PTO Payout Calculator

About this calculator

A PTO payout is the cash value of an employee’s unused, accrued paid time off — vacation days, and in some states sick leave — that’s paid out as a lump sum, most commonly when an employee leaves the company, though some employers also allow a payout for unused balances above a certain cap at year-end. It’s calculated by multiplying the number of unused PTO hours or days by the employee’s regular hourly or daily rate of pay.

Whether an employer is legally required to pay out accrued PTO at termination varies significantly by state or country — some jurisdictions treat accrued PTO as earned wages that must be paid out, while others leave it to company policy — so this figure matters both to departing employees calculating their final paycheck and to HR and payroll teams budgeting for turnover costs.