You are leaving a job with time banked, and you want to know what the final check looks like. That is two questions, and only one of them is arithmetic: what the hours are worth, and whether you are owed them at all.
Whether you are owed a payout at all
This is the part the math cannot answer. Some states treat accrued time off as earned wages that have to be paid when you leave. Others leave it entirely to your employer, and in those states a written policy saying unused time is forfeited on the way out is enforceable.
So check two things before you count on the number: your handbook, and your own state labor department. This calculator values the balance. It does not decide the entitlement.
What the hours are worth
A payout is almost always calculated at your current rate rather than the rate you earned the time at. Eighty hours banked at $30 an hour is $2,400, or ten working days of pay.
| Balance | At $20/hr | At $30/hr | At $45/hr |
|---|---|---|---|
| 40 hours (5 days) | $800 | $1,200 | $1,800 |
| 80 hours (10 days) | $1,600 | $2,400 | $3,600 |
| 120 hours (15 days) | $2,400 | $3,600 | $5,400 |
| 160 hours (20 days) | $3,200 | $4,800 | $7,200 |
A raise revalues the whole balance. Someone leaving with 120 hours who moved from $30 to $33 an hour three months earlier is owed $3,960 rather than $3,600, and none of those hours were earned at the higher rate. The same works against you: a balance is worth whatever you are paid on the day it is cashed out.
This is the gross, not what lands
A payout is supplemental pay, withheld the way a bonus is, and Social Security and Medicare come off as well. A single net figure here would be a guess wearing a number’s clothes: what is withheld depends on the method your employer picked, your state, and how much supplemental pay you have already had this year. So this page answers the question it can answer exactly.
For the other half, how much of a PTO payout you keep works through both withholding methods with the figures side by side, and covers whether your state obliges your employer to pay you out at all. The bonus tax calculator runs your own number through either method.
What to enter
- Hours you have now is the accrued balance on your last pay stub or in your HR system. Use hours rather than days, since payout is calculated in hours.
- Hourly rate is your current rate. If you are salaried, the salary to hourly calculator converts it, and your employer will use the same 2,080-hour convention.
- Hours in a working day only converts the answer into days. Eight is standard; set it to your own shift length if it differs.
If you are not leaving yet and want to know what you will have banked by then, or what a cap is quietly costing you, the PTO accrual calculator walks the year period by period.
PTO payout calculator FAQ
Multiply the unused hours on your final pay stub by your current hourly rate. Eighty hours at $30 an hour is $2,400 gross. Payout is worked out in hours, not days, and at the rate you are on when you leave rather than the rate you earned the time at.
No, it shows the gross. Withholding on a payout depends on the method your employer uses, your state and your year to date, so one blended rate here would be wrong for most people. The article linked above works through what lands.
Ten, on an eight-hour working day. Payout is always calculated in hours rather than days, so enter hours and let the calculator convert. If your shift is longer or shorter than eight hours, change the working day above.
Almost always your current rate. That means a raise shortly before you leave revalues the entire balance, including hours banked years earlier at a lower rate.