Paid leave collage During an average week, 21 percent of wage and salary workers took leave, either paid or unpaid, from their jobs. (Image: Shutterstock)

More workers have access to paid leave these days, but that doesn't necessarily mean that they're using it. And even though they've made gains in having access to paid leave, women still trail men in doing so.

So says the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, which finds that in 2017–2018, 66 percent of wage and salary workers had access to paid leave at their jobs, and 78 percent had access to unpaid leave—for a total of 98 percent of workers who had access to paid or unpaid leave. In 2011, only 60 percent of workers had access to paid leave.

Complete your profile to continue reading and get FREE access to BenefitsPRO, part of your ALM digital membership.

Your access to unlimited BenefitsPRO content isn’t changing.
Once you are an ALM digital member, you’ll receive:

  • Breaking benefits news and analysis, on-site and via our newsletters and custom alerts
  • Educational webcasts, white papers, and ebooks from industry thought leaders
  • Critical converage of the property casualty insurance and financial advisory markets on our other ALM sites, PropertyCasualty360 and ThinkAdvisor
NOT FOR REPRINT

© 2025 ALM Global, LLC, All Rights Reserved. Request academic re-use from www.copyright.com. All other uses, submit a request to [email protected]. For more information visit Asset & Logo Licensing.

Marlene Satter

Marlene Y. Satter has worked in and written about the financial industry for decades.