Guía completa de acumulación de PTO: Definición, beneficios y consejos

Accepting a job offer means a mutual understanding between an employer and an employee. Dictated by a written and often verbal agreement, the employee agrees to perform their job at the highest level while the employer compensates them with a salary, adequate working conditions, and benefits. One such benefit is paid (personal) time off — PTO.

Even though it’s not mandatory by federal law, many US states and employers offer their respective employees PTO, which keeps everyone satisfied, motivated, and willing to contribute at all times.

However, employers must understand all the nuances behind PTO accrual and how it works to ensure the best possible outcome for both parties. 

To make matters easier and more comprehensible, we’ve prepared an in-depth guide to help both employees and employers get to the bottom of PTO. 

In this guide, you’ll learn more about:

• PTO and PTO accrual,
• Benefits of accrual time off,
• Setting PTO accrual policies, and
• Calculating PTO.

• The 2 most popular leave policies when it comes to time off are PTO accrual and lump sum.
• PTO accrual allows employees to earn vacation, sick, and personal days rather than receiving a fixed amount at the start of each calendar year.
• When designing a PTO leave, an employer will have to consider accrual rates, period, and cap.
• If PTO isn’t used in its entirety during a calendar year, employers can choose to either ‘rollover’ the remaining paid days or pay them out through their employees’ hourly wages.

¿Qué es PTO acumulado?

PTO accrual represents an accumulation of personal time off over a period of time. 

Paid time off is generally presented through employer-set policies that allow employees to earn paid time off by working a certain amount of time. However, what PTO is and how it works isn’t clearly defined by US law. 

In most cases, PTO policies combine 3 types of leave:

• Días de vacaciones,
• Días por enfermedad, y 
• Días personales.

We contacted Levon L. Galstyan, Certified Public Accountant at Oak View Law Group, for help with defining PTO accrual, and he stressed that it varies from firm to firm:

Although US law doesn’t require employers to have PTO policies in place, some states have their own personal time off regulations. None of the state laws mandates that employers enforce PTO accrual, as the type of time off policy is completely up to them. 

Additionally, the federal Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) clearly states that no employer is obligated to offer paid time off for qualifying reasons, such as family emergencies, recovering from an illness, or caring for an ill loved one.

However, it’s important to note that employers are free to offer paid FMLA and institute paid FMLA policies if they choose to do so. In such cases, the employer regulates the conditions and accrual method as they see fit. 

PTO accrual vs. lump sum PTO 

In general, employers often choose between one of the 2 popular leave policies:

• PTO acumulado, y 
• PTO asignado (suma global). 

Lump sum PTO is a paid time off policy in which workers receive a set amount of paid time off during a year. This policy can either expire or roll over to the next year. Moreover, some companies pay workers for unused allotted time off during the year.

CPA Armine Alajian explains that the difference between these two terms is in the way they are calculated:

Levon L. Galstyan’s insights helped us create the following table with the main differences between accrual and allotment PTO policies:

Diferencias	PTO acumulado	Lump sum PTO allotment
Diferencias	PTO acumulado	Lump sum PTO allotment
Payment timing	Los empleados ganan PTO con el tiempo.	Los empleados reciben todo su PTO de una vez.
Cash value	A cash value equal to the employee’s hourly rate or salary multiplied by the number of hours accrued.	A cash value equal to the employee’s hourly rate or salary multiplied by the number of hours of unused PTO.
Employer liability	Employers must track employees’ accrued PTO and ensure that they are providing employees with the time off they are entitled to, which can create logistical challenges.	Employers must have the financial resources to cover employees’ PTO usage in a lump sum when an employee requests it, which can create financial challenges.

Note: The data in this table isn’t official. The FLSA doesn’t contain any obligations to employees regarding PTO and the type of PTO policy they create for their employees.

Benefits of PTO accrual

Employers prefer PTO accrual leave policies for various reasons. These policies benefit both parties in several ways, some of which we’ll discuss below. 

Stay tuned!

Beneficio 1: PTO acumulado fomenta la retención de empleados

El PTO acumulado permite que organices una política de permiso pagado como quieras en tu empresa. Si quieres fomentar la retención del empleado, deberías crear una política que:

• Está basada en los años de servicio, o
• Permite transferir tiempo libre no usado a lo largo de los años. 

You should consider adding higher PTO accrued rates for long-time team members. That way, your workers will be more motivated to stay within the company and collect more days off as time passes. 

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Beneficio 2: PTO acumulado previene que los empleados tomen demasiado tiempo libre

With the way how PTO accrual works, your employees won’t be able to receive their PTO all at once. Therefore, they won’t have too many days off at their disposal when they first start working for your company. 

This policy prevents new employees from taking too much time off in the beginning, as their PTO will accumulate as they continue working. 

Beneficio 3: PTO acumulado proporciona una recompensa para trabajadores leales

Your employees accrue PTO over time. Therefore, the logical assumption is that your most loyal workers should have the most paid time off days during a calendar year. 

