The State of PTO: What the Data Actually Shows

PTO is one of the most asked-about benefits and one of the least understood. Everyone has opinions. Few have data.

"How much vacation should we offer?" "Is unlimited PTO actually common?" "What are other companies doing on parental leave?"

Consultants and HR teams ask these questions constantly. Until now, the answers have been anecdotes, outdated surveys, and whatever made headlines last week. We built PTO benchmarking to change that.

What the Data Actually Shows

We collected verified PTO policies from hundreds of employers across 10 industries. Not survey responses, actual policies. Here's what we found.

Unlimited PTO is rare and concentrated in tech.

Only 7% of employers offer unlimited or flexible PTO. That number surprises people because unlimited PTO gets outsized attention in the press. But look closer: in technology, 32% of employers offer it. In healthcare and manufacturing? Zero.

If you're benchmarking a non-tech employer against tech-company headlines, you're comparing apples to oranges. Most employers still use traditional accrual (48%) or combined PTO banks (45%).

The parental leave gap is real.

Birthing parents receive a median of 11 weeks paid leave. Non-birthing parents receive 7 weeks. That's a 4-week gap and it's persistent across most industries.

Only 22% of employers offer equal parental leave regardless of parent type. Education leads on parity at 56%. Most other industries lag well behind.

This gap matters for recruiting, retention, and increasingly for compliance as more states mandate leave parity.

Industry variation is massive.

Technology employers offer 12 weeks of birthing parent leave. Public sector offers 6 weeks. That's a 2x difference.

Vacation ranges tell a similar story. Entry-level employees in transportation and logistics may start with as few as 3 days. Entry-level employees in healthcare can start with 10.

National averages hide these differences. Peer-specific benchmarking reveals them.

Why This Matters

PTO isn't a line item, it's a talent strategy. Companies competing for the same candidates need to know what "competitive" actually means in their market, not what it means in Silicon Valley.

A manufacturer benchmarking against tech companies will always feel behind. A healthcare system benchmarking against other healthcare systems can make informed decisions about where to invest and where they're already strong.

That's what benchmarking is supposed to do.

The Data Is Live

You can explore the PTO benchmarks now at bnchmrk.com/pto-benchmarks. Filter by industry, see how policies vary, and start answering the questions your clients have been asking.

What's Coming Next

This is just the beginning. Over the coming months, we're adding:

Platform integration. PTO benchmarking will be available inside the Bnchmrk platform alongside medical, dental, vision, and ancillary benefits. One place for total employer benchmarking.

Enhanced data fields. Carryover policies, tenure-based tiers, regional breakdowns, and more granular cuts as the dataset grows.

Total employer reporting. See PTO alongside health benefits in a single report. Because that's how employers actually think about their benefits package, holistically.

Built for Users, Not Upsells

We're adding PTO benchmarking to the platform for all users. It's not a premium add-on or a separate product. If you're a Bnchmrk subscriber, you'll get it.

We've been independent for 10 years. That means we build what our users need, not what maximizes our revenue per seat. When consultants told us they needed PTO data, we built it and we're including it.

That's how it should work.

Explore the data: bnchmrk.com/pto-benchmarks