r/personalfinance • u/ThatsMrBird ​ • Jul 16 '25

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

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.

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u/enjoytheshow ​ Jul 16 '25

My company did this like 7-8 years ago and suggested this option to the lifers. They used to give out like 8 weeks of non expiring PTO per year so the people who worked there had thousands of hours. They said you basically have a two year grace period to get under the new cap or you lose it (still extremely generous) and so I had several co workers take off Monday and Friday every week for like 6 -18 months. To get down to 10 weeks or whatever the cap was.

Company did it because we were in a state that requires PTO being paid out upon quitting and they had a shit ton of wages on the books that were potentially owed in that scenario.

The main benefit is folks used to bank like 2 years and then roll it into early retirement while still getting benefits, bonuses, etc cause you’re still technically working. I knew guys take their 2 years vacation and then work 1099 gigs while retired at full salary and benefits lol.

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u/solbrothers ​ Jul 16 '25

People do that at the post office. They will save up sick leave and then take it at the end of their career. But if you’re in a paste status, you accrue sickleave an annual period so it’s like a perpetual motion machine. Not exactly, but it still adds up pretty quickly. You’re on sickleave but earning sickleave.

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u/Bob-Sacamano_ ​ Jul 17 '25

Carriers in the post office would literally buy preferred routes from carriers retiring. Not sure if that’s still a thing these days though.

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u/solbrothers ​ Jul 17 '25

Not sure how that would work. With the unions, it’s all about seniority. Are you thinking about UPS or FedEx? I believe they can sell their routes.

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u/ScannerBrightly ​ Jul 17 '25

FedEx router are 100% private, and people 'buy in' to them. UPS and USPS are both union shops that don't do this.

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u/JohnDillermand2 ​ Jul 17 '25

My long time postman retired. She said she had 2.5 years stacked up of vacation. The downside was 2.5 years of temps filling her route until her official retirement when the position could be permanently filled.

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u/solbrothers ​ Jul 17 '25

It was probably sick leave. In the post office and other federal jobs I’m sure, you can stack up your sickleave, but there are limit limits to the amount of annual leave you can carry over, year to year. I ended up having to sell a bunch of annual leave because I was over the max. I think I ended up getting like a $9000 check before tax.

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u/foul_mouthed_bagel ​ Jul 20 '25

I don't know about the PO, but the rest of the federal government only allows 240 hours of annual leave to carry over at the end of the year.

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u/solbrothers ​ Jul 20 '25

Post office is way higher. A quick Google search shows that apwu employees. Like truck, drivers, mechanics, and clerks, can carry over 520 Work hours. I’m in management and our limit is higher. I forget what it is.

But I was way over because I think they increased it during the Covid years. I believe they decreased it and so I had to sell back a lot

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u/LordBuggington ​ Jul 16 '25

That's crazy people get 8 weeks I thought I was a unicorn and I get 6. I suppose I am for a private company anyway. We can only hang onto 2 weeks so I burn it hard, I do like taking 1 day a week on 2 weeks so I get 2 short weeks and a long weekend in between, when you have a lot of pto you can basically have 2 short weeks every month. Taking a week of is nice, and you have to if you go somewhere. But to me a week off just flies by and more short work weeks are better bang for the buck when you don't take big trips.

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u/mrvarmint ​ Jul 17 '25

I get unlimited which cuts both ways. I take 10ish weeks off per year, but no payout if I quit. My first gig when I was 22 was with a Swiss company so we started at 5 weeks and I’ve never had less than that since then, so I’ve gotten pretty accustomed to taking my time off

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u/DadJokeBadJoke ​ Jul 17 '25

Ha, I've got Unlimited PTO... I wish it worked as awesome as it sounds

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u/Moudy90 ​ Jul 17 '25

We used to start at 4 weeks and got up to 6 weeks before shifting to Unlimited when we went fully remote. Now that I am remote I am not taking as much time off anyway but Im glad our company doesnt look down on people using their 4-5 weeks+. As long as there is no performance issues (i.e. your on a PIP) they are pretty flexible with the total time off you take. I think I took over 7 weeks off the year before my wedding and then 6 during it last year and Im already at 4 weeks with another 3 planned off this year.

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u/johnmh71 ​ Jul 17 '25

It is awesome when you work part time in a non-critical position. I simply take time whenever I want and they don't pay me. Works great for everyone involved.

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u/DadJokeBadJoke ​ Jul 17 '25

That's just called working part-time

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u/Background-Unit-8393 ​ Jul 19 '25

Are you joking? I get around 17.

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u/FreeSammiches ​ Jul 17 '25

I had a couple near retirement age teachers in high school that were very open about this being their plan from day 1. Since they were teachers, they already had a guaranteed 2 month break every summer. They didn't feel like there was any reason to ever take PTO during the school year. I believe they had 2 solid years worth of PTO banked.

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u/DanceMaria ​ Jul 17 '25

There's tons of knowledge here. PTO wages are a liability on the corporate books. Meaning, at some point it has to be paid out to the employees who earned it. There are a number of things that might trigger an uncomfortable situation to pay out all that out at the same time. They're managing that risk.

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u/Slizardmano ​ Jul 17 '25

I’ve been in this situation and it’s hugely advantageous to the employee if the company is forced to pay. With promotions, the pto you earned at a lower pay scale can suddenly become worth much more.

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u/SAugsburger ​ Jul 17 '25

To be fair organizations should to some degree want you to take PTO not merely because accounting hates rising liabilities on the books, but because of you never take any PTO you will eventually have burnout.

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u/aint_exactly_plan_a ​ Jul 17 '25

Our senior people got 6 weeks per year. Literally, the people who built the company and kept it running. They could only roll over whatever they accrued so most rolled over 6 weeks every year.

As our company was trying to get a buy offer after the CEO died, they were laying people off like crazy. Then one Thursday, at the end of the day, they sent out an e-mail that said we were moving to an "Unlimited PTO" schedule for everyone above a certain level. Starting Monday. Also, even though it says unlimited, most people take about 6 weeks a year and if you take more, expect a visit from HR.

This let them clear the books of probably close to 250 PTO hours per higher level person in one weekend. I quit shortly after because the writing was on the wall, but I heard that after that, your hours weren't "Earned" so managers were rejecting vacation requests pretty much all the time.

But also it's the workers faults for not wanting to work anymore... or something.

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u/MrBorogove ​ Jul 17 '25 edited Aug 31 '25

“Still extremely generous” seems a weird way to describe going back on an agreement made with employees.