Employee Paid Time Off Policies for Virginia Employers

Paid time off, or leave, across vacation days, sick days, and holidays is an essential component of a company's benefit package in Virginia. Regulations, particularly the FMLA, differ by employer size and can be different at the state level. It may have an effect on retention and competitive hiring if you create the ideal plan for your specific employee group.

Should Virginia Employers Offer Consolidated Paid Time Off Plans?

If you wish to provide a unified leave plan, such as sick days or personal time, the first essential component is whether you want to do so non-consolidated (as opposed to consolidated) or not. A consolidated leave plan gives a single amount of time for employees to use for vacation, illness, or other personal business activities. Workers who don't have consolidated leave plans frequently maintain separate leave strategies for various reasons. Consolidated leave packages have been on the rise recently, with 44% of businesses in Virginia providing them.

A consolidated leave plan, also known as a paid time off, plan is a type of pay-for-time scheme that combines both sick and personal days. This gives workers more freedom while still being beneficial to the company. In Virginia, after five years of service, the average number of leave days in a consolidated plan is 21, whereas just vacation days are 14. At ten years, the average for consolidated leave plans is 24 days, while paid vacation is 17 days.

Do Virginia Employers have to Offer Paid Vacation?

The majority of employer offer paid vacation, either as a part of a consolidated leave plan, or as a standalone plan. Virginia employers 89% of the time offer paid vacation in some capacity. Largely this can be industry dependent, think an hourly employee at a retail store vs. a technology company. To understand how your industry compares against other employers in Virginia download our Mployer Insights report.

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