In 2011, 90% of wage and salary workers had access to paid or unpaid leave at their main jobs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics has reported. Twenty-one percent of wage and salary workers took paid or unpaid leave during an average week. Workers who took leave during an average week took an average of 15.6 hours of leave. Fifty-six percent of wage and salary workers were able to adjust their work schedules or location instead of taking leave or because they did not have access to leave in 2011. Seven percent of workers made such an adjustment in an average week.
These findings are from a supplementary set of questions asked as part of the 2011 American Time Use Survey (ATUS). The ATUS is a continuous household survey that provides estimates on how people spend their time. The data on wage and salary workers’ access to leave, use of leave, and ability to adjust their work schedules were collected as part of the 2011 Leave Module sponsored by the Department of Labor’s Women’s Bureau. These data on leave were collected directly from wage and salary workers. The data thus represent only workers’ knowledge on these topics. Workers sometimes do not know whether they can use leave or adjust their work schedules or location until they have a need to do so.
Access to paid or unpaid leave in 2011:
On average, 59% of wage and salary workers had access to paid leave. Seventy-seven percent of wage and salary workers had access to unpaid leave and an additional 7% of workers were unsure whether they had access to unpaid leave. Ninety percent of workers had access to either paid or unpaid leave.
Men and women were about equally likely to have access to paid or unpaid leave at their main jobs in 2011. Ninety percent of men had access to paid or unpaid leave compared with 91% of women. Comparisons of access to leave in this news release are on a broad level and do not control for many factors that can be important in explaining differences in leave access, including differences in the distribution of workers by their full- or part-time work status, educational attainment, and occupation.
By occupation, workers in management, business, and financial operations jobs were the most likely to have access to paid leave (77%).
Seventy-six percent of workers in the public sector had access to paid leave, compared with 57% of private-sector workers.
Among single jobholders, full-time wage and salary workers were more than 3 times as likely to have access to paid leave than were part-time workers—71% compared with 22%.
Among single jobholders, 83% of full-time wage and salary workers in the highest earnings range had access to paid leave, compared with 50% of full-time workers in the lowest earnings range. Each earnings range represents approximately 25% of full-time wage and salary workers.
Among wage and salary workers age 25 and over, 72% of workers with a bachelor’s degree or higher had access to paid leave, compared with 35% of workers with less than a high school diploma.
Use of paid or unpaid leave in 2011:
Twenty-one percent of wage and salary workers took paid or unpaid leave during an average week. Workers who took leave during an average week took an average of 15.6 hours of leave.
Women were slightly more likely than men to take leave from their jobs during an average week—23% compared with 20%.
In an average week, 6% of wage and salary workers reported their main reason for taking leave was a vacation, 5% took leave because they were ill or needed medical care, and 4% took leave mainly to run errands or for personal reasons.
Of those wage and salary workers who took leave from their main jobs during an average week, 57% used only paid leave and 40% used only unpaid leave. Three percent of these workers used a combination of paid and unpaid leave.
Ability to adjust work schedule or location instead of taking time off from work in 2011:
Fifty-six percent of wage and salary workers were able to adjust their work schedules or location of their main jobs instead of taking time off from work in 2011. This includes wage and salary workers who adjusted their work schedules or location instead of taking leave as well as those who did so because they did not have access to leave but needed time off from work.
Men and women were equally likely to be able to adjust their work schedules or location instead of taking time off from work.
Among wage and salary workers age 25 and over, 61% of those with a bachelor’s degree or higher were able to adjust their work schedules or location instead of taking time off from work, compared with only 38% of workers with less than a high school diploma.
In an average week in 2011, 7% of wage and salary workers adjusted their work schedules or location of their main jobs instead of taking time off from work.
Parents of a household child under the age of 13 were more likely to adjust their work schedules or location instead of taking time off from work in an average week than workers who were not a parent of a household child under 18—10% compared with 6%.
