2023

Employee Benefits

The SHRM Employee Benefits Survey returns with new insights for 2023.

Leave Benefits for the Modern Workforce

Leave benefits have emerged as a critical tool for employers attempting to combat employee turnover and improve retention. As employees struggle to balance work and personal responsibilities, they increasingly value the flexibility and support offered by comprehensive leave initiatives. Leave has been shown to help combat burnout and improve employee well-being, leading to increased job satisfaction.

Employers have taken note of this trend and are expanding their leave options, particularly the various types of leave available for new parents. By investing in leave benefits, organizations can demonstrate their commitment to supporting employees and preventing burnout, which has become even more important in a red-hot labor market.

Continue below to explore leave benefits and what organizations like yours are offering.

Paid Vacation Leave

Paid Sick Leave

Paid Time Off (PTO)

including both vacation and sick time

Paid Open/Unlimited Leave

How Do Your Benefits Stack Up?

Use the tool below to explore benefit categories by industry, organization size or location

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*For confidentiality purposes, a minimum of five responses is required to show filtered results. For filters resulting in 5-19 responses, results will display an asterisk to denote a low response count.

How Leave is Determined

A significant majority of organizations—80%— determine the amount of available leave based on an employee’s service time (i.e., their tenure at the organization). However, 46% of organizations consider the number of hours worked when determining available leave, up 5 percentage points since 2022. Lastly, 27% of organizations say the employee’s level in the organization factors into the amount of leave available.

Leave Pay-Out Program

61% have a program in place to pay out workers’ leave in full or in part when they exit their jobs.

Leave Cash-Out Program

22% offer some form of a leave cash-out program, in which employees may be paid for part of their accrued leave balance upon request or annually.

Leave Donation Program

25% provide a leave donation program that allows employees to give some of their accumulated leave to their co-workers.

Leave for New Parents

Leave for new parents has increased across the board since 2022. Some parental leave benefits spiked temporarily during the pandemic, then dropped to be closer to pre-pandemic levels. Now, however, they appear to be on the rise again, reaching higher levels than in 2019. This increase from both pre-pandemic and 2022 levels shows that employers may be emphasizing the importance of leave for parents to care for and bond with new children.

Paid Maternity Leave

Paid Paternity Leave

Paid Parental Leave

Paid Family Leave

Percentages represent the number of employers who offer each type of leave for new parents beyond what is covered by short-term disability and/or the law.

Paid Adoption Leave

Paid Foster Leave

Family Leave

More than 8 out of 10—83%—of organizations offer up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for immediate family members, while 36% offer the same for extended family (e.g., siblings, grandparents, in-laws). The percentage of organizations offering paid leave increased slightly from last year, with 33% of employers offering this benefit for immediate family and 18% for extended family.