Paid time off
PTO accrual calculator
An offer letter says days a year, the payslip says hours a period, the handbook says hours per hour worked — three currencies for one policy. Enter it in whichever you have, and see your balance today, at year end, and where a cap would stop it.
The policy
Where you are in the year
Out of 26.
Hours you brought into the year.
The most the handbook lets you hold, in hours.
Your balance now
60.0 hours
7.5 days at 8 hours a day
- Accrued so far
- 60.00 h
- Year-end, if you take nothing more
- 120.0 h · 15.0 d
The same policy, in every unit
- Per year
- 120.0 h · 15.0 d
- Per pay period (26/yr)
- 4.615 h
- Per hour worked
- 0.0577 h
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One policy, three numbers
Why 15 days, 4.615 hours and 0.0577 are the same thing
Every conversion runs through hours a year. 15 days at 8 hours is 120 hours. Granted every two weeks that is 120 ÷ 26 = 4.615 hours a pay period; earned per hour worked it is 120 ÷ 2,080 = 0.0577 hours for each hour on the clock. None of the three is more correct than the others, but only the first is easy to compare across job offers, which is why the calculator prints all three.
| Policy | Hours a year | Biweekly | Semi-monthly | Per hour worked |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 10 days | 80 | 3.08 h | 3.33 h | 0.0385 h |
| 15 days | 120 | 4.62 h | 5.00 h | 0.0577 h |
| 20 days | 160 | 6.15 h | 6.67 h | 0.0769 h |
| 25 days | 200 | 7.69 h | 8.33 h | 0.0962 h |
The 2,080 is payroll’s year — 40 hours by 52 weeks — and the per-hour figure is only as accurate as it. A 37.5-hour contract is a 1,950-hour year and a slightly higher rate; the calculator lets you change it.
Caps, carryover and the calendar
The three clauses that change the answer
A cap freezes accrual at a ceiling: reach it and you earn nothing until you take time off and fall below it. The calculator reports the hours a cap has already cost you and the pay periods left before it does. A cap set at one year’s accrual is common; one set below it means you cannot bank a long holiday without losing time along the way.
Carryover is what you bring into the year, and it counts toward the cap from day one. Use-it-or-lose-it is the opposite of carryover — a balance wiped at year end — and whether an employer may impose it at all is a matter of state law. That, and whether unused hours are paid out when you leave, are the two questions this calculator cannot answer for you: they belong to your handbook and your state’s labor department.
Questions
- How is PTO accrual calculated?
- Take the year’s allowance in hours and divide it by however often it is granted. Fifteen days at eight hours is 120 hours; paid every two weeks that is 120 ÷ 26 = 4.615 hours a pay period, and as an hourly rate it is 120 ÷ 2,080 = 0.0577 hours for every hour worked. Multiply the rate by the periods or hours so far, add anything carried over, subtract what you have taken, and stop at the cap if there is one.
- What is the PTO accrual rate per hour worked?
- The year’s hours divided by the hours in a full-time year — payroll’s convention is 2,080, which is 40 hours a week for 52 weeks. Eighty hours of PTO a year is 80 ÷ 2,080 = 0.0385 hours per hour worked; 120 hours is 0.0577; 160 hours is 0.0769. If your contract is 37.5 hours a week the divisor is 1,950 and the rate is a little higher.
- How much PTO do I accrue per pay period?
- Annual hours divided by pay periods: 26 for biweekly, 24 for semi-monthly, 12 for monthly, 52 for weekly. Eighty hours a year is 3.08 hours every two weeks or 3.33 twice a month — a different figure for the same policy, which is why comparing offers by the per-period number alone misleads.
- What does a PTO cap do?
- It stops accrual once your balance reaches the ceiling, and you earn nothing more until you take time off and drop below it again. The calculator shows the hours a cap has cost you so far and how many pay periods you have before it bites. A cap is different from use-it-or-lose-it, which wipes a balance at year end rather than freezing it.
- Is unused PTO paid out when you leave?
- That depends on your state and your employer’s written policy, and the rules differ enough that no single answer is safe. Some states treat accrued vacation as earned wages that must be paid out; others leave it to the policy; a few forbid use-it-or-lose-it forfeiture altogether. This calculator gives you the balance; the handbook and your state’s labor department tell you what it is worth on your last day.
- Why do accrual-per-hour and accrual-per-period give different balances?
- Because they count different things. A fixed amount per pay period lands whether you worked 30 hours or 50; a per-hour rate follows your actual hours, so a short week accrues less and overtime may or may not count depending on the policy. Over a standard full-time year they converge on the same total, but at any point mid-year they can differ.
Arithmetic only — no tax table and no statute is applied here. Payout and forfeiture rules are state law and are not modelled. Not legal or HR advice.