20 Types of Leave HR Professionals Should Know
In the U.S., there’s no federal requirement for paid vacation or sick leave, yet many companies offer it to stay competitive. Understanding the various types of leave—from family and medical leave to sabbaticals—ensures compliance and helps create a supportive work environment.
Organizations worldwide offer different types of paid, partially paid, and unpaid leave to employees. Some are required by law to provide these types of leave, and others provide them at their discretion. Having a strong understanding of these types of leave is vital to staying compliant as an organization and providing your employees with competitive benefits, especially when unexpected life events occur.
This article discusses the different types of leave that HR professionals and business leaders need to be aware of, both in the U.S. and around the world.
Contents
1. Vacation leave (Annual leave)
2. Family and medical leave (FMLA)
3. Parental leave
4. Sick leave
5. Unpaid leave (or leave without pay)
6. Personal leave
7. Public holidays
8. Religious observance leave
9. Sabbatical leave
10. Bereavement leave
11. Compensatory leave
12. Military leave
13. Jury duty leave
14. Time off in lieu (TOIL)
15. Garden leave
16. Election day (Voting leave)
17. Time off for protests
18. Study leave
19. Adverse weather leave
20. Time off as a gift
Other types of leave
1. Vacation leave (annual leave)
Federal U.S. law does not mandate vacation leave. However, most organizations do provide employees with paid vacation leave (though the number of days a year varies greatly among states). There are three main approaches to paid time off (PTO):
- Annual leave (a fixed number of days per year)
- Accrual bank (days accrued on a monthly or quarterly basis)
- Unlimited PTO (an infinite number of days, an increasingly popular option as employees seek a healthier work/life balance).
In Australia, employees are entitled to a minimum of four weeks of paid leave for each year of service, with shift workers entitled to five weeks of leave. In Canada, employees are entitled to two weeks of paid vacation in all states. However, employees in Saskatchewan and federal employees receive three weeks of paid vacation a year. In many states, this increases along with each employee’s years of service and can reach a maximum of four weeks.
In Singapore, full-time employees are entitled to a legal minimum of only seven days of paid leave. There is no statutory paid leave for domestic workers, seafarers, or employees in managerial or executive positions.
2. Family and medical leave
In the U.S., the Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) mandates up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave each year for employees of public agencies or companies with over 50 workers. To be eligible, employees must have worked for their employer for a minimum of 12 months or 1,250 hours in the past year.
FMLA leave applies in several cases, including:
- The birth and care of an employee’s newborn child
- Caring for a seriously ill immediate family member
- An employee needing to take medical leave due to their own illness.
3. Parental leave
Parental leave is sometimes divided into maternity and paternity leave. However, more organizations have replaced this practice with the more inclusive concept of parental leave for all parents.
Many U.S. states do not legally require employers to offer paid maternity leave, but the FMLA grants every woman the right to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave a year for this reason (including in cases of child adoption). Only eight states offer both fathers and mothers partially paid parental leave: California, New York, New Jersey, Washington, Rhode Island, Oregon, Massachusetts, and Connecticut.
European countries tend to be far more generous regarding maternity leave. In the U.K., mothers get up to 52 weeks’ statutory maternity leave, split into 26 weeks of “ordinary leave” and 26 weeks of “additional leave”. In Sweden, parents are entitled to a total of 480 days of paid parental leave per child, which can be shared between the mother and father.
4. Sick leave
Federal law does not entitle employees to paid sick leave; however, the FMLA covers unpaid time off for employees with health conditions that render them unfit to work. Many U.S. organizations choose to provide paid sick leave to employees. They do it either by allotting a specific number of entitled days or offering an umbrella PTO policy.
In contrast, many countries across Europe, Asia, and South America offer mandatory paid sick leave. An extreme example is the Netherlands, where employees recovering from a disease can be off work for up to 24 months while still receiving a minimum of 70% of their salary for this period.
