PTO payout calculator
Unused vacation or PTO turned into a dollar figure, gross and after the flat rate a payout actually gets withheld at, plus whether your state has a statute that forces the payout to happen at all rather than leaving it to employer policy.
Worked example — What 60 hours of unused PTO at $32.00/hr is worth: $1,920.00. Gross payout before withholding. After the flat 22% federal rate, $1,497.60 lands.
Price your own unused PTO
Enter an hourly rate directly, or a salary to convert through the standard 2080-hour convention, the amount of unused time in hours, days, or weeks, and the state the payout happens in. The result is gross and net, plus what has been confirmed about your state's own payout requirement.
60 hours at $32/hr, California: A direct hourly rate, the most common case, in a state that bans forfeiture of vested vacation.
Conventions and withholding tier 3
California requires this payout by statute: Cal. Lab. Code section 227.3.
Both lines grow in a straight line with hours, at a fixed 22% gap, because the flat withholding rate does not change with the size of a payout under the $1,000,000 cumulative threshold. The dashed marker is your current unused-hours amount.
How much unused PTO is actually worth
60 hours of unused PTO at $32.00 an hour is $1,920.00 gross, the balance times the rate and nothing else. Withheld at the flat federal supplemental rate, that becomes -$422.40, leaving $1,497.60 before any state tax.
A smaller balance scales the same way: 40 hours at $22 an hour is $880.00 gross and $686.40 net. A salaried balance converts first: an $85,000 salary implies an hourly rate of $40.87 at the 2080-hour convention (40 hours a week, 52 weeks), so 3 weeks unused, 120 hours, is worth $4,903.85 gross and $3,825.00 net.
States that require a PTO payout on separation
No federal law requires a PTO or vacation payout at all: whether it happens is a matter of state law and employer policy. The table below holds only the states a primary source, the state's own labour or employment code, was read for. It is not a full 50-state survey: a state's absence here means it was not checked, never that no requirement exists. Check your own state's labor department and your employer's written policy for anything not listed.
| State | Payout required? | Citation |
|---|---|---|
| California | Yes, by statute | Cal. Lab. Code section 227.3 |
| Colorado | Yes, by statute | C.R.S. section 8-4-101(14) |
| Illinois | Yes, by statute | 820 ILCS 115/5 |
| Massachusetts | Yes, by statute | M.G.L. c.149 section 148 |
| Montana | Yes, by statute | Mont. Code Ann. section 39-3-205; Montana Dept. of Labor and Industry wage and hour guidance |
| Nebraska | Yes, by statute | Neb. Rev. Stat. section 48-1229 |
| Rhode Island | Yes, by statute | R.I. Gen. Laws section 28-14-4 |
| Texas | No statute found | Tex. Payday Law, Tex. Lab. Code ch. 61; Texas Workforce Commission guidance |
Even in a state with no payout statute, a written employer policy or offer letter that promises one is a binding agreement in every state; the statute is what forces the payout when the employer's own policy is silent or tries to disclaim it.
Why a PTO payout is withheld at a flat rate
A PTO payout is supplemental wages, the same IRS category as a bonus, and the optional flat rate for supplemental wages is 22% on the amount that keeps the employee's cumulative supplemental wages for the calendar year under $1,000,000, and 37% on the portion above that line, not the payout as a whole. That is a withholding rate, not the employee's actual tax rate: it decides what is held back now, and the real liability is settled at filing against the marginal bracket, which can be higher or lower than 22%.
If this payout is combined with a final regular paycheque instead of issued on its own, an employer may withhold using the aggregate method (adding the payout to the regular wages and withholding on the total as if it were one regular paycheque) rather than the flat rate. The aggregate result is not computed here: it depends on the regular paycheque amount and the W-4 on file, both outside this calculator.
Gross PTO payout vs what actually lands
At $32.00 an hour, every balance loses the same 22% share to federal withholding, because the flat rate does not change with the size of the payout below the $1,000,000 threshold. State tax, if any, comes out of the net figure below and is not included.
| Hours | Gross payout | Federal withholding | Net estimate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | $640.00 | -$140.80 | $499.20 |
| 40 | $1,280.00 | -$281.60 | $998.40 |
| 60 | $1,920.00 | -$422.40 | $1,497.60 |
| 80 | $2,560.00 | -$563.20 | $1,996.80 |
| 120 | $3,840.00 | -$844.80 | $2,995.20 |
Where these figures come from
The 22% and 37% federal supplemental-wage withholding rates and the $1,000,000 threshold between them are from IRS Publication 15 (Circular E), section 7, verified against irs.gov on 2026-08-08. Each state row in the payout table above is cited to that state's own labour or employment code, also verified 2026-08-08. Both are re-checked every January: the federal rate has been stable since 2018 but the schedule it sits inside is not, and state statutes move on their own legislative calendars. Your own paystub, offer letter, and state labor department govern over this page.
The next question after this one
PTO accrual calculatorCalculatorBefore cashing out, project how much more PTO would accrue by staying to a later separation date instead.Open nextOther questions
- Hourly to salary calculatorCalculatorCheck the hourly rate this payout is priced at against every other pay frequency, not just the annual figure.
- Take-home pay after a raise calculatorCalculatorThe flat 22% withheld here is a withholding rate, not a tax rate. This runs the same paycheque question against the real marginal brackets.
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More calculators for the same paycheque
The PTO accrual calculator projects the balance this payout is cashing out before you separate, and the take-home-after-a-raise calculator runs the same withholding question against a raise instead of a payout.