How much paid time off and sick leave do Walmart employees receive compared to Lidl and Aldi?

1. What claim are we checking and why it matters — employees’ time-off totals and sick leave differences

The central claim asks how much paid time off and sick leave Walmart employees receive compared to Lidl and ALDI. This requests a cross-company, apples-to-apples comparison, which the available documents do not fully provide because each retailer publishes leave in different formats and with varying eligibility windows. Walmart’s internal PPTO documentation outlines accrual mechanics and carryover rules for hourly associates but does not summarize a fixed “days per year” schedule across roles or locations ^[1]. Lidl’s materials present multiple figures for annual leave and sick time across regions and roles, with some pages stating up to 34 days including bank holidays and others citing 15–25 days plus statutory entitlements and sick allowances ^{[2] [5] [3]}. ALDI’s public FAQs and benefits pages emphasize generous vacation and leave for roles but often frame specifics as role-dependent and tied to tenure, rather than a single uniform number ^{[6] [4]}.

2. Reading Walmart’s playbook: PPTO mechanics and what’s actually guaranteed

Walmart’s internal PPTO FAQ lays out that hourly field and corporate associates accrue two buckets — regular PTO and Protected PTO — with PPTO usable for unexpected or planned absences when regular PTO isn’t available; associates may carry over up to 80 combined hours into the next plan year, and unused time is paid out at year-end ^[1]. That structure prioritizes accrual-by-hours and a safety net PPTO balance rather than a flat “X days per year” promise. The documentation does not list a flat number of sick days available to all associates, nor does it state uniform companywide sick-day counts, making direct comparisons to companies that report fixed-day benefits inherently difficult ^[1].

3. Lidl’s profile: more explicit day counts and a broader package in some listings

Lidl’s career pages and benefit summaries present explicit figures in several places — including statements of up to 34 days annual leave (including bank holidays) and listings of 20 days paid sick leave on some pages — and other entries stating 15–25 days plus statutory entitlements, reflecting variation by country or role ^{[2] [5] [3]}. Those figures indicate a more clearly stated annual-leave offering on Lidl’s materials versus Walmart’s accrual-based PPTO explanation. Lidl also lists supplemental leave top-ups for parental, compassionate, and marriage leave and highlights pensions and wellbeing benefits, which broadens the total leave-and-benefits picture beyond simple sick-day counts ^[2].

4. ALDI’s approach: role-dependent leave with prominent parental and caregiver benefits

ALDI’s FAQs and benefits pages emphasize flexible schedules, seven paid holidays, vacation accrual that can yield one to two weeks of vacation depending on tenure, and strong parental and caregiver leave packages — up to six weeks paid parental leave and up to ten days of caregiver leave ^{[6] [4] [7]}. ALDI tends to present leave as variable by role (store, warehouse, office) and tenure, and does not publish a single standardized sick-day number across all employees, making its offering comparable in generosity for some leave types (parental/caregiver) but less directly comparable for basic sick-day totals ^[4].

5. Side-by-side reality: why direct numeric comparisons are unreliable without more detail

Comparing Walmart, Lidl, and ALDI by raw day counts is misleading without aligning definitions for “paid time off” and “sick leave,” clarifying whether bank/public holidays are included, and disaggregating by role, tenure, and country. Walmart’s PPTO is an accrual-and-protection construct rather than a uniform days-per-year promise, Lidl often lists fixed annual-leave and sick-day numbers depending on locale, and ALDI emphasizes role- and tenure-dependent vacation plus robust parental leave, so headline figures will vary by context ^{[1] [2] [4]}. Any authoritative ranking requires company confirmations of role-specific allowances, which existing materials do not uniformly provide.

6. Bottom line: what we can confidently say and what remains unresolved

Confidently: Walmart uses an accrual-based PPTO system with carryover limits and payout policies rather than a single flat-day guarantee; Lidl’s published materials show higher or clearer stated annual leave and specified sick-day figures in some listings; ALDI markets flexible vacation accrual and notable parental/caregiver leave but provides fewer uniform sick-day totals ^{[1] [2] [4]}. Unresolved: an exact apples-to-apples number for paid time off and sick leave for comparable roles across the three retailers. To settle that definitively would require company-specific, role-and-location-level benefit tables or direct employer confirmations.