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Sixty-five percent of workers in the Northeast had access to paid sick leave in March 2014

November 06, 2014

In March 2014, among all workers in private industry, 76 percent had access to paid holidays, 61 percent had access to paid sick leave, and 77 percent had access to paid vacation days. (Access to paid leave means that the employee is able to use the benefit.) The availability of different types of paid leave varies across geographic regions. Sixty-five percent of workers in the Northeast had access to paid sick leave, compared to 57 percent of workers in the Midwest. Access to paid vacation days ranged from 73 percent in the West to 78 percent in both the South and Midwest.

Percentage of private-industry workers with access to paid leave, by geographic region, March 2014
Region Paid holidays Paid sick leave Paid vacations Paid personal leave Paid funeral leave Paid jury duty leave Paid military leave

All workers

76 61 77 38 60 61 32

Northeast

77 65 76 51 65 72 38

South

78 61 78 37 61 63 35

Midwest

77 57 78 37 63 62 30

West

72 60 73 30 49 48 26

Paid personal leave may be used for any general purpose that an employee chooses, and these reasons may or may not not be covered by other types of paid leave. Among all private-industry workers, 38 percent had access to paid personal leave in March 2014. In the Northeast, 51 percent of workers had access to paid personal leave; this rate was much higher than that of the other three regions.

Other types of leave include paid funeral leave, paid jury duty leave, and paid military leave. Overall, 61 percent of private-industry workers had access to paid jury duty leave. In the West, 48 percent of workers were offered this benefit, compared to 71 percent in the Northeast. Paid military leave was available to 32 percent of all private-industry workers; those in the Northeast and South had slightly higher access rates to this benefit, at 38 percent and 35 percent, respectively. 

These date are from the National Compensation Survey - Benefits program. To learn more about access to paid leave, see these tables with data for paid time-off benefits in March 2014. Employees are considered to have access to a benefit if it is available for their use, regardless of whether they choose to use it.

SUGGESTED CITATION

Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, The Economics Daily, Sixty-five percent of workers in the Northeast had access to paid sick leave in March 2014 at https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2014/ted_20141106.htm (visited March 18, 2024).

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