How many PTO days do you get a year?

68 Comments

1. AnonymousOctober 19,2023 at 4:05PM UTC

   your PTO policy is very generous esp since you got it after only working 90 days.

2. AnonymousOctober 19,2023 at 4:22PM UTC

   10 PTO days, 6 paid holidays, and 5 days sick time. It's pitiful - but is the standard in my industry (engineering). I'm thinking of taking four weeks unpaid next summer, like FMLA or something, so I can travel and spend time with family.

3. AnonymousOctober 19,2023 at 4:40PM UTC

   This isn't how FMLA works unfortunately. Perhaps you can negotiate unpaid time off or even a short sabbatical.

4. AnonymousOctober 19,2023 at 4:43PM UTC

   I work in automotive - starting off we get 17 days (vacation and sick) plus 13-14 paid holidays. We can also buy vacation days. Once you've been in the company 7 years, you get bumped to 22 days. They are trying to be competitive here.

   I'd be interested to hear how it works from anyone with "unlimited vacation" policy.

5. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 5:34AM UTC

   My husband works for a very well known culinary contract management company that caters to sports venues. He has “unlimited” PTO. He is so busy that he is lucky if he takes a week off. Unlimited PTO is good in theory, but not if your work environment is too busy to actually take time off!

6. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 5:38AM UTC

   To add to my comment, we are both at the pinnacle of our careers, making very good money having both worked very hard to get to where we are. I now have 3 weeks vacation, every bank holiday off, and sick time as needed (I am salaried and remote in sales - I cover a very large territory). However, now that we actually can afford to go on some of our “bucket list” trips - we are both too busy to actually go anywhere. So… kinda silly, right??!’

7. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 12:12PM UTC

   I fell victim to this also - get so busy being successful so to speak you forget to live. Been trying to make up for that.... just realizing life is short, kids grow up fast, and there is more to life than work! I hope you make time to enjoy.... set those boundaries and take the time off you have earned!

8. AnonymousOctober 19,2023 at 4:44PM UTC

   That is a lot of time off! That is almost 7 weeks. I am not sure how much more time off you want/need.

9. AnonymousOctober 19,2023 at 4:54PM UTC

   I am an HRM in a corporate office for a manufacturing company. Typically, new hires are granted 3 or 4 weeks. Can carry over up to 5 to the following year. Salaried employees don't have a sick time bank; however, unless it's more than a week, we don't count time off for illness (if it is beyond a week, then medical leave/short term disability). 14 paid holidays.

10. AnonymousOctober 19,2023 at 4:55PM UTC

    Also, vacation time is immediately available (prorated for start date).

11. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 8:47AM UTC

    Sounds like a good deal. Especially the part that salaried employees don’t get deducted pay or time off for short term illnesses

12. AnonymousOctober 19,2023 at 4:55PM UTC

    Mid-management, been at current company 2 years. Have 11 paid holidays and 25 PTO days and what they call 2 personal days to accommodate routine appointments like doctors and dentists

13. Ida WollOctober 19,2023 at 4:58PM UTC

    This sounds like a decent amount of time off, but if you want or need more perhaps try negotiating for it? One of my employees chose more PTO over a larger pay increase, for example. Not everything is cookie cutter.

14. Sandy BuckleyOctober 19,2023 at 5:27PM UTC

    Last job started with 2 weeks; increased every few years until I had “earned” 6 weeks combined.
    Right before I hit 8 weeks, company switched to “untracked” time off, which some call “unlimited”.
    That policy leaves time off up to each person’s manager, which can be tricky. Some are trusting and generous, some are not. Opens potential for unfair treatment, IMO. That being said, I believe 4 weeks should be the bare minimum anyone should be guaranteed. After 20 years of professional experience, it really stung to start over at 2 weeks just for switching employers. Most people change jobs every few years now, so policies need to keep pace!

15. AnonymousOctober 19,2023 at 6:20PM UTC

    Unlimited. and yes that's exactly what it means. If I can do my job I am not questioned.

16. Terrie McWhorterOctober 19,2023 at 6:25PM UTC

    In the government health care....first year of employment is 104 hours of sick and 104 hours of annual which basically works out to 13 days EACH of sick or annual. That increases after 3 years of employment to 20 days EACH then at 15 years it is 26 days both sick and annual. I hope that helps answer your question.

17. Paulla Fetzek, MSEdOctober 19,2023 at 6:53PM UTC

    Hello!

    My company currently has a Flex Time Off program. FTO allows anyone to take whatever time off they want, as long as their work is done or someone else can cover for them. the only exception is we're not allowed to take time off during certain periods in the Fall and Spring as we have multiple conventions we often have to attend.

    FTO is great for those people who haven't been with the company long. However, for people like me - this is my 20th year - its horrible. I used to get 5 weeks vacation as of 15 years. Only 1 year (my 16th) did I ever take that much time. Otherwise, I barely take 2 weeks.

