69 percent of civilian workers with paid sick leave received a fixed number of days in 2021

In March 2021, 79 percent of civilian workers had access to paid sick leave. Of the civilian workers who received sick leave benefits, 69 percent received a fixed number of paid sick leave days, 29 percent received sick leave as part of a consolidated leave plan, and 2 percent received paid sick leave days as needed.

Eighty-six percent of union workers received a fixed number of paid sick leave days, while 65 percent of nonunion workers had this type of provision. Sixty-six percent of full-time workers received a fixed number of paid sick leave days, while 81 percent of part-time workers had this type of provision.

Among workers who received a fixed number of paid sick leave days, the average number of paid sick leave days available after 1 year of service was 8 days per year. Union workers received an average of 10 days of paid sick leave per year after 1 year of service, while nonunion workers received an average of 7 days. Full-time workers received an average of 8 days of paid sick leave per year, while part-time workers received an average of 6 days.

These data are from the National Compensation Survey — Benefits program. For more information, see "Employee Benefits in the United States — March 2021" and the complete dataset (XLSX). We also have more charts on employee benefits. Civilian workers include all employees in private industry and those employed by state and local government. For information on the effects of COVID-19 on sick leave policies, see Supplemental data measuring the effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on sick leave plans.