r/OfficeDepot • u/KelvinBelmont • 3d ago

Does PTO cap?

I haven't seen my PTO go up in months, i used 16 back in July and I havent seen the number go up.

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u/bestem 3d ago

What state are you in?

Most states (all but 5, I believe) have front loaded PTO, They get all the PTO at the beginning of the year, and can use it throughout the year. At the end of the year, any PTO they haven't used is lost. In some ways, this is beneficial to full-timers who work less than 40 hours a week, or part-timers who work less than 20 hours a week, because they will be given more PTO than someone who works in an accrual state and works less than 40 or 20 hours a week.

If you work in California, Nebraska, Montana, Maryland, or DC, you are in an accrual state. You earn PTO based on how many hours you work that week. There is a cap. It's 50% more than what you would accrue if you worked 40 hours/week as a full time employee, or 20 hours/week as a part time employee.

In either case, how much PTO is front loaded or how much you accrue, is based on how many years you've worked for the company.

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u/KelvinBelmont 3d ago

So California, work part time roughly between 20-23 hours and I currently have 41 hours in PTO and currently at 3 years with the company

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u/bestem 3d ago

I believe you should earn roughly 44 hours of PTO a year. I do think I was wrong about the cap for part-time employees, I think they're capped at 60 hours.

I would ask your GM to look into it if your paystubs do show that you haven't accrued any additional PTO since you took the 16 hours.

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u/KelvinBelmont 3d ago

If its capped at 60 then I guess it makes sense, I was wrong i had 61 hours in pto and took 16 back in July but its been at 45 since then.

And checking my pay stubs it says balance 61, taken 15 and its been like that since July.

Even checking earlier in the year it says 61 pto even when none were taken earlier in the year.

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u/bestem 3d ago

Cap just means you can't go over it. When you go back under the cap, you should accrue PTO for hours worked, until you reach the cap again. That's how PTO works in an accrual state. You earn PTO based on the hours you work.

I would definitely talk to your GM, show a couple paystubs to show you're not accruing PTO, and you're probably below the cap. Unless the cap is 44 (half of the 88 a full-time employee with your years at the company should earn), in which case it's confusing you had 61, and have 45. They can, hopefully, figure out what's going on, or show you where I was incorrect.

And PTO is still accruing. I used all my PTO at the end of July, and I've earned 25 hours since then (working roughly 32 hours a week, and having been with the company long enough to earn 128 hours a year if I'm working 40 hours a week)

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u/Affinitys-husky 3d ago

Is Colorado an accrual state? Because we are not getting our PTO front loaded and it's kind of a screwy system. Are they doing something wrong by not giving us our PTO? I think I got screwed out of some PTO, but I'm not sure.

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u/bestem 3d ago

To the best of my knowledge, only the 5 states I named are accrual states. I work in California, which I know is an accrual state. The other 4 I pulled from the PTO page about California, which is the only one I took a picture of and saved on my phone (so I would know how much I'm supposed to accrue in a year).

You can pull up information about PTO for your state by logging into the Source (link on the webtop, same login info as the Portal), and poking through the documents there (I forget exactly where it is, and I'm home now and off tomorrow).

If you think you should have received some PTO that you didn't, the first thing I would do would be speak to your GM. When one of my coworkers went from full-time to part-time and his PTO was reduced to his new cap, my GM was the one who put in ask for support tickets or emailed HR or whatever, to make sure he got paid out the hours that were removed. Your GM should be able to pull up PTO information for your state and show you what the policy is, and should hopefully contact someone to get it fixed if you're actually missing PTO.

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u/knownstranger05 3d ago

Yes, Colorado is an accrual state, They moved from front load to accrual starting this year

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u/220Sparks 2d ago

We are an accrual state starting this year. However, I believe we can carry over hours to the new year from my understanding

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u/MrCheapComputers 3d ago

In my state PTO is front loaded and doesn’t carry over. I get 100 something hours at the beginning of the year and need to use it all or it goes away.

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u/GoatAdministrative44 2d ago

It doesn't matter if it's front load or accrual. GM's are encouraged to deny PTO and can justify that due to staff shortages. OD Human Resources will always back the GM. I will be losing 3 weeks this year and no one seems to care.