PTO Accrual Calculator

Track how your time off builds up, and how much of it a cap will quietly stop you earning.

Your time off

Where you are now

Straight off your last pay stub or your HR system. If yours is shown in days, multiply by the length of your working day.
Only affects how the answer is displayed, never the arithmetic underneath.

How it builds

Four hours every two weeks is thirteen days a year, at the top of the ten to fourteen days most American employers give a new starter.
Accrual usually lands with your pay, so this is the same frequency as your paycheck.
Spread evenly across the year here, because the calculator cannot know when you will take it. Booking it all early leaves you more headroom under a cap; booking it all late leaves you less.

Limits

Once you reach this you stop earning until you use some. This is different from a use-it-or-lose-it rule, which takes hours away on a fixed date instead.
On a salary, divide by the hours you are paid for in a year. Whether unused time is paid out at all depends on your state and your employer.
Where you end up
104 hrs
Starting balance 40 hrs
Earned over the year 104 hrs
Taken 40 hrs
Balance in a year 104 hrs
Which is
13 days

The cap

Cap You stay under it all year
Never earned, because of the cap 0 hrs
Which is 0 days

What it is worth

The balance is worth $2,600
Earned this year, in money $2,600

Estimate only, based on the inputs shown. Your actual figures may differ. Not financial, tax, or legal advice.

Generated by Payrollmath

Two questions bring people to a PTO accrual calculator: how much will I have by the time I want to take it, and how much am I about to lose. The second is the one worth being careful about, and it is the one most tools get wrong.

A cap does not take hours away

It stops you earning any more the moment you touch it. Every pay period you spend sitting at the ceiling is a period whose accrual simply never happened, and using a day frees you to start earning again.

That is a different thing from a use-it-or-lose-it rule, which takes hours off your balance on a fixed date. A cap never reduces what you have. It quietly stops adding to it.

What sitting at the ceiling actually costs

Take someone with 200 hours banked, earning 4 hours a pay period against a 240 hour cap, who takes no time off all year:

  • They were due 104 hours of accrual over the year.
  • They hit the ceiling in the spring and earn only 40 of them.
  • 64 hours, eight full days, are never earned at all. At $25 an hour that is $1,600 of compensation that never existed.

Here is the part that feels backwards. Give that same person 80 hours of vacation across the year and they lose nothing. They stay below the ceiling, earn the full 104 hours, and still finish with 224 banked. Taking time off is what lets you keep earning it.

Why this calculator walks the year period by period

The shortcut is to add a year of accrual to your balance and trim the total to the cap. It is close, and it is wrong in your favor, which is the worst direction for an error like this to run.

On that same 200 hour balance with five days booked, the shortcut says you lose 24 hours. Walking the year properly says 25.5, because you sit at the ceiling for a stretch before your leave brings you back under it. Payroll does the second one. So does this page.

When you take it changes the answer

The calculator spreads your planned time off evenly across the year, because it cannot know when you will actually take it. If you are anywhere near a cap, that assumption matters: booking a week in February leaves you headroom for the rest of the year, and booking the same week in November does not.

So if you are close to the ceiling, treat the result as a guide and book earlier rather than later. Front-loading your leave is worth real hours.

What to enter

  • Hours you have now comes straight off your last pay stub or your HR system.
  • Earned each pay period is usually on the same pay stub. Four hours every two weeks is thirteen days a year, close to the American average for a new starter.
  • Maximum balance is your employer’s ceiling. If you do not have one, set it high and ignore the cap results.

Whether unused time is paid out when you leave depends on your state and your employer, which is also why caps exist: they limit what the employer may one day owe you. Your hourly rate above values the balance so you can see what is at stake.

For what that time off is worth as part of your overall package, the salary to hourly calculator puts a figure on your paid days, and the hourly paycheck calculator covers what a paid-out balance would look like after tax.

PTO accrual calculator FAQ

How do I calculate PTO accrual?

Multiply what you earn each pay period by the number of periods in a year, then add your current balance and subtract what you plan to take. Four hours every two weeks is 104 hours, or thirteen days, across 26 pay periods.

What happens when I hit my PTO cap?

You stop accruing. The hours you already have are safe, but every pay period you spend at the ceiling earns you nothing, and that accrual is gone for good. Using some time off drops you below the cap and starts the accrual again.

Is an accrual cap the same as use it or lose it?

No. A use-it-or-lose-it policy removes hours from your balance on a set date. An accrual cap never reduces your balance; it just stops you earning more once you reach the ceiling. Some states restrict one and permit the other.

How many days is 4 hours per pay period?

104 hours a year if you are paid every two weeks, which is thirteen days on an eight hour day. Paid weekly at the same rate it would be 208 hours, so check how many pay periods your year has before comparing offers.

Do I get paid for unused PTO when I leave?

It depends on your state and your employer's policy. Some states treat accrued time off as earned wages that must be paid out; others leave it to the employer. Enter your hourly rate above to see what your balance would be worth if yours does.

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