Si eliges tener una política que permite una tarifa de acumulación más alta después de ciertos hitos por un año de servicios, los empleados que llevan más tiempo trabajando en la empresa obtienen más beneficios.

🎓 How to Do Unlimited PTO Right – Pros & Cons 

Cómo establecer tu política de PTO acumulado

Before you sit down with accounting and other departments involved in designing your PTO accrual policy, here are a couple of things you should be aware of before you start. Check them out below.

Paso 1: Verifica las leyes estatales y locales

Unfortunately, US federal law on personal leave doesn’t require employers to pay out any time not worked.

In most cases, employers have the freedom to create a PTO policy that works for them and their employees. Still, some local laws provide minimum eligibility requirements or give employers the option to limit the time off workers can accrue.

So, your first step in creating an accrual policy for your company is to check your state and local laws.

Paso 2: Considera el límite potencial de la acumulación cap

Many employers use accrual PTO policies to reward loyal workers. Therefore, they usually set higher accrual rates for employees who have been working at their company for an extended period.

This kind of reward is great for employee retention. However, you should take your resources into account. If your policy is too generous, you may end up losing a lot of money on paying for the leaves. So, it’s wise to set a maximum number of days off an employee can accumulate. 

In most European countries, the standard for paid vacation days is around 20 days. However, in the US, employees usually have 10 to 15 vacation days available. The actual number depends on the years of service and whether the employee works in the private or public sector.

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Paso 3: Elige el período de acumulación y la tarifa de acumulación

Your accrual policy should include the accrual period and the accrual rate. 

El período de acumulación es la frecuencia con la que tus empleados pueden acumular sus días libres. Los períodos de acumulación más comunes son:

• Horarios,
• Semanales,
• Quincenales, 
• Mensuales, 
• Anuales, y
• Períodos por pago. 

Expert Levon L. Galstyan defines accrual rate as:

También nos dió un ejemplo:

Our expert, Levon L. Galstyan, claims that It’s up to you, as an employer, to decide the accrual rates based on employees’ commitment and service:

🎓 PTO policy templates

Paso 4: Regula las políticas de acumulación de PTO o de pago de PTO

You should consider 2 important aspects in your accrual policy: 

1. PTO acumulado, y 
2. Pago de PTO.

PTO acumulado

Founder of an accounting firm, Wendy Ha, defined the PTO rollover as “the unused time that the employee can take in the next period.”

Moreover, accountant Francis Fabrizi explained the ins and outs of rollover:

While rollover is an amazing benefit to offer employees, Levon L. Galstyan warns about its potential liabilities: 

Pago de PTO

Wendy Ha explica el pago de PTO:

Depending on their state or local laws, employers may be required to pay out unused PTO when an employee leaves the company, so keep that in mind as well. 

An essential benefit to PTO payout is that it provides an additional source of income when leaving a job. But it also comes with downsides, as Levon L. Galstyan highlights: 

Cómo calcular el PTO acumulado

Even if calculations aren’t your strong suit, managing time off and understanding how PTO is accrued represents a major part of the equation. If you’ve got that covered, calculating PTO time accrued will be easy with the following steps.

Step #1: Take the PTO accrual rate and period you decided on

Como hemos mencionado, la tarifa de acumulación es una componente esencial de tu política. Digamos que la tarifa de acumulación de tu empleado es 0,5 días de PTO por cada mes de servicio. 

Many employers prefer keeping records of employees’ PTO in the number of hours. To do that, you’ll need to convert PTO days per month to the number of PTO hours.

In our example, we’ll assume that an employee works 8 hours a day. You need to multiply the total number of hours an employee works in a day by the accrual rate per day. So, the calculation is:

The total number of working hours per day x accrual rate per day = accrual rate per hour

Dado que este empleado gana 0,5 días de PTO cada mes, esto es:

8 x 0,5 = 4

Por lo tanto, la tarifa de PTO por mes de tu empleado es de 4 horas. 

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Step #2: Choose a timespan and calculate earned PTO

Your next step is to choose a time span for calculating the accrued time off. Suppose the interval for which you want to calculate PTO is 1 year or 12 months. 

El cálculo para el PTO ganado es:

Tarifa de acumulación x el período de tiempo = tiempo ganado

In our example, the rate is 0.5 days per month, and our timespan is 12 months. So, the calculation will be:

0,5 x 12 = 6 días libres

Veremos cómo se verá el cálculo si en su lugar tomamos el número de horas de PTO. En este caso, la tarifa de acumulación es de 4 horas por mes. Así que:

4 x 12 = 48 horas libres

Step #3: Add the PTO earned to the employee’s balance

In case your company has a rollover policy in place, any unused PTO presents an employee’s initial balance. To complete the process, you should add the newly earned PTO to the worker’s previous balance.

Si configuras la cantidad máxima de tiempo de PTO que tus empleados pueden ganar (el máximo de acumulación), deberías tener este número en cuenta cuando calculas PTO. Una vez que un trabajador alcanza el máximo, no puede acumular más tiempo libre. 

