Vacation hours per paycheck from your yearly allowance, with cap and carryover
Estimates only, not financial advice. What you type stays on your device. Checked against sources on 30 Oct 2026.Two weeks of vacation is 80 hours, and paid every two weeks that is 80 divided by 26, or 3.08 hours on each paycheck. Enter your yearly allowance, your pay schedule and your current balance to see how fast it grows, where a cap stops it and what carries into next year.
Rates and rules read from U.S. Department of Labor, Vacation leave on 30 Oct 2026; they may have changed since.
"Hours a year" is already selected under "Your policy gives".
Enter your yearly allowance in "PTO hours a year", such as 80 for two weeks.
Pick how often you are "Paid", and enter your "Balance today" and any cap.
Read "PTO earned each pay period", "Balance at year end" and "Carried into next year".
The calculator also counts how many paychecks until you have enough saved for a trip.
Paid time off rarely arrives all at once. Most US employers let it build up a little on each paycheck, stop it at a cap, and limit how much rolls into the next year. This calculator follows those three rules with your own policy's numbers.
The cap. Many policies stop accrual once the balance reaches a maximum. The calculator adds each pay period in turn and stops at the cap, then shows the hours you would have earned but did not. Using some time off before you reach the cap is the only way to keep earning.
What this calculator does not do: it does not know your employer's policy or the law where you work. There is no federal requirement to offer paid vacation in the US, while several states and cities require paid sick leave with their own accrual rates, caps and carryover rules, and some require unused vacation to be paid out when you leave. Read the rates from your handbook or pay stub and check your state labor department for the rules that apply to you.
The rest of the article, and all 6 questions about PTO Accrual Calculator, are on the PTO Accrual Calculator page.
Divide the hours of PTO you earn in a year by the number of pay periods in a year. With 80 hours and biweekly pay, 80 divided by 26 is 3.08 hours per paycheck; with semimonthly pay it is 80 divided by 24, or 3.33 hours. For a per-hour policy, divide the hours worked by the policy's figure, such as 30.
A cap is the most PTO a policy lets you hold at one time. Once the balance reaches it, new hours stop being added until you use some. With a 120-hour cap and a 115-hour balance, only 5 more hours can be earned. The calculator shows how many hours a cap would cost you.
Two weeks of full-time work is 80 hours, at 8 hours a day for 10 working days. A 7.5-hour workday makes two weeks 75 hours. Set the hours in your workday in the calculator so the yearly total is also shown in days, and so a target such as one week off matches your schedule.
Usually not. Accrual normally follows hours paid or worked, so an unpaid leave or a period on short-term disability often earns nothing, and a per-hour policy earns only on the hours actually worked. The rules are the employer's and the law's, so confirm with human resources before planning around the figures here.
Rates and rules change; check the source before you rely on a figure.
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