PTO Accrual Calculator

Paid time off accrues under one of three common methods, and which one you use materially changes the balance an employee sees on their pay stub each period. Per-pay-period accrual divides the annual entitlement evenly across pay dates, so a biweekly employee with two weeks of PTO earns about 3.08 hours every paycheck. Per-hour-worked accrual ties the benefit to hours actually on the clock, which is the structure used for part-time employees and for state-law-compliant accrual schemes in states that require PTO to vest as labor is performed. Lump sum drops the full year's entitlement on day one, often with a carryover cap at year end.

This calculator does all three. Enter the annual PTO entitlement in hours (80 hours for two weeks, 120 for three), pick the accrual method, and fill in the pay frequency or hours-per-week depending on the method. The output shows the per-period or per-hour accrual rate and a projected balance after N pay periods elapsed since the last reset.

The hours-to-days conversion assumes an 8-hour day. For shifts of a different length, multiply the hours output by your day length instead. For unlimited-PTO policies where there is no formal accrual, this calculator is not useful; see the editorial standards for when a tool does and does not apply.

Per-pay-period accrual: rate = annual_hours / pay_periods_per_year. Weekly = 52 periods, biweekly = 26, semimonthly = 24, monthly = 12. Projected balance = rate × periods_elapsed.

Per-hour-worked accrual: rate = annual_hours / (hours_per_week × 52). For a 40-hour employee with 80 annual PTO hours, that is 80 / 2080 = 0.0385 hours of PTO earned per hour worked. Projected balance reconstructs hours-worked from (periods_elapsed × weeks_per_period × hours_per_week) and multiplies by rate.

Lump sum: the full annual_hours hits the balance on day one; periodic accrual rate is not meaningful. This method is common for exempt employees and for policies aligned with calendar-year resets. Carryover rules vary by employer and by state.

PTO accrual is not federally regulated. The Fair Labor Standards Act at 29 USC Chapter 8 does not contain any vacation or PTO provision. State rules fill the gap. California is the most consequential: earned vacation is treated as wages under Labor Code 227.3, it cannot be forfeited on termination, and "use it or lose it" policies are explicitly not recognized per the California DLSE's interpretation of the statute. Accrual caps are permitted. Other states with statutory treatment include Colorado, Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Nebraska, and New York, each with their own scope. For the authoritative rule in a given state, consult that state's labor department guidance; the methodology page lists the state sources we reference.

Use this to verify a PTO balance on a recent pay stub, to project a balance for an upcoming vacation request, or to design or compare accrual policies for a small business. For state-specific rules on PTO payout at separation, use-it-or-lose-it legality, or paid-sick-leave minimums (which are separate from vacation PTO in many states), check your state's labor department directly; we do not encode state-by-state rules in the math. Pair with the overtime calculator and withholding estimator when modeling total compensation.