    Yes, much of this is my fault I'll admit (I mean, I can ask for whatever I want) - but without firm vacation time established, some people (like me) don't even realize how little time we're taking off.

18. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 1:39PM UTC

    My previous company switched to FTO this year and you are correct that it's really only good for new employees. However we were told that that we should still take at least the same amount as we had before. You should definitely try to take more, this is why companies do this because they know employees won't take as much.

19. Wendy CurtisOctober 19,2023 at 7:00PM UTC

    I get 15 vacation days, 10 paid holidays and 12 sick days per year.

20. Huong Nguyen-ValleOctober 19,2023 at 10:38PM UTC

    I have unlimited PTO and can take it when I need it for anything as long as I finish my work. With this kind of policy, companies do not have to pay out when you leave.

21. AnonymousOctober 19,2023 at 10:59PM UTC

    25 PTO days, no sick leave.

22. Becky O'NeilOctober 20,2023 at 12:59AM UTC

    None for me! I hardly get a day off

23. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 2:04AM UTC

    If you don’t mind me asking, where do you work

24. Becky O'NeilOctober 20,2023 at 2:29AM UTC

    A live in caregiver for someone

25. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 10:56AM UTC

    25 vacation days (everyone gets at least 15, but I've been there over 10 years), 13 holidays, birthday, 6 earned paid leave days - 45 total. I'm at a small insurance agency.

26. Crystal HowellOctober 20,2023 at 11:32AM UTC

    I receive 176 hours it includes sick, pto , and vacation.

    I work for a bank as a commercial, residential, business mortgage banker.

27. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 12:16PM UTC

    I have noticed for new employees in certain industries, the first few years is 2 wks and 10 sick days. to get to 4 weeks vacation you will need to stay several years.

28. Melissa DawnOctober 20,2023 at 12:38PM UTC

    First year - 6 holidays, 5 days PTO, no sick.

    Increases (1 week) every year until you hit 20 PTO days, Everything else remains the same.

    Starting a job w 5 weeks PTO is more then I have ever had.

29. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 12:41PM UTC

    18 days.

30. Ruth SathreOctober 20,2023 at 12:44PM UTC

    I work for a large health care company. I get 10 paid holidays a year. I started with 2 weeks of PTO a year (sick and vacation combined). I got another week off at year 5. One thing that I find interesting is that we can only roll 40 hours of PTO over into the next year. This applies across the company. Anything above 40 is lost. Strong incentive to take PTO.

31. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 1:02PM UTC

    Non-profit school, I’m in the regional office (so I don’t get summers off). We get 30 PTO days and 14 holidays. I have found that that’s plenty for a good work/life balance as long as you have a manager that lets you take it and unplug (thankfully, I do).

32. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 1:08PM UTC

    Uncapped at this and my past 2 jobs (all in technology, btw).

    Prior to that, I had worked my way up to 4 weeks of vacation and 1 week of sick (along with the standard holidays). This was also a use it or lose it vacation policy, which often meant taking time off during the last quarter or month of the fiscal year.

33. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 1:26PM UTC

    In my last job I only had 15 PTO's. That included vacation, sick and personal. Holidays were only 10. This wasn't enough. Companies need to reevaluate their PTO policy.

34. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 8:52PM UTC

    Yeah that’s pretty paltry if it’s a bank for all vacations, sick and personal.

35. Erica NicholasOctober 20,2023 at 1:39PM UTC

    I'm also in healthcare, at a healthcare specifically. I get 29 paid days total. It's a bank that includes every holiday my department closes (and I have to use it these days, no choice), sick pay and vacation. All employees of every level get this for the first 3 years.

36. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 1:42PM UTC

    I work in non-profit entertainment (live summer theatre) and receive 15 days of vacation plus unlimited (or 8 consecutive weeks) of sick/personal days using FMLA.(to care for oneself or family member). We also have 2 paid company shutdowns adding to 2.5 weeks and about 10 paid holidays. These benefits are great but I am also underpaid and work long hours during the summer season.

37. AmyOctober 20,2023 at 1:58PM UTC

    I believe folks start with 20 days of PTO here, plus 9 paid holidays, plus 1 extra day for Cultural Appreciation. We also have the ability to "buy" extra PTO in advance and can also earn extra time off through participation in certain events. The amount of time away also increases the longer you've been here. Compared to my prior work, I feel that my current benefits are generous and work for me. That said, I have always had very reasonable and understanding supervisors who are flexible in terms of my time away.

38. nita wussickOctober 20,2023 at 2:46PM UTC

    In heathcare for 12 years. Have 20 vacation days, unlimited sick time accrues weekly, and 40 hours rolling personal time that accrues as you use it. Also 8 paid holidays

39. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 8:51PM UTC

    How does unlimited suck time accrue?

