Quality of Employment in Canada
Paid leave entitlement, 2024

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In 2024, just under three quarters (72.9%) of employees in Canada reported that they were entitled to paid vacation leave. Permanent employees had a notably higher rate of paid leave entitlement than non-permanent employees, as did employees with job tenure of one year or more compared with employees with job tenure of less than 12 months.

Access to paid vacation leave is an important consideration for quality of employment and is associated with greater job satisfaction and well-being.^Note  In the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) quality of employment framework, the paid leave entitlement indicator refers to the percentage of employees entitled to paid vacation leave in their main job.

Canada has employment standards on paid vacation leave for federally, provincially, and territorially regulated industries and workplaces.^Note  In most jurisdictions, employees who have been with their employer for less than 12 months are not guaranteed paid vacation leave.^Note  While employers are required to treat non-permanent employees the same way as permanent employees, many non-permanent employees are not entitled to vacation leave due to the short duration of their contract. Employers in specific industries are also exempt from having to provide paid vacation leave to certain categories of employees, regardless of tenure.^Note 

Data and analyses for this indicator are based on the Labour Force Survey (LFS). Unless otherwise specified, the estimates are annual averages for paid employees aged 15 and older.

Recent trends

The proportion of employees with access to paid vacation leave has risen slightly since 2021. In 2021, 70.3% of employees had paid leave entitlement. This proportion increased to 71.0% in 2022, 72.4% in 2023, and 72.9% in 2024.

A recent snapshot

Permanent employees and employees with job tenure of at least one year were more likely to have access to paid vacation leave

In 2024, over three-quarters (78.0%) of permanent employees had access to paid vacation leave, compared to under one-third (32.0%) of non-permanent employees. Among non-permanent employees, those with a seasonal job (20.8%) or a casual job (15.1%) were less likely to have paid leave entitlement than those with a temporary, term, or contract job (43.5%).

In line with Canadian employment standards, employees with job tenure of under one year were less likely to have paid leave entitlement. Less than half (49.3%) of employees with a tenure of less than one year had access to vacation leave in their job, 23.6 percentage points lower than the national average (72.9%).

Employees in management occupations and in natural and applied sciences had the highest rates of paid leave entitlement

In 2024, employees in management occupations had the highest rate of paid leave entitlement, followed closely by those in natural and applied sciences. Over 9 in 10 (92.2%) employees in management occupations had access to paid vacation leave, a proportion markedly higher than the national average (72.9%). Similarly, 90.3% of employees in natural and applied sciences had paid leave entitlement. Employees in business, finance, and administration (82.2%), manufacturing and utilities (82.0%), and health occupations (77.5%), also had above-average rates of leave entitlement.

In contrast, just over half of employees in natural resources and agriculture (51.5%), art, culture, recreation and sport (53.3%), and sales and service occupations (54.1%) had access to paid vacation leave in 2024. Rates of entitlement to paid vacation leave for these occupations were notably lower than the overall average.

Overall, employees in jobs that typically require more education or experience had higher rates of access to paid vacation. Notably, more than 4 in 5 employees (83.6%) in professional occupations that usually require at least a bachelor’s degree (TEER 1)^Note  had paid leave entitlement.

Employees in Quebec have the highest rate of paid leave entitlement

In 2024, Quebec (79.0%) had the highest rate of paid leave entitlement among employees, whereas Prince Edward Island (66.5%) had the lowest rate. The proportion of employees with access to paid vacation leave was slightly lower than the national average in Alberta (69.1%), Newfoundland and Labrador (69.7%), Nova Scotia (70.1%), Ontario (70.8%), and New Brunswick (71.0%).

Public sector employees more likely to have paid vacation leave, reflecting in part their higher unionization rate

Being employed in the public sector was associated with a higher probability of having paid vacation leave. In 2024, more than 8 in 10 (81.7%) public sector employees had access to paid vacation leave, compared to 7 in 10 (70.0%) private sector employees. This may partly reflect public sector employees’ higher unionization rate, since collective bargaining agreements can provide additional provisions for paid leave beyond employment standards legislation. Indeed, just over three-quarters (76.6%) of public sector employees were unionized, relative to 15.0% of private sector employees.

Public sector employees who were covered by a collective agreement were 16.8 percentage points more likely to be entitled to paid leave than private sector employees who were not unionized (84.8% vs. 68.0%). The proportion of unionized employees in the private sector who had access to paid vacation leave (81.2%) was slightly lower than the rate observed among their public sector counterparts (84.8%).

West Asian employees less likely to have access to paid vacation leave than non-racialized, non-Indigenous employees

Racialized employees may experience inequities with respect to some aspects of quality of employment. Notably, as part of their transition from the education system to the labour market, workers in several racialized groups are less likely to find jobs with comparable pay and benefits to the jobs of non-racialized and non-Indigenous employees.^Note  Further, most racialized groups are less unionized,^Note  a factor associated with lower rates of paid leave entitlement.

In 2024, West Asian (66.1%), Black (69.1%), South Asian (69.3%), Arab (70.3%), and Southeast Asian (71.0%) employees all had lower rates of paid leave entitlement than non-racialized and non-Indigenous employees (74.0%).

For West Asian employees, additional contributing factors include their higher likelihood of having a non-permanent job (18.5% vs. 10.2%) and their higher probability of having job tenure of less than 12 months (26.6% vs. 15.4%) compared with non-racialized, non-Indigenous employees.

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