73 percent of all civilian workers had access to paid vacations in March 2016

In March 2016, 73 percent of all civilian workers had access to paid vacations. More than three-quarters of workers in sales and office jobs (80 percent); production, transportation, and material moving jobs (80 percent); natural resources, construction, and maintenance jobs (79 percent); and management, professional, and related jobs (76 percent) had access to paid vacation time. Just over half of workers in service occupations (55 percent) had access to paid vacations.

There was considerable variation of paid vacation access within some of these major occupational categories. For instance, within the natural resources, construction, and maintenance occupational group, 90 percent of workers in installation, maintenance, and repair occupations had paid vacation access, while 67 percent of workers in construction, extraction, farming, fishing, and forestry occupations had paid vacation access. Within the management, professional, and related occupational group, 95 percent of workers in management, business, and financial occupations had access to paid vacation time, compared with 68 percent of workers in professional and related occupations.

The number of annual paid vacation days workers receive varies with workers' length of service. After one year of service, workers are most likely to have 10 to 14 days of paid vacation (38 percent). After 10 years of service, workers are most likely to have 15 to 19 days of paid vacation (39 percent). Workers with at least 20 years of service are most likely to have either 20 to 24 days of paid vacation (32 percent) or more than 24 days of paid vacation (29 percent).  

Vacations are leave from work (or pay in lieu of time off) provided on an annual basis and normally taken in blocks of days or weeks. Paid vacations commonly are granted to employees only after they meet specified service requirements. Vacation time off normally is paid at full pay or partial pay, or it may be a percentage of employee earnings. These data are from the National Compensation Survey — Benefits program. For more information, see Employee Benefits in the United States — March 2016.