Most countries around the world offer workers some form of paid time off (PTO). So, how did the U.S. become one of the few outliers that has no federally guaranteed paid vacation, maternity, family, or bereavement leave—let alone sick time?
The factors are many, ranging from cultural expectations to legal ones. In America, PTO is up to the employer or local officials, rather than treated as something every working person deserves.
“I think that has shaped how we view time off,” says Cory McCruden, CEO of Best Upon Request, a concierge service focused on employee well-being. “It can feel like a benefit your employer gives you rather than a normal part of working and living.”
PTO is certainly a privilege for workers in the U.S. That reality makes life harder for everyone, from the parent who needs to leave work early to pick up a child to the individual who woke up with the flu. Thanksgiving’s just around the corner, and while it’s a federal holiday, many workers may feel anxious about asking for extra time off. A single day is hardly generous, especially when traveling to see family can be so time-consuming.
The current situation comes in spite of the fact that taking PTO has been proven to improve employee retention—increasing with the number of days off—and offer psychological benefits to the individual.
So, why is the state of PTO in America so bad? Things have gone wrong to get to this point, but there could be ways to turn it around.
How many employees in the U.S. get PTO?
Again, PTO is not nationally guaranteed in any form.
According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, about 23% of the U.S. civilian workforce gets no paid vacation days. This number jumps to 43% when looking at the 10% lowest-paid workers. For employees who do receive paid vacation time, the average number of days given is just 10. In comparison, the think tank reports that 25 of the 38 member countries of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) guarantee at least 20 vacation days.
The numbers are similar for sick leave, with the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reporting that 17% of U.S. workers don’t have access to paid sick leave in 2026.
These figures don’t take into account the fact that some employers even ban taking unpaid leave.
In the U.S., the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) allows certain employees the right to take 12 weeks of unpaid family or medical leave for reasons such as childbirth. Meanwhile, OECD countries—even with zero weeks from the U.S. factored in—offer an average of 18.4 weeks paid maternity leave.
The U.S. joins Papua New Guinea in the tiny list of countries offering none.
Employers who provide paid time off might specify a number of days for each type of leave. However, it can often be given as one chunk of time covering all forms—leading to potential problems.
“An issue with this approach is that workers may not use the time when they really need it, either because it is gone or because they must hoard it for another hardship,” says Candice Vander Weerdt, a PTO researcher and senior college lecturer in the business department at Cleveland State University. “Perhaps they used the last of their PTO during a family vacation and now cannot take time off when they catch the flu.”
PTO laws in the U.S.
Most places in the U.S. offer PTO solely at the employer’s discretion. However, some states have taken it upon themselves to protect this right by law. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 18 states and Washington, D.C., require private employers to offer paid sick leave if an employee or a family member is unwell.
Thirteen states, Washington D.C., and Puerto Rico have laws requiring paid family and medical leave.
At the same time, half of all states have some form of a preemptive law, meaning they prohibit local officials from passing laws requiring PTO, the Economic Policy Institute reports. In some cases, these laws prevent local governments from passing ordinances that differ from state rules. However, most of them ban any form of mandated sick or family leave policies.
As McCruden puts it: “Your experience in the U.S. can depend a lot on where you work and where you live.”
Having PTO isn’t enough—the culture needs to change
Even if workers do have PTO, it doesn’t mean they’re going to take it.
“I think we need to talk less about how much PTO people have and more about whether they actually feel comfortable using it,” McCruden says. “A company can offer plenty of time off, but if people don’t feel like they can use it, the benefit only goes so far.”
Workers might be reluctant to take their PTO for fear of retaliation or falling behind, says Molly Weston Williamson, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress who’s researching PTO. In a 2023 Pew Research study, 46% of employees reported not taking all of their paid time off. Some of the most common reasons were worrying about falling behind (49%) and feeling bad about coworkers having extra work (43%). Weston Williamson points to structural issues around insufficient staffing and employee capability as fueling these factors.
Participants also cited very harmful repercussions, with 19% thinking it will hurt their chances of advancement and 16% thinking they might lose their job. Another 12% of people reported being discouraged by their boss from taking time off.
“We have an environment in which even workers who, on paper, have access to some kind of paid time off, don’t feel secure in taking it,” Weston Williamson says. “And then that’s particularly true for workers who are newer to their employer or for Black workers.”
Managers, salaried workers, and higher earners were also less likely to use all of their PTO.
According to Weston Williamson, the lack of laws mandating PTO can contribute to these issues. She explains that when PTO is required by law, it typically protects the ability of workers to take leave without facing repercussions or having requests turned down simply because the timing is inconvenient for others.
McCruden points to another potential reason: “In America, we tend to associate being busy and available with being committed to our jobs. Other countries have made paid time away from work a more standard part of working life.”
How to change the state of PTO in the U.S.
Both individuals and companies can work to change PTO access and the culture around it. You can take steps to improve things for yourself and others. Vander Weerdt recommends negotiating the amount of PTO you get before accepting a job offer or a promotion.
“Some managers may not realize how important the benefit is to their employees,” she says. “Speaking up and sharing the real benefits of paid time off can be rather meaningful.”
If you’re a manager, then you’re in a position to grant PTO requests and normalize taking it by setting an example.
You can also take steps outside of the office. “Individuals can work to create change through advocacy for public policies that guarantee paid leave at the local, state, and federal level, as well as advocating for robust, well-designed, and culturally supported paid leave policies within their employers,” Weston Williamson says.
On the company side, there are so many things that can be done to improve PTO for employees. Much of it comes down to encouragement and modeling behavior. “Create the policy and then make the policy real,” Weston Williamson adds. “Make sure that people have a realistic ability to reliably actually take that time, and that when they do so, they are secure in doing so.”
McCruden explains that leaders set an example by taking time off, determining coverage for while they’re away, and disconnecting while gone. This precedent allows the rest of the team, or even the company, to do the same.
“It has to be made clear that our position is, ‘We want everyone to use all of their leave,’” Weston Williamson says. “We think that’s an actively good thing that we are here to support and encourage, and that we want leadership all the way through to be with that message.”
