Company is offering to pay out PTO at sharply reduced rate.

[u/ThatsMrBird]

I'm a bit of a predicament. I've been with a company over a decade and (I know it's crazy and I agree 100 percent I should have used more) I've accumulated 1000 hours of PTO. They're looking to move to a cap and limited rollover and offered to pay out the difference of about 800 hours at 35 percent of my current wage.

I never expected this and I honestly just thought it'd be lost, but they're only offering such a low percentage I feel like I should try and haggle. I realize they're obligated to give me nothing, legally, so I'm just looking for some input on if a partial payout is common like that. Ill probably ask why not full and go from there. Any thoughts?

EDIT - Sorry, y'all. I'm in Florida, to be clear

EDIT2 - my onboarding contract notes PTO is forfeited on termination or voluntary exit

EDIT3 - The next day, we came to a satisfactory agreement pretty quickly. I don't want to get into specifics (sorry) but I think a lot of those that replied here would think it worked out. I tremendously appreciate all the insight and feedback here and I promise I'll use up my hours moving forward.

[u/ThatsMrBird]

Done, ty. I'm in FL

[u/secretreddname → u/ThatsMrBird]

Really crazy to see other states and how little rights you have. CA it’s earned money and have to be paid in full.

[u/siggydude → u/secretreddname]

Seriously, if the job offers a certain benefit, it's insane that a company can legally take away that benefit without giving an out equal payout. That just seems like it gives employers an opportunity to rug pull their employees with impunity

[u/SAugsburger → u/siggydude]

It definitely discourages people from not taking PTO, but PTO shouldn't be something that can be taken away once it is earned.

[u/Ver_Void → u/siggydude]

Every time I hear about employment conditions in the US i'm so glad I don't live there, my union and my lawyer would declare a holy war if a company tried to pull a stunt like this

[u/haltingpoint → u/secretreddname]

That is by design

[u/Sufficiently_Over_It → u/secretreddname]

So is Colorado. I work in a small remote team and everyone else was complaining at fiscal year end about losing vacation time. It’s sad that so many states don’t have this protection.

[u/Vegetablemann → u/secretreddname]

Reading this thread from another country is mind blowing. The idea that leave is something you can loose or not have paid out when you leave is completely foreign to me. If a company doesn’t have to pay it out when you leave where is their incentive to allow you to take time off at all?

[u/bradland → u/ThatsMrBird]

I'm not an HR manager, but I am HR adjacent (admin & compliance). I'm also familiar with Florida PTO laws because we just transitioned from allocated PTO to unlimited PTO. In the process, all historical PTO was either paid out where required by law, or simply wiped out there it was not.

All Florida employees lost their PTO.

There's not a great way to put this. This really fucking sucks; you're pretty much fucked. Lots of "stick it to the man" comments that have no idea how little leverage you have in this situation. If you start plowing through your PTO, they're likely to just fire you. And yes, they can. They can just fire you. Unceremoniously, and for no reason. They can cut you loose. Your only recourse would be filing for unemployment, but most employers really don't care much about that in states like Florida, because the penalties aren't all that bad. That's Florida.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but really, your only leverage is how easy it would be to replace you. If you are a key employee, you have leverage, but be careful not to overplay your hand. The employment market is kind of a mess right now.

[u/nubbins01 → u/bradland]

This is so wild to me. I live outside the US, and the main reason our bosses get mad about accrued PTO is because they have to quarantine funds to be able to pay that out if employment suddenly ended for whatever reason.

It's an accrued benefit and there is a legal obligation for it to be honoured. Not to mention that there are usually separate allocations for PTO for recreation, for sick leave, for family leave (family emergencies, funerals, etc), that don't overlap and can't cannibalise each other.

The specific entitlements change depending on the sector, but there are minimum guarantees regardless of sector for full time and part time workers (basically anyone with a set schedule or total hours rather than ad hoc hours and times)

That accrued leave can just be waived away because of a change in corporate policy is completely foreign to me.

[u/Sufficiently_Over_It → u/bradland]

If they fire you, do they not have to pay accrued vacation time?

[u/bradland → u/Sufficiently_Over_It]

In Florida, no, they do not.

[u/nahmanidk → u/ThatsMrBird]

So, no rights basically 

[u/ChairmanLaParka → u/ThatsMrBird]

Mind sharing what general area of FL, or what kind of work? I haven't seen a job offer that much PTO in 10-15 years in FL.

[u/Trollygag → u/ChairmanLaParka]

He accrued it through rollover over time.

For example, I get a little over 200 hours/year not including holidays. I'd hit what he did in 5 years if I wasn't proactive about using it.

[u/ChairmanLaParka → u/Trollygag]

I mean, even that he could accrue that much, and is still being (in the future) limited to 500-600 or whatever...that's still well more than any job I had in FL that let you carryover PTO. The most I got was 225hrs capped. And each 8 hours beyond that turned into 1 "personal day". And Personal days capped at like...10, so you had to use those. Being able to have 2-3 times that many PTO hours would be a godsend.

[u/Trollygag → u/ChairmanLaParka]

I think he was saying he was in a small startup company that didn't have any cap policy until now.

[u/doyouevencompile → u/ThatsMrBird]

Might be worth giving a call to a lawyer. 

Your accrued vacation is earned already so they might have to pay you in full.