Employer-policy PTO calculator (United States)
Work out how much PTO you have accrued and what is left, using your employer's own policy. US employees can absolutely have paid leave — it comes from an employer's policy rather than a federal minimum, so every figure here is based on the policy you enter.
United States. There is no federal statutory paid vacation. Paid time off comes from your employer's policy, so these tools work from the policy you enter. Rules checked 15 September 2026.
There is no federal PTO entitlement
The Fair Labor Standards Act does not require payment for time not worked, including vacation. The US Department of Labor states plainly that paid vacation is a matter of agreement between an employer and an employee. So this is arithmetic on your policy, not a statement of what you are legally entitled to.
State and local law can still matter — several states treat accrued vacation as earned wages that must be paid out when employment ends, some restrict “use it or lose it” policies, and separate paid-sick-leave laws exist in many places. Those rules decide what happens to a balance; they do not usually change how the balance is counted. We do not ask you to pick a state, because a state picker that changes nothing would only imply a legal check this tool does not perform.
The three common policy methods
- Granted up front
- The whole year's allowance appears on day one of the policy year. 80 hours granted, 16 used, leaves 64 hours.
- Earned each pay period
- 4.62 hours per biweekly period × 13 completed periods = 60.06 hours accrued. Add an 8 hour carryover and subtract 16 hours used, and 52.06 hours remain.
- Earned per hour worked
- 0.0385 hours of PTO per eligible hour worked × 900 hours = 34.65 hours accrued. Common for hourly and part-time staff.
Pay schedules are not interchangeable
Biweekly means every two weeks, so most years hold 26 accrual events but some hold 27. Semi-monthly means twice a month, which is always exactly 24. Weekly is 52 and monthly is 12. Because of that, the calculator asks how many periods have actually passed rather than guessing from the date — enter the pay dates that have already happened.
A carryover balance and this year's accrual are counted separately so they are never added twice. If your policy grants the full year up front, the carryover field is the only balance you should add to it.
Unlimited PTO
Under a genuinely unlimited or discretionary policy nothing accrues, so there is no numeric balance to show and usually nothing to pay out when you leave. Choosing that option returns an explanation rather than a number.
Limits of this tool
- It follows the policy you enter. It does not verify that the policy complies with state or local law.
- The optional dollar figure is your balance multiplied by the rate you enter, before tax. It is not a statement that the money is owed to you.
- Statutory sick leave, FMLA and termination-payout rules are out of scope for this first version.
- Government-contract rules such as Executive Order 13706 and Service Contract Act fringe benefits are not modelled.
- Caps and carryover are applied exactly as you enter them; accrual caps that stop accrual mid-year are not modelled separately.
Official sources
Rules checked 15 September 2026. General information, not legal advice.