Introduction Paragraph- As Americans’ favorite benefit, PTO topped dental coverage, vision insurance, and 401(k) plans in a recent survey of more than 600 small business employees. Healthcare coverage provided by employers is second. Let’s know the Average PTO in the USA here.
Your small business needs to have a well-defined and competitive PTO program to recruit and retain future employees, especially in today’s job market.
Answer Paragraph- Bureau of Labor Statistics data shows that the average number of private-sector employees taking personal time off is ten (10) days. Including sick days and paid holidays, this number is rounded up to 9.7 days now (it is 9.7 days actually). Many factors determine how long an employee is granted PTO, such as tenure with the company, whether the company is in the public or private sector, and your location.
Our calculations are based on both BLS data and survey data related to average days of PTO across various metrics. In The State of PTO in Small Business, you can learn everything you need to know about employee time off in small businesses.
This should help you stay on top of the curve when it comes to defining your competitive Personal Time Off policy, or at least give you some perspective on how other companies, industries, and geographies implement their time off policies.
Over Time, The Average Number of PTO Days Increases
According to the BLS, small business employees in the United States should earn three to four extra days of vacation every five years of service. Detailed data on U.S. workers from this survey confirms what you probably already know, vacation days increase as you age.
Federal law states that you can expect to have three weeks paid vacation after you’ve worked 10 years at the same employer.
| Size and length of service of private establishments | Number of PTO days on average |
| All establishments after a year | 10 |
| 1 to 99 workers after one year | 9 |
| 100 or more workers after 1 year | 12 |
| All establishments after 5 years | 15 |
| 1 to 99 workers after five years | 13 |
| At least 100 workers after five years | 16 |
| All establishments after 10 years | 17 |
| 1 to 99 workers after ten years | 15 |
| At least 100 workers after ten years | 19 |
Industry-Specific Average Days of PTO
Based on our survey of 606 small businesses employees, we calculated the average PTO for 32 industries. It is unlikely that the data will provide significant statistics for each industry since the data is across so many buckets. To get a more representative sample, there is still a lot of work to do munching and crunching public data sources. However, we thought sharing this “starter data” was worthwhile. Please use caution when reading the information which is presented here.
| Amount of time taken off by industry | |
| Foundation / Non-Profit | 17.5 |
| Military / Government | 17.3 |
| Infrastructural | 15.8 |
| Press / Publication / Broadcast | 14.8 |
| Production | 14.2 |
| Agribusiness / Forestry / Fishing | 14.0 |
| The financial / banking/insurance sector | 14.0 |
| Mobile and SaaS (including the Internet) | 13.7 |
| Communications | 12.3 |
| Architecture / Engineering | 11.4 |
| The communication process | 10.9 |
| Legislation | 10.9 |
| Distributor | 10.6 |
| Medical care (including hospice, home care, and outpatient services) | 10.4 |
| Services for businesses and professionals | 9.8 |
| In the real estate industry | 9.7 |
| Distribution / Transportation | 8.7 |
| The entertainment/Recreation industry | 8.6 |
| Home Improvement / Construction | 8.5 |
| Educating | 8.5 |
| Buying and selling | 8.3 |
| Hardware and software (computers) | 7.9 |
| Hotels and lodging (business services) | 7.8 |
| Biological technology | 7.2 |
| Restaurants, hotels, and other food-related services (for example, food service, hospitality, and travel). | 6.9 |
| Consultations | 6.0 |
| A.C. | 5.6 |
| The Aerospace/Aviation industry | 5.3 |
| Automotive Services (Sales/Repair) | 4.7 |
| Advertisement | 3.3 |
| Exploration | 2.0 |
| Research / Marketing / Public Relations | 0.0 |
The Average PTO Across the United States
It’s all about perspective. Make sure to be aware of the potential impact of geographic perspective when discussing PTO with new candidates. Compared with their Southeastern neighbors, Northeasterners are supposed to receive a bigger PTO allowance.
