PTO Accrual Calculator

PTO accrual, in one line.

At 15 days (120 hours) of PTO per year on a biweekly schedule, you accrue about 4.62 hours per pay period, or 0.0577 hours per hour worked. That's 5 working days per third of a year.

To calculate PTO accrual: convert your annual PTO into hours, divide by the unit your policy uses (annual work hours, pay periods per year, or just leave it as the annual lump sum), then multiply by the units elapsed. Subtract any PTO you've already used and clamp to your policy cap.

How to calculate PTO accrual.

Three steps. The only inputs that matter are your annual PTO, your work schedule, and how far through the year you are.

The formula behind the calculator.

Each accrual method reduces to one tiny equation. Once you have the per-unit rate, the rest is just multiplication.

• Per hour worked: rate = annual PTO hours ÷ annual work hours. Default annual work hours is 40 × 52 = 2,080.
• Per pay period: rate = annual PTO hours ÷ pay periods per year (52 weekly, 26 biweekly, 24 semi-monthly, 12 monthly).
• Annual lump sum: rate = annual PTO hours, granted up-front at the start of the year (often pro-rated by start date).
• Accrued so far: rate × units elapsed (hours worked or pay periods elapsed). Clamp to the cap if your policy has one.
• Balance: accrued − used. Negative balances mean you've taken more PTO than you've earned.

If your PTO is expressed in days, convert with your real hours-per-workday — most US employers use 8 hours, but 7.5- and 10-hour workdays are common. The calculator converts under the hood and shows both hours and days side by side.

Common annual PTO → per-pay-period rates.

Quick reference for the typical US allotments. Numbers below assume 8-hour workdays.

Accrual vs lump sum, caps, and use-it-or-lose-it.

PTO policies vary more than you'd think. Four patterns cover almost every US employer.

• Accrual: you earn PTO incrementally — per hour worked, per pay period, or per month. Most large US employers use this model because it pro-rates new hires and partial years automatically.
• Lump sum: the full annual allotment lands on day one of the policy year. Common for salaried roles. Often pro-rated by start date in the first year.
• Caps: many policies cap your maximum balance (e.g. 1.5× annual allotment). When you hit the cap, you stop accruing until you take time off. Use the cap field above to model it.
• Rollover vs use-it-or-lose-it: some policies roll unused PTO into next year (sometimes with a cap), others reset to zero on the policy anniversary. Several states (California, Montana, Nebraska) treat accrued PTO as earned wages — check local law.

Worked examples you can copy.

Three common scenarios, fully worked. Plug the same inputs into the tool above to verify.

1. 15 days PTO, biweekly accrual, halfway through the year

15 × 8 = 120 hours per year ÷ 26 biweekly pay periods = 4.62 hours per pay period. At pay period 13 (≈ halfway), you've accrued 4.62 × 13 = 60.06 hours, or about 7.5 days.

2. 80 hours PTO, accrued per hour worked, after 1,000 hours

80 ÷ 2,080 = 0.0385 hours per hour worked. After 1,000 hours on the clock, you've accrued 0.0385 × 1,000 = 38.46 hours, roughly 4.8 days.

3. 20 days PTO with a 240-hour cap, 18 pay periods in, 64 hours used

20 × 8 = 160 hours per year ÷ 26 = 6.15 hours per biweekly pay period. 6.15 × 18 = 110.77 hours accrued (under the cap, so no clamp). 110.77 − 64 used = 46.77 hours available, about 5.8 days.

PTO accrual — FAQ.

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