23% of U.S. Workers Get Zero Paid Vacation Days—And It's Legal

Nearly one in four U.S. civilian workers—23%—receives no paid vacation days at all, according to the Center for Economic and Policy Research. Among the 10% lowest-paid workers, that figure climbs to 43%. The United States remains one of the only wealthy nations with no federally guaranteed paid vacation, maternity, family, bereavement, or sick leave.

By Olivia Hart

The comparison is stark. The think tank reports that 25 of the 38 OECD member countries guarantee at least 20 vacation days by law. The U.S. joins Papua New Guinea on the short list of countries offering no national paid maternity leave, while OECD countries average 18.4 weeks of paid maternity leave—a figure that holds even with America's zero weeks included in the math.

Even workers who do get vacation receive little of it. The average American employee with paid vacation gets just 10 days, roughly two workweeks per year. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that 17% of U.S. workers will lack access to paid sick leave in 2026—and some employers ban unpaid leave on top of that.

What does federal law actually provide?

The Family and Medical Leave Act offers certain employees 12 weeks of unpaid family or medical leave, including for childbirth. Unpaid is the operative word. In America, PTO is left to the employer or local officials rather than treated as an entitlement.

"It can feel like a benefit your employer gives you rather than a normal part of working and living," says Cory McCruden, CEO of Best Upon Request, a concierge service focused on employee well-being.

The patchwork runs in both directions. The U.S. Department of Labor counts 18 states plus Washington, D.C., that require private employers to offer paid sick leave when an employee or family member is unwell. Thirteen states, D.C., and Puerto Rico mandate paid family and medical leave. But the Economic Policy Institute reports that half of all states have preemptive laws prohibiting local governments from passing PTO requirements—most banning any mandated sick or family leave policy.

"Your experience in the U.S. can depend a lot on where you work and where you live," McCruden says.

Is having PTO enough?

No—and the data shows it. A 2023 Pew Research study found 46% of employees do not take all their paid time off. The cited reasons ranged from practical to punitive:

• 49% worried about falling behind at work
• 43% felt bad about coworkers covering extra work
• 19% believed using PTO would hurt their advancement
• 16% feared losing their job
• 12% reported their boss discouraged them from taking time off

Managers, salaried workers, and higher earners were also less likely to use all their PTO.

"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," says Molly Weston Williamson, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress researching PTO. "And then that's particularly true for workers who are newer to their employer or for Black workers."

Weston Williamson points to structural problems—insufficient staffing and capability gaps—as fueling the fear of retaliation. She argues statutory mandates matter because they typically protect workers from repercussions or denied requests.

The structure of PTO itself can backfire. Many employers give one pooled allotment covering all leave types. "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 lecturer at Cleveland State University's business department. "Perhaps they used the last of their PTO during a family vacation and now cannot take time off when they catch the flu."

Can the pattern change?

Research suggests it should: studies cited in the source show PTO improves employee retention—rising with the number of days off—and delivers psychological benefits. Yet the culture often rewards the opposite. "In America, we tend to associate being busy and available with being committed to our jobs," McCruden says.

The prescriptions are individual as well as institutional. Vander Weerdt recommends negotiating PTO amounts before accepting a job offer or promotion. "Some managers may not realize how important the benefit is to their employees," she says. Managers can normalize leave by taking it themselves and arranging coverage.

Weston Williamson urges advocacy for paid-leave guarantees at local, state, and federal levels, plus stronger internal policy. "Create the policy and then make the policy real," she says. "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."

The caveat is obvious: none of this changes the baseline. Until Congress or more states act, the roughly quarter of the workforce with no paid vacation will keep negotiating one employer at a time.