“Paid leave was the most prevalent employee benefit” provided by private sector employers in the United States in 2012, according to a U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics report entitled “Beyond the Numbers.”  The report analyzed eight categories of paid leave: holidays, vacation, sick leave, personal leave, funeral leave, jury duty leave, military leave and family leave. The report compared the percent of employees receiving these benefits in 1992-1993 and in 2012.

According to the report, 61% of employers provide paid sick leave, 37% provide paid personal leave and 11% offer paid family leave. In every category of paid leave, full time employees receive the same or more paid leave as they did in 1992-1993.  Not so for part timers; fewer part timers receive paid vacation in 2012 than in 1992-1993. As you would expect, larger employers—those with at least 100 employees—are more likely to provide paid leave benefits than smaller employers.

Yet, time off from work, whether paid or not, is not truly time off for a significant number of American workers.  A recent Harris Interactive survey reports that more than 90% of Americans do some work during their personal time. According to the survey, half of Americans do some work while on vacation and 14% do not take any vacation at all. More than a third of Americans spent at least 10 hours per week working while on personal time.