PTO accrual calculator

Guidance, not legal advice. Federal law does not require paid vacation. States treat unused vacation differently, and your written policy matters. Florida and Texas generally follow the policy. California generally treats vested vacation as wages. New York generally requires payout of earned vacation unless a written forfeit policy was shared. Read the state pages and the sources on them. Nothing you type here is uploaded.

What this is for

Owners usually need one of three numbers: how much a person earns each paycheck, what a year of that policy adds up to, and whether a cap would stop the balance from growing. The table is that math, and nothing else.

• Annual, spread out. 80 hours and 26 biweekly checks is 80 ÷ 26 hours each check. A calendar year sometimes has a 27th biweekly payday. This model uses the schedule you pick.
• Per hour worked. Useful when hours swing. The "per year" line assumes every pay period has the hours you typed.
• Front-loaded. The whole grant lands at once. Later periods add nothing unless you switch methods. Uncheck the box if the current balance already includes the grant.
• Caps. Once the balance hits the cap, later rows add zero until someone would have used time. This model does not subtract usage, and it does not claw hours back if the balance is already over the cap.

What this does not decide

• Whether you must offer PTO at all. Many states, including Florida, don't require vacation.
• Whether unused time is paid at termination. See Florida, California, Texas, and New York.
• Waiting periods, tenure tiers, part-time schedules, or "use it or lose it." Those belong in the handbook, and some states restrict them.

If the policy is silent, write it down and apply it the same way every time. A handbook question is a Handbook in 10 Days conversation. A single "do we have to pay this out?" question is a Quick Answer.