Most U.S. Companies Offer Three to Five Days of Paid Bereavement Leave

In March 2019 Diana Wisdom’s teenage son Bryce texted that he had blood in his urine. He was diagnosed with a rare form of kidney cancer, underwent removal of his right kidney, and began 16 months of chemotherapy, radiation, and medical appointments. Wisdom continued working as a commercial underwriter while managing his care.

Bryce’s cancer entered remission and then returned and spread. He told his mother “I’ve gotta go mom” before dying at age 17. Wisdom left that job after his death. In 2024 her husband of 27 years developed kidney failure and complications from high blood pressure.

He was hospitalized, placed on life support, and died. Wisdom received three paid days of bereavement leave. She joined Liberty Mutual one year before the article’s publication. On her son’s birthday she took the day off and notified her team.

When her mother died the company provided five days of leave and her manager encouraged additional time if needed. Rebecca Feinglos was a senior policy adviser in North Carolina in March 2020. On a Saturday that month she was called to help declare a lockdown of the state’s schools.

Hours later she learned her father had died suddenly. North Carolina offered no paid bereavement leave, so she used three weeks of vacation. She later developed shingles, divorced, founded Grieve Leave, and became a certified grief support specialist.

Pamela Buchanan’s 80-year-old father underwent spinal surgery in 2019. While she worked scheduled 24-hour emergency-room shifts, her brother called to report their father’s death. She obtained coverage for one shift to attend the funeral, then left that position.