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5. Unpaid leave (or leave without pay)
Employees may wish (or need) to take unpaid leave for various reasons should they not have enough paid leave days to use. However, outside the FMLA, there is little to no federal regulation regarding unpaid leave. This means it’s up to individual organizations to set their own rules and treat each scenario on a case-by-case basis.
6. Personal leave
Personal leave is a type of time off that allows employees to attend to personal matters that don’t fall under other specific leave categories, such as sick leave or vacation leave. This type of leave is typically a company-provided benefit and falls outside the scope of the FMLA’s legal protections. Some reasons for personal leave include:
- Handling personal or family emergencies
- Attending to personal business that can’t be scheduled outside of work hours (e.g., legal or financial appointments).
- Taking a mental health day when an employee feels overwhelmed but doesn’t want to categorize it as sick leave.
7. Public holidays
Many organizations in the U.S. offer employees a fixed number of paid holidays as part of their compensation and benefits packages. However, this typically doesn’t apply to hourly or part-time workers. Some of the most common paid holidays employers provide are Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, Independence Day, and New Year’s Day.
The complete list of paid holidays employees are entitled to vary from one organization to another. However, 97% of companies offer paid leave for Thanksgiving Day despite there being no legal requirement to do so.
Some organizations offer employees a fixed number of “floating holidays” in addition to PTO, which entitles them to paid days off they can claim as a substitution for a public holiday.
In Singapore, employees are entitled to paid leave for 11 of their public holidays. If an employee has to work through a public holiday, their employer usually compensates them with double pay or time off in lieu (TOIL). This type of leave will be further discussed later on in the article.
8. Religious observance leave
Religious observance leave is unpaid leave granted to employees who wish to participate in various religious festivals, traditions, or celebrations not recognized as public holidays. For example, in Victoria, Australia, practicing Jewish employers can receive up to 13 days off a year for religious observance.
In most cases, these employees are required to provide some form of evidence of their faith in order to get their employers to approve their religious observance leave.
9. Sabbatical leave
Sabbatical leave originated in educational institutions to grant employees extended periods off (for personal reasons, research, or study) while remaining employed. It has since become an increasingly popular type of ‘unconventional’ leave and can even be considered one of the top five workplace trends.
10. Bereavement leave
An employee would take bereavement leave or funeral leave after the death of a loved one (usually a relative or close friend), in order to attend the funeral or recover from immediate grief. It is sometimes confused with compassionate leave, which includes taking time off to look after a sick relative or other dependent.
U.S. labor law does not mandate bereavement leave. However, some organizations have a detailed internal policy for it, while others permit it as and when required. In most cases, employees only qualify for bereavement leave if they’re full-time workers and have been with the company for a specified period. In Canada, employees are eligible for paid bereavement leave if they’ve completed at least three months of employment at the organization.
11. Compensatory leave
Compensatory leave (or comp time) is time off employees receive in place of overtime pay. When an employee works beyond their regular schedule, their employer can compensate them with additional paid time off rather than extra wages. This type of leave is commonly used in organizations where offering overtime pay may not be feasible.
In the U.S., the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) generally does not allow compensatory leave for private sector employees. However, public sector employees (like government workers) can often use comp time instead of receiving overtime pay.
12. Military leave
Those undertaking select types of active or inactive duty in the National Guard or acting as a Reserve in the Armed Forces are entitled to fully paid leave. The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act also ensures employers provide reemployment to those who take on active military duty and National Guard Services.
At the same time, different types of military leave may be provided, depending on the sector and length of absence.
13. Jury duty leave
An estimated 32 million people are summoned for jury service every year, with 1.5 million selected to serve. There is no federal law requiring employers to pay employees for jury duty leave, though certain states require companies to do so.
In the U.K., employees must be granted time off to serve on juries. Although there’s no legal requirement for staff to be paid while on jury duty, many employers will do so.
