How your PTO payout is calculated.
Four numbers stand between your unused hours and your bank account. Here's each one.
1. Your hourly rate
Hourly employees already know this. If you're salaried, divide your annual salary by your yearly working hours — usually 2,080 (40 hours × 52 weeks). A $65,000 salary works out to $31.25 per hour.
2. Gross payout
Multiply your hourly rate by your accrued, unused PTO hours. At $31.25/hr with 80 hours banked, that's a $2,500 gross payout.
3. Tax withholding
PTO payouts are supplemental wages. The IRS applies a flat 22% federal withholding (37% above $1M), your state applies its own rate, and FICA takes 7.65% (Social Security + Medicare).
4. Net take-home
Subtract all withholding from the gross to get your real take-home amount. Our calculator runs all four steps live as you type and shows the breakdown in a donut chart.
hourly_rate = annual_salary / (hours_per_week × 52) gross_payout = accrued_hours × hourly_rate total_tax = federal(22%) + state + FICA(7.65%) net_payout = gross_payout - total_tax
Three steps to your exact payout.
Enter your pay details.
Your annual salary or hourly rate, and how many PTO hours you've accrued but haven't used.
Choose your state.
We apply the correct state tax rate and show whether your state legally requires your employer to pay out unused PTO.
Get your full breakdown.
Gross payout, federal tax, state tax, FICA, and your real net take-home — plus a downloadable PDF for your records.
Stop guessing. Calculate your exact payout.
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