StartEaseHelp / Employers
Company PTO and paid sick leave: what each setting means
PTO is your company's own policy. Paid sick leave is a state law. This guide explains the PTO settings, when to turn PTO on or off, what happens to unused PTO when someone leaves, and the sick leave rules StartEase applies state by state.
Pending compliance review. The figures in this article come from the StartEase rules table, the same table the platform uses to calculate. The legal references were written from knowledge and have not yet been checked against the current official text. Do not rely on them for a decision until your compliance team has confirmed them.
1. The two kinds of time off
| Company PTO | Paid sick leave | |
|---|---|---|
| What it is | Time off your company chooses to give: vacation, personal days, or a mix. | Paid leave a state or city law requires for certain employers. |
| Who decides | You, in Company details under Time off. | The state where the employee works. StartEase tracks it automatically where the rules table has a law. |
| Can you turn it off? | Yes. Choose No PTO tracking. | No. Where a law applies, StartEase keeps tracking it. Unpaid time off cannot replace the sick leave the law requires. |
| Federal law | The federal Fair Labor Standards Act does not require paid vacation or paid sick leave. The requirements come from state and local laws. | |
2. The PTO settings
Open Company details and find the Time off card.
| Setting | What it means |
|---|---|
| No PTO tracking | The company does not use a PTO balance. Nothing accrues, and time off is unpaid unless a state sick leave law applies. |
| Hours per year, earned each paycheck | You choose a number of PTO hours a year (for example 80). Each payroll adds an equal share: 80 hours on a biweekly schedule adds about 3.08 hours a paycheck (80 ÷ 26). |
| Hours earned per hour worked | Employees earn PTO for each hour they work. A rate of 0.0385 is 1 hour for every 26 worked, about 80 hours a year for a full-time employee. |
| Most PTO hours a balance can hold | The cap. Earning stops at the cap. Leave it blank for no cap. |
| When time off is more than the balance | Lock at zero: the extra hours become unpaid time off. Allow a negative balance: the balance may go below zero, down to a limit you set. Anything past the limit is unpaid. |
| Pay unused PTO in the final paycheck | Pays the unused hours when someone leaves. See section 4. |
New employees start with the balance you enter under Time off on their record. After that, each payroll adds what they earn and takes off what they use.
3. When to turn PTO on or off
| Situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| You give no paid time off, and your states have no sick leave law | Choose No PTO tracking. |
| You give vacation or personal days | Turn PTO on and set the hours, the cap and the negative balance rule you want to follow. Put the same rules in your written policy. |
| Your employees work in a state with a paid sick leave law | StartEase tracks sick leave on its own, whether PTO is on or off. You can give PTO as well. If your PTO policy already meets the state rules, ask your payroll team how to set it up so employees are not given the same hours twice. |
| You stop offering PTO | Choose No PTO tracking. Before you change it, check your written policy and any state rule about payout of balances that employees already earned. |
Tip. PTO is a company policy, so you may set it up any way the law allows. A state sick leave law sets a minimum. Your PTO policy may be more generous, never less.
4. Unused PTO when someone leaves
Some states require the final paycheck to include unused PTO. In the StartEase rules table these states always pay it out, and the company cannot switch it off: California, Colorado, Illinois, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota, Rhode Island.
In other states, such as Texas and Wyoming, the law does not require a payout. StartEase pays it only if the company ticks Pay unused PTO in the final paycheck in its own policy.
- The amount is the unused hours times the hourly rate. For a salaried employee the hourly rate is the salary divided by 2,080.
- StartEase does not track how soon the final paycheck must be paid. Check each state's deadline with your compliance team.
