Paid Time Off

I have read many posts about this topic on various threads, and it is kind of a personal question; but I was hoping some people would not mind sharing what they receive from their current employers (private not public/govt) in this thread. We are having a disagreement in my office about what the company policy should be. I would like to know about vacation, sick days, personal days, and especially days off for bad weather. Thanks for the help.

pamela23
Sep '14

We only get PTO days and we have to use them for vacation, sick and if there is bad weather. Can't stand my companies policies.

PTOOverAll PTOOverAll
Sep '14

I don't get any paid days off, if I miss work for any reason I have to take a loss. It is insane!

Karen8821 Karen8821
Sep '14

We get 6 PTO days to use for personal, sick, bad weather, etc in addition to vacation. It's ok. They make us save some of it for planned shutdown over Christmas . Seems to work out fine.

MeisterNJ MeisterNJ
Sep '14

All PTO - use them as you see fit.

buffy buffy
Sep '14

I get 20 vacation days, 5 sick, 2 personal. My company and my boss are very good about letting us stay home in case of bad weather, but the expectation is that we work from home.


We have a graduated PTO schedule depending on tenure.

All employees start at 11 days/ year. At the 5, 10, and 15-20 (each year) milestones, days are added up to a maximum of 27 days/year. I'll hit 10 years in 2015, which will give me 21 days off. We can carry over 80 hours year to year.

Salaried employees can use PTO for any "scheduled" absence, but are not required to use it for "unscheduled" absences (sick/weather) as long as it's not abused. If I happened to get "sick" every Friday, my manager would certainly want to have a talk...

Hourly employees must deduct hours for any absence regardless of "scheduling".

Mark Mc. Mark Mc.
Sep '14

relatively new employee, there are 6 holidays, and 16 pto days to take for whatever reason.

ken e
Sep '14

MB that is insane. Get me a job there....

Mr Negative Mr Negative
Sep '14

I get 4 weeks vacation, 5 floating or personal days and 5 sick days. Just got the 4th week this year after 10 years with the company.


20 days vacation, 6 personal, 3 sick. Because I work from home and have a good boss, I don't need to use up personal time on things that take only part of a day (so long as my work gets done).


i get 4weeks of vacation. 2 weeks of personal/sick days. Plus every US holdiay off like Columbus Day, Veterans Day.


But i'm confused on the point of this thread is. It's up to each company on what their policy should be. Are you in a position of changing the company's policy or just looking to see what others get so you can complain?

darwin darwin
Sep '14

Sounds like others have it even better, Mr Negative ;)

My 20 vacation days are after 10 years of service, though.....


It also depends on how long you have worked for the company.
And, WOW, I was going to ask the same question Darwin did, but figured he would have a smart remark. Lol.

botheredbyuu2 botheredbyuu2
Sep '14

Ours varies depending on time served, but for full-time employees it can max out at 20 sick days and 20 vacation days. Our part-time guys get no sick time (although NYC's sick-time law is about to throw a wrench into that), but get paid out 8% of their gross at the end of the contract year as vacation pay.

We're not a government employer, but a very large non-profit, which is pretty much the same thing (other peoples $, zero accountability, etc.).

Brendan Brendan
Sep '14

You are all going the HATE me!

I get:

20 vacation days
Fridays off from the second week of June through Labor Day
3 days Thanksgiving break
10 days off for holiday/winter break
10 days off for spring break
There is no official limit and/or policy for personal or sick time
100% pay if on medical disability for up to 6 months

Paid holidays (that don't fall within other breaks):

MLK Day
President's Day (2 days)
Good Friday
Memorial Day
Independence Day
Labor Day
Rosh Hashanah
Columbus Day or Yom Kippur depending how Yom Kippur falls

It's a good deal for sure!

Calico696 Calico696
Sep '14

No wonder you have so much time to drink...

Mark Mc. Mark Mc.
Sep '14

WOW some of you guys get a lot. It does however depends on how long you have been there?

