More than half of private industry workers in the US still have no access to paid family and medical leave (PFML) through their employer. The Bureau of Labor Statistics' National Compensation Survey (NCS) puts the figure at 49% of private industry workers with PFML access in March 2026. Only 45% had access to both sick leave and paid family and medical leave simultaneously.
That gap sits against a compliance landscape that has moved faster than employer adoption. Twelve states and the District of Columbia now have mandatory PFML programs, with Delaware, Minnesota and Maine all launching benefits in 2026. Virginia enacted its own program in April 2026, becoming the first Southern state to do so, with contributions starting in 2028 and benefits beginning that December.
Employers in those states must either participate in the state-administered program or maintain an approved private plan. The rules differ by jurisdiction, and a single remote hire in a mandate state can trigger payroll contribution obligations even if the employer is headquartered elsewhere.
The NCS data makes the scale of the access gap concrete. Among private industry workers, 81% had access to paid sick leave in March 2026, against 49% with PFML access. That 32-point difference between the two most commonly linked leave types is a specific deficiency in a benefits package, not a general one.
Medical care access was 71% for private industry workers. Of those with access, 65% enrolled, a participation rate that has held relatively stable and points to voluntary enrollment decisions rather than plan design failures. The employer share of single-coverage medical premiums averaged 80% in private industry, with a flat monthly employer contribution of $633.77.
For family coverage, employers paid 69% of premiums and employees carried 31%. That cost split becomes a concrete variable when clients on ACA marketplace plans compare the rising cost pressures on group medical plans against what group coverage actually costs them.
The least-accessed benefit in the NCS data is student loan repayment assistance, available to just 8% of private industry workers. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act, enacted July 4, 2025, made the section 127 employer student loan assistance exclusion permanent and begins indexing the $5,250 annual tax-free limit for inflation in 2027. That legislative change reduces the cost of offering the benefit, though the access figure has not yet moved materially.
Access to employee assistance programs stood at 60% among private industry workers, wellness programs at 48%, and financial planning benefits at 28%. Each represents a potential conversation with an employer whose package does not yet reach those levels.
The NCS data shows a pattern of concentration: medical and retirement access are near-universal for large employers, while leave, supplemental financial benefits and loan assistance remain unevenly distributed. State mandates are narrowing that distribution from the bottom up, but only for the leave category, and only in the jurisdictions where programs are active. The rest of the gap remains a voluntary employer decision.
