🌴 PTO Accrual Calculator
Track the paid time off you have earned — by hours worked, by pay period, or from an annual grant — and project your balance against any cap. It also turns a days-per-year grant into a per-hour accrual rate.
🌴 PTO accrued & projected
📆 Days grant → hourly rate
Assumes 8-hour days over a 40-hour, 52-week year. PTO policies vary by employer — treat these as estimates and confirm against your official policy.
Know exactly where your time off stands
PTO is part of your compensation, but it is easy to lose track of — especially when it accrues a fraction of an hour at a time or bumps up against a cap you forget exists. Projecting your balance helps you plan a trip, avoid leaving hours on the table at year-end, and value time off when you compare job offers.
The days-to-hourly converter is handy for translating a “15 days a year” policy into the tiny per-hour rate your payroll system actually uses. Pair it with the Job Offer Comparison Calculator to weigh generous PTO against salary.
❓ Frequently Asked Questions
How does PTO accrual work?
Most employers grant paid time off in one of three ways. Per hour worked: you earn a small amount of PTO for every hour on the clock (accrued = rate × hours worked). Per pay period: a fixed number of hours lands each payday (accrued = rate × pay periods). Annual grant: your whole year's PTO is handed over at once. The calculator adds the accrued hours to your current balance to project a new total.
How do I convert an annual PTO grant in days into an hourly rate?
Multiply the days by hours per day to get annual PTO hours, then divide by the hours you work in a year: rate = (days × hours per day) ÷ (hours per week × weeks per year). Fifteen days at 8 hours over a 40-hour, 52-week year is 120 ÷ 2,080 ≈ 0.0577 hours of PTO per hour worked — the number many payroll systems use behind the scenes.
What is a PTO cap and how does it affect my balance?
A cap (or accrual maximum) is the most PTO you can bank at once. When your projected balance would exceed it, accrual stops until you use some time off, so hours above the cap are simply lost. Enter your cap and the calculator flags when you have hit it, so you can plan to take time before you stop earning.
Will this match my employer's records exactly?
Not necessarily. Accrual rates, caps, rounding, waiting periods, and carryover rules differ by employer and by state. This is an estimate for planning your time off — treat it as a guide and confirm the exact numbers against your official PTO policy or HR. It is not legal or financial advice.