Some employers allow unlimited accrual, but they cap the amount of time off you can use in a year. In such cases, an agreement is made to decide whether the additional accrued time will be rolled over or if a payout will ensue as accrued hours on their paycheck.

Let’s say that an employee had a PTO balance of 3 days of unused time off before and has earned 6 days of PTO in the past 12 months; their new balance would be:

3 días + 6 días = 9 días de PTO

El cálculo es similar para horas de PTO. Tu empleado tiene 24 horas de tiempo libre no usado y ha ganado48 horas el año pasado. Su nuevo saldo es:

24 + 48 = 72 horas de PTO

If the final PTO amount is a decimal number, you can round your employee’s hours to the nearest whole number.

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PTO acumulado: Preguntas frecuentes

¿Todavía tienes algunas preguntas sobre el PTO acumulado? ¡Lo tenemos cubierto! 

Esto es lo que más interesa a la mayoría de los empleadores cuando se trata de las políticas de acumulación de PTO.

1. ¿Cuál es la tarifa promedia de PTO acumulado?

En promedio, los empleados del sector privado tienen 10 días de PTO después de un año de servicio. De este estadistica podemos calcular la tarifa de acumulación estándar de PTO para nuevos trabajadores:

10 (PTO days) / 12 (months in a year) = 0.8 days off per month. 

Adicionalmente, el PTO promedio para los que hayan trabajado en el sector privado por más de 5 años es 15 días. Así que, la tarifa de acumulación promedia para empleados veteranos es 1,25 días por mes. 

Puedes usar estas estadísticas para establecer una tarifa de acumulación justa para tu negocio. 

2. ¿Cuántos días son las 40 horas de PTO?

Si un empleado trabaja 8 horas al día, 40 horas de PTO se equivalen a 5 días de trabajo. 

Para calcular el número de días libres que un empleado puede tomar dividiendo el número de horas de PTO que haya trabajado con el número de horas trabajadas en una semana. En este caso, el cálculo es:

40 (horas de PTO) / 8 (horas trabajadas en un día) = 5 (días libres)

3. ¿Cómo se calcula PTO por horas trabajadas?

You can calculate the amount of PTO a worker accumulates over time by multiplying the number of hours worked by the accrual rate per hour.  

Asumimos que tus empleados pueden acumular una hora de PTO para cada 40 horas trabajadas. Quieres calcular la cantidad de PTO para un empleado que haya trabajado 80 horas. 

First, determine the accrual rate for your company. The accrual rate is the number of PTO hours an employee can receive divided by the number of hours of work they have to input. So, it should look like this:

1 (hora de PTO) / 40 (horas) = 0,025 (tarifa de acumulación)

Luego, deberías multiplicar la tarifa de acumulación con el número de horas trabajadas:

0,025 x 80 = 2

Tu trabajador ha ganado 2 horas de PTO durante 80 horas de trabajo.  

4. ¿Cómo se calcula PTO por días trabajados?

En el caso de que tus trabajadores acumulen su PTO por días trabajados, tendrás que multiplicar su tarifa de acumulación con el período que trabajaron para obtener la cantidad de PTO final. 

If the accrual rate is 0.8 days per month, the calculation for an employee who worked 6 months will be:

0,8 x 6 = 4,8 días libres

Puedes redondear esta cantidad al número completo más cercano: 5 — dándole a tu empleado 5 días libres. 

5. Is PTO accrual negotiable?

Most companies have non-negotiable clauses regarding PTO accrual. Keeping track of everyone’s accrual rates and PTO is rather troublesome, even for smaller businesses. 

However, paid time off caps can be negotiable, depending on the employer’s decision, especially if they use the lump sum leave policy.

Use Clockify to track PTO accrual

Seguir el PTO acumulado para todos tus empleados puede ser difícil. Así que, deberías tomar en consideración usar algún software para rastrear el PTO de trabajadores. 

Clockify is a reliable time tracker that offers many extra features aside from simple time tracking.

After you clock in and start working, Clockify will help you:

• Track billable hours,
• Create invoices using advanced reports from expenses,
• Calculate earnings and set hourly rates, and
• Track project progress and budget status.

With a PTO and vacation tracker, you can set a time off policy for your company and track employees’ accruals and leaves. In addition, your workers can request personal time off and log attendance via Clockify. That way, you ensure everyone rests properly when they aren’t working and comes back to work relaxed and productive.

Conclusión y descargo de responsabilidad

By offering accrual PTO, employers can attract quality workers, improve employee retention, and prevent new employees from taking too many days off at the beginning of their job arrangement. 

Sin embargo, una política de acumulación de PTO exitosa requiere una planificación cuidadosa y comunicación clara con empleados. Aparte de las necesidades de tu empresa, también deberías tomar en cuenta los requisitos legales de tu ciudad o estado. Así que, una vez que hayas verificado las legalidades, puedes empezar creando una política de acumulación de PTO para tu empresa.

We strongly advise you to consult the appropriate institutions and/or certified representatives before acting on any legal matters. Clockify isn’t responsible for any losses or risks incurred should this guide be used without legal guidance.