Many companies have done away with "sick leave" and "vacation" as employee benefits and have replaced them with "paid time off" (PTO). While this looks good on the surface, it can be a costly mistake.
Paid time off is a bank of hours from which employees can draw. Employers credit additional hours to their employees’ "banks", usually every pay period. Most US employers offer their workers 10 paid holidays, 2 weeks vacation, two personal days, and 8 sick leave days per year. Under a PTO plan, the employees would be credited with 30 days paid time off instead (10+10+2+8).
On a bi-weekly pay schedule (26 pay periods per year) employees would accrue an additional 1.3 days of PTO every two weeks. Where a semi-monthly pay schedule is used (pay days on the 1st and 15th of each month) employees accrue 1.25 days PTO on each of the 24 pay periods.