Career Outlook
A larger share of U.S. wage and salary workers reported access to paid leave in 2024–25 than in 2017–18, according to a Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis published September 23. About 71.0% said they had access to paid leave, compared with 66.0% in the earlier survey. Among workers ages 15 to 24, however, the figure was just 44.1%. Age, work status and employer practices can make a headline benefit much less useful for people entering the labor market.
What the survey measures
The figures come from a supplementary set of questions asked in the 2024 and 2025 American Time Use Surveys, excluding self-employed workers. BLS cautions that the 2024–25 data “are not strictly comparable with earlier years,” so the apparent improvement is useful context, not a precise estimate of how much leave policy changed for an identical workforce. The survey also captures only what workers know: BLS notes that “workers sometimes do not know whether they can use leave until they have a need to do so.”
By sex, 72.6% of men reported access, up from 66.8%, and 69.3% of women, up from 65.0%—the source of the rounded 73% and 69% in the BLS headline.
A steep age gradient
The age contrast is the most consequential finding. Access reached 76.3% for workers 25 to 34, 77.0% for those 35 to 44 and 75.9% for those 45 to 54, peaking at 81.5% for workers 55 to 64 before falling to 55.2% for those 65 and older. The roughly 32-point gap between workers 15 to 24 and those just a decade older is far larger than the change between the two survey periods.
Part of the explanation is where young people work. A separate BLS analysis found that 43% of employed 16- to 24-year-olds worked in leisure and hospitality or retail in July 2026, industries where scheduling and benefit arrangements often differ from professional-office jobs. A person deciding whether to accept a position while studying or caring for relatives needs to know whether leave can be used for a short appointment, a longer illness or a predictable school commitment.
Access is not the same as usable leave
Access is also different from how much leave a worker has earned, whether it is paid at the usual rate or whether it can be used when needed. A new hire may face a waiting period or need to accrue hours first. A part-time worker may receive different provisions than a full-time colleague with the same title. Workers should request the actual benefits summary and clarify eligibility before comparing offers. Flexible start times cannot automatically substitute for paid time off: in the related BLS flexibilities survey, 69% of workers said taking an hour or two off during work hours would not be difficult, but that share was 86% for those who could work at home and 59% for those who could not.
Employers seeking entry-level talent can make their policies understandable without legal boilerplate in a job ad: state how leave accrues, when it becomes available, how shifts are covered and where the official policy can be found. The survey cannot establish how any specific employer behaves, but it gives recruiters and applicants a reason to examine benefits before treating an hourly wage as the full offer.
Sources
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily, “73 percent of men and 69 percent of women had access to paid leave in 2024–25,” September 23, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2026/73-percent-of-men-and-69-percent-of-women-had-access-to-paid-leave-in-2024-25.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Job Flexibilities and Work Schedules — 2024–2025,” September 24, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/news.release/flex2.nr0.htm
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily, “One in four employed youth worked in leisure and hospitality in July 2026,” September 22, 2026. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2026/one-in-four-employed-youth-worked-in-leisure-and-hospitality-in-july-2026.htm
Featured photo: A cashier at her register. Representative image of an hourly service job; it does not depict survey respondents. Photo: Young in Panama, via Wikimedia Commons (CC BY 2.0). Cropped from the original.
