Figure 1: Firms Offering Paid Leave

Figure 2: Firms Offering Benefits to Dependents

Figures:  
• Figure 1: Firms Offering Paid Leave  – 
• Figure 2: Firms Offering Benefits to Dependents

Data Discussion

The Indicator Defined

Percent of Private Sector Firms Offering Paid Leave by Size of Firm, Washington State

Data Interpretation/Evaluation

A 2006 survey of Washington State employers showed that large employers and firms in higher wage industries were more likely to offer benefits to their workers. While this information is available only at the state level, King County made up 35% of all firms and 40% of all employment in Washington State in 2006. For full-time employees, 73% of employers in Washington State offered some paid vacation, 68% offered paid holidays, 44%
offered some paid sick days, and 20% offered undesignated leave time. Since 2003, the percent of employers offering paid leave time has remained virtually unchanged.


For part-time employees, the benefits picture was much less “family-friendly.” Only 23% of employers offered paid vacation, 26% offered paid holidays, and 14% offered some paid sick days. No significant change has
occurred since 2003 (data not shown) Over half of smaller businesses (2-49 workers) did not provide any sick leave for their full-time workers and over 80% did not provide sick leave for part-time workers. About one-third of all workers were employed in firms of this size. Nearly one-half of firms that employ 50-99 workers and a third that employ 100-499 workers did not offer sick leave. Among the largest employers (500+ workers), 21% did not provide designated sick leave.

Without sick leave, workers are left to make tradeoffs involving the stress of going to work while trying to care for a sick family member or working while sick themselves, or taking time off work by using vacation days when available or risking loss of pay or a job.

In 2006, 21% of workers were employed in either health care or education. These highly unionized sectors offered paid vacation to a greater proportion of full time workers, 88.8% and 75.7%, respectively. Hotel and food service and retail sales employed 22% of all workers. A lower than average proportion of employers in these sectors, 45.9% and 62.8%, respectively, offered paid vacation to their full-time workers (data not shown). In the last three Washington State Population Surveys, the proportion of King County adults who worked full or part-time for employers offering some paid vacation or sick leave was 87% in 2002, 84% in 2004, and 85% in 2006 (data not shown).

In 2006, 66% of Washington State employers offered health insurance benefits to full-time employees and 11% to part-time workers (data not shown). Another way of looking at coverage is this: 85% of full-time workers were covered by employer sponsored medical and dental insurance, while only 20% of part-time employees had these benefits (data not shown).50% of firms offered health insurance for dependents of their full-time workers, essentially unchanged from 2003. Only 8% covered dependents of part-time workers, down
from 11% in 2003.

Data Source and Limitations

Private sector information was contributed by Communities Count (www.communitiescount.org) and is from the 2007 Washington State Employee Benefits Report. This survey was  istributed to a sample of 15,368 establishments covered by unemployment insurance tax law in Washington State that employed an average of two or more employees during the third quarter of 2006. Companies with multiple locations were counted as a single firm. Establishments that fall under government ownership (except public sector education and health care) were excluded. Undesignated leave time may be referred to as Time Bank, paid time off, etc. This leave may be offered in addition to other types of leave or may be offered in place of designated leave. Employee-reported benefit information on child care, telecommuting and paid vacation or sick leave is from the 2000, 2002, 2004 and 2006 Washington State Population Surveys.

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