14. Time off in lieu
Time off in lieu (TOIL) is a compensation policy that involves giving employees additional paid time off instead of overtime pay for working overtime. For example, if an employee is contracted to work 40 hours per week but works 45 hours during a particularly busy week, they could claim an extra five paid hours off in lieu of overtime pay.
Some organizations opt for this system because it allows them to fairly compensate employees without placing themselves under financial pressure.
15. Garden leave
Garden leave refers to the practice of continuing to pay an employee who has resigned or been terminated while requesting that they remain out of the office during their notice period. The aim of garden leave is to prevent the employee from joining a competitor or leaking sensitive company information while they are technically still employed.
Currently, an estimated 30 million workers in the U.S. are covered by such agreements, which include legal contracts between employees and employers that prohibit employees from working for the competition for a specified period of time (e.g., six months) after the end of their employment.
Garden leave is also quite common in the U.K., especially for senior employees or those with access to sensitive information.
16. Election day (voting leave)
Voting leave refers to time off given on official election days to ensure everyone has an equal opportunity to participate. While federal law doesn’t require employers to provide paid or unpaid leave for employees to vote, these regulations vary by state. Many states (including California and New York) require employers to offer employees at least one hour of paid voting leave.
However, as polls are generally open across the U.S. from around 7 AM to 8 PM, the majority of office workers can usually vote outside of their working hours.
17. Time off for protests
In the more democratic states of America (such as San Francisco, California, and New York), it’s common practice for people to oppose government laws and decisions openly. Therefore, in the event of a major protest, an employee may wish to take leave from work to demonstrate their support and rally for their beliefs. Many organizations in Silicon Valley have included time off for protests in their standard employee benefits.
18. Study leave
Study leave refers to when an employee wants to further their education, either through a university course or a professional training or certification program. Although this type of leave is not included in many organizations’ benefits, it can be granted on a case-by-case basis at the employer’s discretion.
If the employee can demonstrate how their new skills will benefit them at work and, therefore, help the company, they are more likely to be granted study leave.
19. Adverse weather leave
Certain weather conditions make it extremely difficult, dangerous, and sometimes even impossible for employees to travel to work. Such conditions include heavy snow, hurricanes, earthquakes, or flash flooding. During these adverse conditions, many employees will need to take time off. If an employee has paid leave left to take, they will be allowed to take this time off as part of their annual leave.
In some organizations, employees are granted a maximum of 60 to 90 days of adverse weather leave but are required to make up that time at a later date. They must submit a formal letter—known as an Adverse Weather Leave Letter—requesting the leave and stating the adverse weather conditions related to their leave request.
20. Time off as a gift
Some organizations grant employees time off as a ‘gift’ in special circumstances. For example, if an employee in Japan gets married or has a baby, their organization may allow them unpaid time off, separate from their existing leave entitlement. This is not a legal requirement in Japan but a long-standing custom to show workers respect and appreciation.
Other types of leave
There are also other types of leave your company may choose to include in its leave policy, such as:
- ADA leave: Leave provided as a reasonable accommodation under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) for disabled employees.
- Domestic violence leave: Some U.S. states, like California, require employers to provide leave for employees dealing with issues related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking.
- Temporary/short-term disability leave: Leave offered to employees unable to work due to temporary medical conditions or injuries, often with partial wage replacement.
- Volunteer time off: Paid or unpaid time off to allow employees to engage in volunteer work.
- Voluntary time off: Unpaid leave taken voluntarily by employees, often to reduce payroll costs.
- Leave to appear as a witness in court: Time off granted to employees summoned to appear as witnesses in legal proceedings.
- Blood/organ donation leave: Time off for employees to donate blood, organs, or bone marrow.
Please remember that standard and required types of leave may differ from country to country and state to state.
To sum up
HR professionals and business leaders need to be aware of the different types of leave of absence available to employees in their particular region, country, and state. When creating your organization’s leave policy, consider and include all relevant types of leave. This will help your organization remain compliant and competitive.
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