| Regional PTO average | |
| The West Region:Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, Montana, Wyoming, California | 9.4 |
| The Southwest Region:Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona | 10.3 |
| The Midwest Region:Minnesota, Iowa, Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota, Illinois, Ohio, Wisconsin, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Chicago, Iowa, Minnesota, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska | 8.5 |
| Northeastern Region:Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Vermont | 11.4 |
| The Southeast Region:Virginia, West Virginia, East Carolina, Maryland, North Carolina, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Tennessee, Arkansas, Louisiana, Alabama, West Virginia, and DC | 8.5 |
Amount of PTO by Age
PTO allowances are often transferred from one employer to another and employees will often accumulate longer stints of PTO with time. Hire seasoned employees carefully; they typically expect more generous vacation policies than younger hires if you’re hiring new employees. Make sure your HR department understands the challenges they may have.
PTO plans among adults 55 and older are disproportionately more popular (67%) than those for adults 18-24 years old (50%)
| Age-related average of paid vacation days | |
| From 18 to 24 years old | 6.2 |
| Between the ages of 25 and 34 | 7.8 |
| Between 35 and 44 years of age | 9.5 |
| Between the ages of 45 and 54 | 11.3 |
| Between the ages of 55 and 64 | 10.4 |
Documenting The PTO Policy
The averages we use in the context of your company are intended to help you contextualize your policies. Once you are ready to draft your PTO policy or rewrite it, consider filing it into an HR resource your employees are accustomed to accessing easily. It’s a good idea to have an employee handbook. “Next-generation” employee handbooks are digital.
You can also contact one of our on-call HR consultants, who can clarify any HR questions you might have, such as state regulations for sick days in the U.S.
What Is The Average Amount of PTO?
Upon completing a year’s service at a company, American workers have an average of 10 days of paid leave per year. That time does not include holidays or sick days. There is no national average for this number; it varies by industry and region.
A PTO of 120 Hours is Equal to How Many Days?
Once you are paid twice, your total hours in a month will be divided by 24. As an example, fifteen days of annual leave translates to 120 hours of paid time off. A payment of 120 divided by 24 equals five since you are paid twice per month.
A 40-Hour PTO Period Equals How Many Days?
Every 40 hours they work the employee can earn an hour’s paid time off. During the year, the employee would have approximately 52 hours of paid time off to use if they saved all their paid time off. If the employee was to work an average of 8-hour shifts during the year, they would benefit from 6.5 days of PTO.
Conclusion
In a broader sense, the U.S. In 2016, workers forfeited 206 million unused vacation days, according to the Travel Association survey. Those lost benefits came for $64.4 billion to individual workers, and the entire economy as well. A total of $236 billion in lost spending was estimated for the economy in that year.
Despite an increase in vacation days used last year, Project: Time Off’s 2018 survey also underscored the economic value of paid time off. There was only a slight increase of 0.4 days in vacation usage between 2016 and 2017. With even such a minimal increase, the U.S. economy gained $30.7 billion in growth, 217,200 jobs were created, and U.S. workers’ income grew $8.9 billion.
There is no doubt that time off has a profound impact on the overall economy, job growth, and individual income. A further limitation of the data is it only includes vacation days. The calculation does not take into account paid time off for dependents, personal days, or sick days.
Frequently Asked Question
- How many American citizens take sick days on average each year?
As a full-time employee, your average sick leave is 11 after your first year, and you get 12 after that. Part-time employees receive nine sick days on average per year.
- How much PTO is enough?
The typical vacation period for new employees is five to ten days. A typical ten-to-twenty-day PTO plan is generally more common in organizations that have sick and personal days.
- What is the number of vacation days you get in the US?
US workers receive around 10 paid holidays each year, but the number varies from employer to employer. Additionally, they must work at their job for 12 months before they can accrue this time off.