My husband when he works only gets 5 days vacation a year Holidays depends on where they fall. Like if they fall on a Sat, or Sun. he doesn't get them. No sick time and 2 personal days only. If you are sick you have to use your vacation time before you apply for disability. We also pay our own medical. After 5 years he gets 2 weeks.

Christine Christine
Sep '14

LOL Mark :-D

Calico696 Calico696
Sep '14

Loved PTO when I had it. 30 days after one year to use as I wanted: Vacation, sick, personal, or snow. PTO evens out the playing field for people who abuse sick time. No more time without pay. If you ran out of days and went over you received a verbal warning, written warning, then fired.

I now have 2 weeks after one year with the week off between Christmas and New Years. That week is a gift and does not count as part of my two week. Three weeks after 5 years of service. No sick time or snow time. Must use vacation time. It may sound severe compared to what I had but the workplace environment is so much better.

Happycamper Happycamper
Sep '14

My husband works 7 days a week 365 days a year. He has to get up after Thanksgiving and Christmas dinner and go out and milk the cows.

hktownie hktownie
Sep '14

When I was working (now retired) I worked for a small privately owned company. I received my weekly salary even if I was off sick or could not get into work. If I wanted a few days off or even a week..just to let him know a few months before. When I was out for a month or more due to surgery and treatments...I got a pay check for all of that time I was out. I would say I had the best boss ever!

joyful joyful
Sep '14

My daughter had a corporate job as a legal sect.the first year of working. After a year she got 12 sick days. At the end of that year her friends said your crazy take them I said are you sick . She said no. I said I guess you didn't need them. Don't think that's not noticed. Her friends were stuck as she progress up the Corp ladder.
For ten years I got 15 days a year. I used about 30 when I had Open heart. When I retired I had about 125 in the bank. They paid for only 40 as max. It didn't brother me as I was grateful to have had a job I loved and was hired at 55 years old after loosing a Job.
As you can see I didn't have a State Gov Job

Old Gent Old Gent
Sep '14

How much you make a year cali?

fitter fitter
Sep '14

I knew I was going to regret opening this one:) I have been at my job for almost 14 yrs. and I get 12 days to be used for personal, sick, and weather. I get paid for 6 holidays.
Occasionally I will get a few "free" hrs., but since my normal work week is 53 hrs. it doesn't feel like much of a break.


I've been at my company for 20 years. I have:
25 PTO days
6 sick days (of which no salaried employee ever uses...if you're sick and can't work, you don't work. You still have to complete your goals by end of year)
10 holidays
Flex time...if I need to leave early/come in late, like above, just get your work done

It's 100 miles round trip for me. I work from home 2 days a week and never drive in if inclement weather is in the forecast.

At the end of the day, we all work more than the 37.5 hours/week that our salaries are calculated from but the flexibility helps to allow us to be there for our families when we need to be.

emaxxman emaxxman
Sep '14

I work for a municipality and 10 years in I get 15 vacation, 10 sick, 3 personal, 12 holidays,and can accrue up to 50 hours comptime/ year...

Mr. Tone Mr. Tone
Sep '14

Oh, I forgot snow days. ;-)

Calico696 Calico696
Sep '14

I get 20 PTO days, 2 personal days, 2 family sick days and unlimited sick days for myself. And I work from home. I count my blessings everyday!

CGinHtown CGinHtown
Sep '14

Calico, what do you do for a living?

Challah Challah
Sep '14

I'm an accountant. I work for a private school.

Calico696 Calico696
Sep '14

10 Vacation days. Sick Time as required. Work remotely and flexible hours/days for weather, and sometimes for personal time. Use it of lose it. 11 paid holidays. Not bad for being there 2+ years I guess but makes me miss being in school.

Really need to get comp time, my work week is 40 hours at the office, but I'm basically on call 24/7, and even days off often mean clearing out the inbox, or running a few tasks before I can enjoy a day.

alpha1beta alpha1beta
Sep '14

No pension or free retiree medical right Calico?


