Source: Department of Labor Blog- June 8 2015
For U.S. workers, access to employer-provided leave is closely related to how much they earn. Specifically, low-wage workers have substantially less access to leave benefits from their employers than higher paid workers. This was one of many interesting findings in a recent Bureau of Labor Statistics article, “A look at pay at the top, the bottom, and in between.”
The chart above illustrates a disparity in access to all forms of leave − paid holidays, paid sick leave, paid vacation, paid personal leave, paid family leave and unpaid family leave − among the highest and lowest earners.
For example, while less than two-thirds (61 percent) of workers in the private sector have access to paid sick leave, an even lower proportion (only 30 percent) of workers among the lowest paid 25 percent have access to paid sick leave. In sharp contrast, the highest paid 25 percent of workers are almost three times more likely to have access to paid sick leave than those in the lowest paid 25 percent.
Across all paid leave categories, (holidays, sick leave, vacation, personal, and family leave) workers in the lowest 25 percent of wage earners are two to four times less likely to have access to any form of paid leave compared with workers in the highest paid 25 percent.
Even paid family leave − the least common paid leave benefit across the board − is significantly less likely to be made avilable to low-wage workers than high-wage workers.* Only 5 percent of workers among the lowest paid 25 percent have access to paid family leave, compared with 22 percent of workers among the highest 25 percent. These disparities in benefits between low and high earners mean that inequality in total compensation (that is, wages plus benefits) is even greater than inequality in wages alone.
This article drew from many data sources within the Bureau of Labor Statistics, making it a rich resource in examining how wages and earnings as well as access to employer offered leave benefits vary. These sources include the Current Population Survey, the Occupational Employment Statistics, the National Compensation Survey-Benefits, the American Time Use Survey and the Consumer Expenditure Survey.
Paid and unpaid leave benefits are defined in the National Compensation Survey’s Glossary of Employee Benefit Terms online and the data shown in this chart can be accessed on the bureau’s National Compensation Surveypage.
Learn more about the department’s initiative on paid leave at www.dol.gov/paidleave.
Dr. Heidi Shierholz is the Labor Department’s chief economist.
*Editor’s note: Family leave is granted to an employee to care for a family member and includes paid maternity and paternity leave. The leave may be available to care for a newborn child, an adopted child, a sick child, or a sick adult relative. Paid family leave is given in addition to any sick leave, vacation, personal leave, or short-term disability leave that is available to the employee.