New federal evidence on leave access
In 2024-2025, 71 percent of wage and salary workers reported access to paid leave at their main job. The comparable share was 66 percent in 2017-2018. The BLS Access to and Use of Leave release also found access of 81 percent for full-time single jobholders and 32 percent for part-time single jobholders.
The results describe workers, not benefit plans or job advertisements. They can sharpen an intake discussion for recurring roles, especially when schedule and leave terms differ across worker groups. They cannot determine what one employer must offer or prove that a leave policy caused an acceptance, absence, or exit.
Key takeaways
- Paid-leave access varied widely by occupation, work status, earnings, sector, and ability to work from home.
- Eight percent of workers needed leave in an average month but did not take it, a measure that is different from lacking access.
- A recruiter should state verified policy terms and route individual eligibility questions to the approved owner.
- Pipeline and retention analysis should not use national access shares as company targets.
The headline differences
The release summary reports 90 percent access for management, business, and financial operations occupations, compared with 45 percent for service occupations and 50 percent for construction and extraction occupations. Public-sector access was 81 percent and private-sector access was 69 percent. Workers able to work at home reported 86 percent access, compared with 63 percent among workers who could not.
| Worker characteristic | Paid-leave access |
|---|---|
| All wage and salary workers | 71% |
| Full-time single jobholders | 81% |
| Part-time single jobholders | 32% |
| Service occupations | 45% |
| Construction and extraction occupations | 50% |
| Management, business, and financial operations | 90% |
| Able to work at home | 86% |
| Unable to work at home | 63% |
These are broad, unadjusted comparisons. The release explicitly notes that they do not control for other factors, including differences in full-time and part-time status. A 45-point gap between two groups should not be interpreted as the effect of occupation alone.
Access, use, and unmet need
During an average week, 21.4 percent of wage and salary workers took paid or unpaid leave and took an average of 14.39 hours. Among those taking leave, 69.4 percent used paid leave only, 27.9 percent used unpaid leave only, and 2.6 percent used both. These measures describe use during a reference week, not annual utilization.
Eight percent said they needed leave during an average month but did not take it. That figure deserves its own field. A worker can have formal access yet be unable or unwilling to use leave for a particular need. Conversely, unpaid leave may be available even when paid leave is not.
The ATUS leave-module page identifies the supplemental questions behind the estimates. A company survey should not borrow the federal label while asking a materially different question. Define whether "access" means policy eligibility, employee knowledge, sufficient balance, manager approval, or actual use.
Turn policy into reliable recruiting information
At intake, recruiting operations should obtain approved language for leave types, accrual, eligibility, waiting periods, request process, carryover, scheduling requirements, and escalation. That record must be versioned. If the policy changes while candidates are active, the team should identify which candidates received which terms.
| Control | Evidence | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Requisition approval | Applicable worker class and schedule | HR and workforce owner |
| Posting review | Accurate high-level leave statement | Recruiting and HR |
| Offer preparation | Current policy summary or plan source | HR |
| Candidate question | Logged question and approved response | Recruiting operations |
| Individual eligibility | Case routed without recruiter interpretation | HR or leave administrator |
| Policy change | Effective date and affected candidate list | Policy owner |
The Women's Bureau paid-leave resource provides federal context on paid leave. It does not replace state, local, plan, or employer-specific review. The Family and Medical Leave Act page addresses a federal job-protected leave framework and eligibility conditions. Paid leave and FMLA protection are not synonymous.
Use outcomes without inventing causation
For offer analysis, preserve the role, location, work status, schedule, pay, leave summary version, candidate source, offer date, response, and coded reason. Compare cohorts only after enough time has passed for their outcomes. Free-text comments can inform review but should not be converted automatically into a clean causal category.
For retention analysis, distinguish policy access, request, approval, use, absence, and separation. A correlation between leave-related questions and exits may identify a workflow to investigate. It does not show that the policy caused the exits. Manager behavior, workload, schedule, pay, health, caregiving, and outside alternatives may also matter.
The ATUS data page provides microdata and tables for analysts. Any custom estimate needs weights, variance methods, universe restrictions, and disclosure-aware reporting. A company does not need a custom federal estimate merely to correct inaccurate offer language.
Survey method and population
The leave module was fielded as part of the American Time Use Survey and sponsored by the Department of Labor's Women's Bureau. It covers wage and salary workers at their sole or main job and excludes self-employed workers. Respondents may not always know whether leave is available until they need it.
The ATUS overview explains the survey program. The users guide supports analysis, while the FAQ addresses collection and interpretation. The Handbook of Methods documents design, concepts, and estimation.
Data Sources and Methodology
We reviewed ten BLS and Department of Labor sources on October 2, 2026. Reported values come from the 2024-2025 leave module release and tables. We did not combine these estimates with the separate employer-reported National Compensation Survey because the populations and collection methods differ.
Operational recommendations are analysis based on the need to keep candidate communication accurate and auditable. They are not claims that a specific leave design will reduce turnover by a stated amount. Such a claim would require employer-level outcomes and a credible comparison design.
Limitations
The estimates are self-reported and apply to a main job. Workers may misunderstand access, and the release groups unlike jobs into broad categories. The comparisons are descriptive and do not adjust for correlated characteristics. Average-week and average-month measures should not be annualized mechanically.
Laws and policy obligations depend on facts not contained in a national survey. Employers should use qualified legal, HR, payroll, and benefits owners for policy decisions. Recruiting operations should preserve the approved message and route exceptions.
Decision rule
Use the federal figures to test whether an intake is asking enough about leave and work status. For example, a service-role cohort below the national occupation share does not prove an employer policy defect; first confirm that the cohort definition, worker status, question wording, and observation period are comparable. Likewise, a higher internal share does not prove candidates understand when leave becomes available or how to request it. Do not present the figures to candidates as the employer's terms. Publish only verified language, keep the source version with the requisition, and review recurring questions or corrections as process evidence.
An embedded recruiting operations team can maintain the question log, candidate communications, and handoffs. The employer owns policy, eligibility, accommodation, compliance, and individual decisions.
Sources
- Access to and Use of Leave, 2024-2025, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Access to and Use of Leave Summary, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- American Time Use Survey Leave Module, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- American Time Use Survey Overview, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- American Time Use Survey Users Guide, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- American Time Use Survey Frequently Asked Questions, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- American Time Use Survey Data, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- American Time Use Survey Handbook of Methods, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
- Women's Bureau Paid Leave, U.S. Department of Labor.
- Family and Medical Leave Act, U.S. Department of Labor.
Related reading
Connect approved policy to candidate communication through a benefits question-routing workflow. To review recurring-hiring handoffs, book a free consultation.