My husband works for a national/international delivery service who shall remain unnamed.He gets 0 vacation days, 0 sick days , 0 weather days and when the boss closes the route for a week for his vacation, you don't get paid either. Hard to find anything else when you are in your 60's though.

Dansker Dansker
Sep '14

Emaxx my job sounds pretty similar to yours.

Bryan Bryan
Sep '14

Just to throw something different into the mix...

I own my own business. There really aren't such things as "paid days off" for an owner. If I work, I earn money. If I don't work, I don't earn money. If I work enough, I can bank some money to allow myself to take vacation time (or PTOs)... it's a double-edged sword. Sometimes the work is not there, and I take UNpaid days off, by no choice of my own.

I have seen both sides of the coin- I have worked for a company, where all I had to do was show up every day, and do the same thing. I got PTOs sick/personal/vaca. While the job was stressful in some ways, it was LESS stressful in many ways as well.

As an owner, I do have a more flexible schedule (if I want to, and if I can afford it), but I also have the additional stresses of RUNNING the business- I have to figure out ways to generate work, I have to bank money for the slow periods, when something goes down like the truck or a tool, I have to "find" the money to fix/replace it..... there's alot more to it than simply "showing up" every day.

It's really "6 of 1, half dozen of the other." I'm not sure that one is better than the other.... I think it's more of a personality type thing. Altho Calico sounds like she's got a cherry job!!!

JeffersonRepub JeffersonRepub
Sep '14

iJay - No free medical (good group rates though around $200/month for family coverage). I do get an amount equal to 10% of my salary contributed to an annuity. Also, have free vision coverage, life insurance equal to 2x my salary and free long term care insurance.

JR - Yes, which is why I've been here almost 19 years. :-)

Calico696 Calico696
Sep '14

JR, the same could be said for the rest of our bosses; you just happen to be one and the same person.

If we work, our bosses (hopefully) make money; if we don't work, our bosses don't make money. If we work enough, our boss can bank enough money to allow us to take off and pay us for it. If those numbers don't work out, the boss starts cutting back on benefits and paid time off...

ianimal ianimal
Sep '14

This is the first chance I have had to check back - wow!, thank you for all of the responses. A lot of good information here. I appreciate the time everyone took to write.

pamela23
Sep '14

i work for a small company (less than 50 people) and you start with 3 weeks total to be used as sick/vacation time. but when you actually sit down and calculate it, it turns out to be a little over 14 days... not not a true 3 weeks. We work on an accrual basis.. so every two weeks on pay day if you haven't taken any time off you accrue about 4.27 hours. So you really accrue a little over 1 day off per month. It's really not the best policy - would be so much better for the 3 week allotment to start fresh every year. pretty hard to accrue enough to take a week off, and then you're back to square 1 having to accrue it all over again. =o(

Poppy Girl
Sep '14

Darwin, I asked because we are updating our policy and trying to make it as fair as possible. And you hit the nail on the head: every company should decide what their own policy should be. So many factors (as mentioned above) go into that decision / process. I was hoping for a variety of scenarios and I got a lot more than I expected - thanks again to everyone who responded. Yes, I am in a position to change the policy as part of a team working on it, and no I am not looking to complain. However, someone else here in the office is complaining; so I thought it would be a good idea to find out what other companies are providing as part of the process. I have completed my own little survey of friends, family, etc. and there really are some big differences.

Ianimal, your post about bosses, numbers, and employees working enough is well said and so true.

pamela23
Sep '14

I worked for a company where you really did not have many other employees to do your job if you were out but we were offered sick and vacation. As incentive not to take it all about 2 weeks before christmas they would pay one lump sum check for unused time


thats great pam, i'm glad you are in a postion to change your company's policy. good luck

darwin darwin
Sep '14

I work for a very small but very profitable company for 5 years, 3 of them as the only real employee (others are the owner's wife and his business partner). It really hurts when you have a parent passed away and your boss aka owner of the company tells you that company doesn't have bereavement leave. No condolences either ....