40. nita wussickOctober 20,2023 at 11:49PM UTC

    It continues to add up every 2 weeks with no cap and can be carried over every year.

41. SarahOctober 21,2023 at 3:50PM UTC

    This is confusing. So, there is a set number of days given but no cap. If you use up the set number of days in a year than you are out of days? So, it isn't unlimited, no?

42. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 2:53PM UTC

    We are a nonprofit and in leu of higher salary and not having bonuses, time off is generous:
    It's
    12 Paid holidays
    10 days sick time
    15 to 20 days vacation (depends on level)
    3 personal days
    employees can carry over 50% of their vacation annually with a cap of twice the annual amount

43. maria roseOctober 20,2023 at 2:57PM UTC

    In total you are getting 36 days of paid time which if you spread it out over a year is 3 days a month to take off from work and still get paid. Work is scheduled over a 52 work week year. Work weeks are based on whatever your employer considers a full time schedule ( varies from 32-40 in hours /4-5days in a week). And it also depends on your geographic location as there are places like in Europe where entire companies close down for an entire month, plus the work day has a long break during the afternoons daily. But that’s the work culture for that area.

    I am getting the impression that you want more PTO time that doesn’t interfere with your planning vacation time. What you could find out is whether you can accumulate more PTO if you don’t use that given time each year—if you only use 12 days of the total 36 days are the extra 24 days carried over to the next year giving you 60 days the following year. Some jobs do allow you to carry over any unused PTO for each year which is especially needed in some jobs.

44. MislynOctober 21,2023 at 3:22AM UTC

    Wow this is just crazy to me. I would live this.

45. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 4:18PM UTC

    If we're looking at 36 paid days off then it's VERY generous. In most organizations tenure drives the number of days accrued and they're usually split into vacation, sick, holiday and maybe 1-2 PTO's. It appears your company is closely engaged and believes in work/life balance.

46. Marie NelsonOctober 20,2023 at 6:25PM UTC

    Where do you work? haha.

    I get 15 days PTO per year and 5 Paid Protected Time, which is essentially sick time, and 7 paid holidays. Not a ton, but I feel I'm able to balance my work and my time away.

    Definitely being able to balance your stress with with your work is important, so I would say if you're feeling it's not enough, I would loop in your boss to talk with them about how you're feeling and possible ways around it outside of PTO.

    Is it a flex day at home or just offsite? Is it more delegation of projects? Is it minimizing approvals you need to see?

    Whatever it is, best advice is to communicate and see what comes of it!

47. AnonymousOctober 20,2023 at 8:54PM UTC

    My main issue is with paid sick time. I get sick a lot because of patient exposure especially during flu season and we only get 6 days of paid sick time a year that we have to accrue which is our protected time. If we call in sick and don’t have enough sick time hours, we can get written up.

48. maria roseOctober 21,2023 at 7:53PM UTC

    You say that you get 6 paid days for use as sick days but mention nothing about any other paid days you may have. If you tend to get sick because of exposure to the patients and need more than one sick day off every 2 months and have other paid days that are classified as vacation or personal days then you should be able to use those days. Two issues you need to understand—One, you do need to be able to work 1500 hours over a 12 month period to be classified as a full time employee with benefits. Second, if you have an issue with your immune system that causes you to get sick, getting a doctor’s note about your illness should not be problematic which seems to be an issue expressed here. So how many paid days would be satisfactory. Paid holidays as required by law are on top of this total

49. nita wussickOctober 20,2023 at 11:51PM UTC

    You can carry the full 20 days vacation over for 2 years. Sick time can be carried every year with no cap

50. Heather (she/her)October 21,2023 at 12:12PM UTC

    31 days pto, unlimited sick time ... but also Europe

51. Julie HagerOctober 21,2023 at 12:16PM UTC

    Used be a 1-YEAR waiting period for any benefits and yes, that is A LOT of PTO. How long have you been employed there?

52. AnonymousOctober 24,2023 at 7:36PM UTC

    I have been employed here for 16 months now. But I started accruing benefits after 3 months.

53. AnonymousOctober 21,2023 at 12:29PM UTC

    That's a good question...I should know this, but right now I think I have 20 days vacation, 5 floating holidays, 5 personal days, I think 30 sick days (maybe more than that) and some company paid holidays. But that pales into comparison when I worked for a Swiss company. Unlimited sick time, 5 to 6 weeks of vacation that rolled over, US and Swiss holidays, company shut down week....It's funny because I've only ever used a fraction of the time given.

