Time Tracking
18 Attendance Policy Benchmarks for 2025 from BLS, SHRM, and Gallup
Full-time U.S. employees lose 3.1% of scheduled workdays to absence each year (BLS, 2023), 16% of workers report being late at least once per week (CareerBuilder, 2019), and manual time collection produces a 1-8% payroll error rate (American Payroll Association, 2024). This catalog presents 18 sourced attendance and punctuality benchmarks organized across four categories so you can set thresholds, calibrate points systems, and build the business case for automated time capture with real numbers instead of guesswork.
Headline Numbers
Absenteeism averages 3.1% of scheduled workdays nationally
Private-sector employers run at 2.9% while government employers hit 3.8%, per BLS 2023 data. Organizations above 3.5% typically face elevated overtime costs.
16% of U.S. employees are late at least once per week
Hourly workers report tardiness at higher rates (21%) than salaried workers (11%), per CareerBuilder 2019. Written tardiness policies cut the gap significantly.