How about 52% more...

"Conclusion
After overcoming several methodological challenges to evaluating teacher compensation, it is evident that existing public-school teachers receive wages that are at least as high as comparably skilled workers, while their benefits and job security exceed what they could earn in the private sector. Overall, public-school-teacher compensation exceeds private levels by approximately 52 percent, for a total of more than $120 billion annually in excessive labor costs.[68] State and local governments seeking to balance their budgets in difficult times should take a close look at teacher compensation, which is considerably higher than necessary to retain the existing teacher workforce. More fundamental reform of teacher compensation would scrap the existing rewards for education and experience—and instead pay market rates to teachers who are measurably effective."

http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2011/10/assessing-the-compensation-of-public-school-teachers


Lena, that's terrible. I'm sorry you had to go through that. I can imagine how difficult it is to work for people like that.

Tracy Tracy
Sep '14

Lena, so you took vacation days? Well, yes, that is shitty. Sounds like you work for a Shylock...


"I'm sorry you had to go through that. I can imagine how difficult it is to work for people like that."

i'm gonna double down on Tracy's spot on empathy. i feel for you too Lena, no one should have to work in conditions like that.

unfortunately in today's highly charged ultra-competitive work environment, companies are 'outsourcing' many job functions to contract firms that bring in qualified workers for the lowest cost. not only is pay reduced, but there are usually no benefits or very limited benefits.

at the large companies i have been associated with, these yellow or red badged contractors are approaching half of the work force (sometimes even more) they are forced to work more than 40 hours a week off the clock, they get no paid holidays, no vacation and god help them if they get the flu, no paid time off, and they are replaced at the whim of low - mid level managers who demand absolute fealty. hard work for 10 - 12 hours each and every day is a requirement, and when anyone shows any sign of not keeping up, or asks for compensation for the unpaid overtime they get 'escorted' out and replaced with a more compliant indentured servant at a lower rate of pay.

this is happening all accross the country, and it is a very troubling trend. AT&T, IBM, J&J, Capitol One bank, Verzion and many others are doing this as a SOP.

higher and higher percentages of the american workforce are being forced into these kinds of jobs, and it'ts not good for us long term. the BLS stats back this up.

BrotherDog BrotherDog
Sep '14

BD you are so right. I know someone who works in NC for a warehouse. Worked hard did all the overtime required without complaints, made moderate pay but good overtime. Liked his coworkers and the bosses were fair. NOW he was offered to be a manager in NJ. Same pay. He turned it down because he could never survive in NJ with the pay they were offering. Back in NC a manager position opened up and he applied. They denied him the job and gave it to someone with less ability and seniority. So they come to him and say you can have asst. manager. He takes it. Now he works the same he was, overtime plus loads of paperwork and picks up the mistakes of his manager. He makes less money because he now does not get paid for overtime or time off. I say that's a screw you position. He is now looking for another job.

Christine Christine
Sep '14

Thank you, Tracy and BrotherDog. Yes, I took vacation days. There are a couple of them left so I will be able to go to interviews.

When I responded to this post I just wanted to point out that sometimes when talking about paid days off and personal days, people forget about bereavement leave. I have to say that every one in my family but me had 3 days paid bereavement leave. The way I see it - it's not about the money, it's about the respect. By the way, the company I work for is doing very well, owners take 2-3 week long vacations abroad at least twice year and just rented a new large office.


Lena, same thing happened to me-my Mom passed and I was told there is no bereavement pay. A month later my Dad passed and the same thing, no pay.
I get ONE week paid vacation, nothing else. NO sick days, (you can make up the time by staying late other days), no PTO, no pension and NO medical. And, like Lena, the company I work for is not struggling by any means and the owners go on extravagant trips, own a yacht and 3 Lexus.

linda linda
Sep '14

we are living in the 2nd 'gilded' age, the rich get richer while the rest of us struggle mightily to just put food on the table.

not good.

it's a new form of indentured servitude. no rights, no benefits, and no complaining about pay, just get back to work or you're done. we'll get another one in here who we can 'manage' easier.