5. Paid sick leave: the rules StartEase applies
This table is the StartEase rules table. A blank "accrual" means the rules table holds a payout rule but no sick leave accrual for that state. Employers with employees in other states, and in cities or counties that have their own paid leave laws, must check those separately.
| State | Sick leave accrual in StartEase | Unused PTO paid at exit | Notes from the rules table | Law and official site |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alaska | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 40 hours a year | No | Daily overtime applies to employers with 4 or more employees. Exempt floor is 2× the state minimum wage × 40. | Alaska paid sick leave law (2024 Ballot Measure 1) Official site |
| Arizona | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 40 hours a year | No | 24 hours a year for employers with fewer than 15 employees. | A.R.S. § 23-371 et seq. Official site |
| California | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 40 hours a year | Yes, always | Exempt floor is 2× the state minimum wage ($16.90) × 2,080 hours. No highly compensated exemption. | Cal. Lab. Code §§ 245–249; vested vacation: § 227.3 Official site |
| Colorado | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 48 hours a year | Yes, always | Daily overtime after 12 hours. Check the exempt salary floor each January. | C.R.S. § 8-13.3-401 et seq.; wage payment: C.R.S. § 8-4-101 Official site |
| Connecticut | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 40 hours a year | No | Conn. Gen. Stat. § 31-57r et seq. Official site | |
| District of Columbia | 1 hour for every 37 worked, up to 56 hours a year | No | 1 hour per 37 for 100+ employees, per 43 for 25–99, per 87 under 25. | D.C. Code § 32-531.01 et seq. Official site |
| Illinois | 1 hour for every 40 worked, up to 40 hours a year | Yes, always | Paid Leave for All Workers Act: leave for any reason. | 820 ILCS 192 (Paid Leave for All Workers Act); 820 ILCS 115/5 Official site |
| Louisiana | No sick leave accrual in the rules table | Yes, always | La. R.S. 23:631 Official site | |
| Maine | 1 hour for every 40 worked, up to 40 hours a year | No | Earned paid leave for any reason, employers with more than 10 employees. | 26 M.R.S. § 637 Official site |
| Maryland | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 40 hours a year | No | Paid for employers with 15 or more employees. | Md. Code, Lab. & Empl. § 3-1301 et seq. Official site |
| Massachusetts | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 40 hours a year | Yes, always | M.G.L. c. 149, § 148C; vacation pay: § 148 Official site | |
| Michigan | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 72 hours a year | No | 40 hours for employers with fewer than 11 employees. | MCL 408.961 et seq. (Earned Sick Time Act) Official site |
| Minnesota | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 48 hours a year | No | Minn. Stat. §§ 181.9445–181.9448 Official site | |
| Montana | No sick leave accrual in the rules table | Yes, always | Mont. Code Ann. § 39-3-205 Official site | |
| Nebraska | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 40 hours a year | Yes, always | 24 hours for employers with fewer than 11 employees. | Nebraska Healthy Families and Workplaces Act; wage payment law (sections to confirm) Official site |
| New Jersey | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 40 hours a year | No | N.J.S.A. 34:11D-1 et seq. Official site | |
| New Mexico | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 64 hours a year | No | N.M. Stat. Ann. § 50-17-1 et seq. Official site | |
| New York | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 56 hours a year | No | Exempt floor is $1,275 a week in New York City, Long Island and Westchester. Sick leave: 40 hours for 5–99 employees, 56 for 100+. | N.Y. Labor Law § 196-b Official site |
| North Dakota | No sick leave accrual in the rules table | Yes, always | North Dakota Century Code, wage payment law (section to confirm) Official site | |
| Oregon | 1 hour for every 30 worked, up to 40 hours a year | No | ORS 653.601–653.661 Official site | |
| Rhode Island | 1 hour for every 35 worked, up to 40 hours a year | Yes, always | Vacation payout after one year of service. | R.I. Gen. Laws ch. 28-57; vacation pay: ch. 28-14 (section to confirm) Official site |
| Vermont | 1 hour for every 52 worked, up to 40 hours a year | No | 21 V.S.A. §§ 481–487 Official site | |
| Washington | 1 hour for every 40 worked | No | Exempt floor is 2.25× the state minimum wage × 40. | RCW 49.46.210 Official site |
Note. Company size can change the rules in some states. See Employees for labor-law size tests.
6. What StartEase does not do
- It does not check city or county paid leave laws.
- It does not track how soon a final paycheck is due.
- It does not update a state rule by itself. The super admin enters changes from official sources.
- It does not decide your PTO policy. That is the company's choice.