The City Over the Past Decade Doubled Extra Paid Time Off Awarded to “Exceptional” Nonunion Employees

The city of Portland in the past decade doubled the bonus vacation hours it awards to employees not represented by unions, many of them supervisors and managers.

That’s the upshot of five years of data WW obtained through a public records request. It shows how many city employees received up to two weeks of additional paid time off each year through what’s called management leave. The leave is intended to reward nonunion employees—about one-fifth of the city’s total workforce—for outstanding performance.

The city’s administrative rules for the leave make it clear it’s supposed to be a reward based on merit. “The intent of management leave is to recognize exceptional additional individual efforts, performance and achievements, including but not limited to beyond the standard workweek,”