Survey Reveals Paid Time Off Plans on the Rise

NEW YORK—In a January 2010 BLR Survey of Paid Time Off (PTO) Practices, 54 percent of respondents had a PTO plan rather than a traditional plan with individual policies for vacation, sick leave, and personal leave. By contrast, in BLR’s Survey of Employee Benefits in late 2007, only 43 percent used a PTO plan.

Survey respondents also detailed their holiday and vacation practices. Nearly 2,000 companies participated in the survey.

PTO Plans

Of the companies that offer a PTO plan, virtually all apply that plan to both exempt and nonexempt employees. Most include vacation, sick time, and personal days in the plan, and nearly half include days off to care for dependents.

Other survey results included :

• 72 percent of companies with a PTO plan allow days to be carried over to subsequent years.
• 29 percent allow the bank of accumulated days to grow to between 20 to 29 days.
• 26 percent allow the bank to grow to a maximum of 30 to 59 days.

Those who reported offering a PTO plan described their plans as follows:

Types of leave included (percent of respondents):

Sick	90%
Vacation	94%
Holidays	29%
Personal Days	84%
Death in Family	32%
Care for Dependents	45%
Other	8%

PTO days allowed per year (percent of respondents):

1-5 days	8%
6-8 days	15%
11-19 days	42%
20-24 days	21%
25+ days	15%

Maximum number of days that can be accumulated in a PTO plan (percent of respondents):

1-9 days	9%
10-19 days	15%
20-29 days	29%
30-59 days	26%
60-89 days	5%
90+ days	9%
No limit	8%

PTO days carried over from year to year (percent of respondents):

Yes	72%
No	28%

Jury Duty

About one-half of respondents had no limit on the length of jury duty; the rest set limits ranging from less than 2 weeks to over 5 weeks.

Paying for leave for jury duty (percent of respondents):

Practice	Exempt	Nonexempt
Pay full salary	55%	49%
Pay difference between salary and jury duty pay	32%	33%
Do not pay	9%	14%
Other	4%	5%

Holidays Observed

Respondents almost universally (all over 90 percent) observe the "standard six" holidays: New Year's Day, Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day, Thanksgiving Day, and Christmas Day. The Friday after Thanksgiving was the next most commonly observed holiday.

The following percentages of companies reported observing the indicated holidays (in calendar order):

Friday, January 1, 2010 (New Year's Day)	93%
Martin Luther King, Jr. Day	26%
Lincoln's Birthday	2%
Washington's Birthday/President's Day	30%
Good Friday	24%
Memorial Day	94%
Independence Day (observed Monday, July 5)	94%
Labor Day	94%
Rosh Hashanah	1%
Yom Kippur	1%
Columbus Day	12%
Election Day	1%
Veterans Day	15%
Thanksgiving	96%
Friday after Thanksgiving	64%
Friday, December 24, 2010 (Christmas observed)	84%
Employee's birthday	7%
Other special day/floating holiday	36%

Vacation

Survey respondents offered weeks of vacation as indicated:

One week offered after:

Do not offer	16%
Fewer than 6 months	28%
6 months	25%
More than 6 months, less than 1 year	9%
1 year	21%
More than 1 year	1%

Two weeks after:

No second week	8%
Less than 1 year	27%
1 year	36%
Greater than 1 year, fewer than 2 years	7%
At least 2, fewer than 5 years	19%
Greater than 5 years	3%

Three weeks after:

No third week	12%
Fewer than 5 years	29%
5 years	29%
More than 5 years, fewer than 10 years	17%
10 years	10%
More than 10 years	3%

Four weeks after:

No fourth week	28%
Fewer than 10 years	23%
10 years	19%
More than 10 years, fewer than 15 years	11%
At least 15 years, fewer than 20 years	13%
20 years or more	7%

Five weeks after:

No fifth week	68%
At least 10 years, fewer than 20 years	17%
20 years	6%
More than 20 years, fewer than 25 years	4%
25 years	4%
More than 25 years	1%

Also, 65 percent of respondents indicated that earned vacation is lost if not used within a specified period of time.

Hedley Lawson, Contributing Editor

Source: BLR HR Daily Advisor, April 30, 2010