 paid sick days at every one of those service levels.
Do part-time workers get paid time off?
Less often. In March 2026, 38% of part-time private industry workers had paid vacation and 47% had paid holidays, compared with 93% and 92% of full-time workers, according to BLS. Paid sick leave was the most common part-time benefit, at 59%.
How many workers leave PTO unused?
In the 2024 Eagle Hill Consulting Worker Vacation Survey, run by Ipsos on October 4 to 9, 2024 with 1,387 US employees, 48% said they did not expect to take all of their allotted vacation days by year end. This is a consulting firm survey, not federal data.
How much does paid time off cost employers?
Private employers spent $3.54 per hour worked on paid leave in June 2026, or 7.5% of total compensation, according to the BLS Employer Costs for Employee Compensation release. The cost was $4.40 an hour for full-time workers and $0.90 for part-time workers.
Has access to paid vacation increased over time?
Slowly. BLS data show 73% of civilian workers had access to paid vacation in 2016, 76% in 2019 and 77% in every year from 2021 through 2026. Paid holiday access rose from 75% in 2016 to 79% in 2026.