54. AnonymousOctober 24,2023 at 7:36PM UTC

    You get 30 sick days a year? That’s a lot

55. AnonymousOctober 21,2023 at 1:28PM UTC

    My PTO and sick are bundled together and I earn 5.23 hours every two weeks, and I get 10

    paid holidays

56. PJ BhaktaOctober 21,2023 at 2:27PM UTC

    PTO, sick pay, and variations are in and of thenselves some of the most evil corporate tricks invented to make an employee believe that the company owns all of their time, that permission must be asked to take time for oneself when sick or in need of leave for family caregiving or simply a mental health break or family vacation time. 3.4 weeks PTO & 6 paid sick are average/good IMO for post-90 day salaried employment in the USA.
    6 holiday is a red herring, those would be paid anyways and really only make a difference if hourly for time and a half.

57. Audrey KirschOctober 21,2023 at 4:22PM UTC

    We have unlimited PTO but it's a joke since certain times of year it is so busy that no one can take off. I'm lucky if I take 2 weeks plus a couple of extra days here and there.

58. AnonymousOctober 21,2023 at 5:21PM UTC

    We have Flex Time so can theoretically take as much as we want, but in practice I’m usually around 25-30 days plus company holidays. Yours sounds about what I would expect.

59. AnonymousOctober 22,2023 at 2:12AM UTC

    None. No PTO, no vacation, no sick leave. The only paid vacation I ever got at my latest job was when I broke a bone on the job and couldn't work.

    Count yourself very lucky.

60. Erstwhile3October 23,2023 at 11:15AM UTC

    This seems inhuman. People need to be able to take time off and recharge themselves. I hope you get a better situation in the future.

61. AnonymousOctober 23,2023 at 7:32PM UTC

    It IS inhuman. But it's more or less the norm in the food service industry.
    I've been working in food service as a sous chef in the US for close to a decade. People who prepare and serve your food typically get little to no benefits and are expected to take unpaid time off. Even as one of the most experienced and highest-paid employees where I worked, I got no benefits whatsoever. I'm reeducating myself, trying to get into another industry in order to get benefits, because where I am, at the top of my industry, benefits are nearly non-existent, especially if you work for an independently-owned business.

62. Rosa E HearnOctober 22,2023 at 1:42PM UTC

    It took me 15 years to get 4 weeks off. The first year we all receive zero. I would be more than happy to receive what you have.

63. AnonymousOctober 24,2023 at 7:34PM UTC

    You got zero PTO on your first year? That’s terrible

64. Rosa E HearnOctober 25,2023 at 6:02PM UTC

    It's not a bad company. Obviously I wouldn't be here for 15 years if it was a terrible place, but with over 500 employees, we all started with zero the first year.

65. LauraOctober 23,2023 at 10:19AM UTC

    I get 20 days PTO, 7 holidays and 2 floating holidays. No actual sick days -

66. Erstwhile3October 23,2023 at 11:12AM UTC

    I appreciate this thread. It’s giving me a better perspective on my own PTO situation, which, apparently, is a bit better than average, but not amazing or unusual. I get 75 hrs vacation, 19 hrs personal, and I accrue 1 hr sick time every week I work. The sick time, I recently learned when I stopped accruing it, is capped, but I think it must be over a week’s worth because I’m pretty sure I used at least a week of sick days this year, one or two at a time, before it stopped accruing near the end of the year (I went full-time in Oct, so that’s my roll-over date). Next year, my 6th, I will get another week of vacation time—if I’m understanding the other employees rightly.

    I also appreciate the comment that said that PTO is a corporate tool for getting workers to think of their time as belonging to the company. I don’t know if that is literally true. Wouldn’t be shocked if it is. It does have that effect, though, doesn’t it? If I worked for a company that didn’t penalize me for taking time off unpaid occasionally (with proper notification) I would simply budget myself to allow a certain number of extra days “PTO” each year. The exercise of taking back my time and my life in this way would be well worth the financial sacrifice to make it happen. There is a huge mental health aspect to being able to choose and use your time in some way that feels sovereign.

67. AnonymousOctober 23,2023 at 12:57PM UTC

    Higher education offers 20 vacation days, accumulated sick leave, and state/federal holidays, but no bonuses, ever.

68. Carol KelleyOctober 30,2023 at 3:35PM UTC

    I accrue 15 hours PTO per month at 5 years with the company, and also have the 11 paid federal holidays. I think we can accumulate 240 hours of PTO before we are in a "lose it" situation. We also have the freedom to work from anywhere (although they like us to come into the office 2 days a week when possible). So I have the freedom to take an annual 30-day RV trip, and spend a few hours each day working usually very early morning (or sitting in the passenger seat working while hubby is driving). Then we also usually take a 2-week cruise where I do completely disconnect. Doing this, I never bump into the lose it situation, but also keep a healthy amount on the books available for emergencies and the occasional self-care day. This allows me to see amazing parts of this country without eating a bunch of leave, AND the "catchup" is not as severe once we get home. The total disconnect vacation allows me the "disconnect" I need, but "oy", the catchup upon return can wear me out. Just the sheer amount of email to sort out........