BrotherDog BrotherDog
Sep '14

I am in a business where I do not get sick days, vacation time or personal days that are paid. Plain and simple, if I don't work, I don't get paid. My kids are sick, I have to decide if I can afford to stay home with them or get a sitter (I'm a single mom of 2 kids, and I do not receive state help). If I get sick, I still have to work. I don't take vacations every year. No work = no paycheck. I actually envy those who can take days off and still get paid. My profession is in high demand, so I guess it's worth it in the end.

footballgirlsmom footballgirlsmom
Sep '14

yes Christine, agree with you too, it's very harsh out there, 'assistant manager' in today's america translates into 'just another employee we get to abuse'

those who have good jobs with good pay with liberal time off benefits are having a very hard time understanding or empathizing with those who are struggling in this ultra-competitive work environment

i really feel strongly that the pendulum has swung too far the other way now and that it's time to start bringing it back.

america is experiencing a 2nd gilded age, with new forms of indentured servitude (contracted yellow badged employees at all the big companies), CEO's and business managers taking undue advantage of contracted/temp employees (that's right, i said it)

BrotherDog BrotherDog
Sep '14

Very true BrotherDog. But in a World that everyone agrees is not fair how does this "Pendulum Swing" get corrected to some degree? In the past it has only been through numbers -- Unions. Unions corrected a lot of the wrongs but then become abusive themselves (fast forward to 2014 when all pensions should be converted to 401ks but this probably won't happen for 15-20 years -- maybe less)...


My son whom is a CPA, specializes in a certain area. There are more letters after CPA, but I don't have a clue what they are, or even mean.
He gets vacation days and comp days, but it is really difficult to take off much time.
He is expected to be there regardless to see his clients and is constantly busy.
He had the flu last year, but was in the middle of a project and he showed up for work. He has never missed a day due to weather related reason. He was able to work from home when power was out.
He loses all his time over a certain amount, because you can just have so much to carry over.
He has advanced in his company and he is compensated by bonuses and raises.
I have never heard him complain. He likes what he does and feels lucky to be advancing. He told me he does what he needs to.

susan susan
Sep '14

let's scramble to buy Giants / Eagles / Yankees / Rangers, etc. season tickets for over $5,000 and then gladly pay $20 for a beer and hot dog. The poor small business NFL / NHL / MLB really needs the $, you are so happy to support them.You are the same people that willingly tip your dog groomer $20+ each time, but want your kids' teachers to live on minimum wage.Who is greedy and selfish?How about this, we can make a trade- you get your tax dollars back and give up your ability to read and write. Sound good?

vous
Sep '14

Just greed man can't explain it any other way.

fitter fitter
Sep '14

Do a survey of your students. How many of their parents:

1) Have job protection (tenure)
2) Retirement medical
3) Pension
4) Summers off


I worked for a company that had a standard bereavement policy of 3 days for immediate family. They were tough about hours, sick days. etc. They changed the policy to be that they respected each employees' decision as to how they needed to handle any death, be it family or friend. Not a single person abused that generosity. Give respect, get respect and hard work.


What teachers live on minimum wage vous? Avg NJ teacher salary is 63K (57K median). Average starting salary is 44K (tops in the country, btw). That's far from minimum wage, and that's not even taking into account getting excellent benefits.

http://www.nea.org/home/38465.htm

Someone earning minimum wage (8.25$/hr), working 180 (eight hour) days, would earn about 12k. Ok, so they probably work ~250 days a year excluding weekends and major holidays. That would be $16500.

Just facts. Not saying teachers don't deserve what they make and don't deserve more for a tough job. But minimum wage it is not.

MeisterNJ MeisterNJ
Sep '14

iJay, pick a new cause man . . .it's getting old.

Challah Challah
Sep '14

Not until the taxpayers are relieved from paying for the overcompensation...


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