There is no federal minimum, so this is a policy calculator
Start with the thing that makes an American PTO calculator different from every other country's. The Department of Labor states it plainly: the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations, sick leave or federal or other holidays. Those benefits are matters of agreement between an employer and an employee.
Not a low minimum. None. Britain requires 5.6 weeks, Australia four, Canada two rising with service, and the United States requires nothing.
That inverts what a calculator here is for. Every other market's tool works out what the law owes you and warns you when an employer is short. This one works out what your own policy produces, because your policy is the only thing there is to compute against.
And the federal holidays are not an exception
The same sentence covers "federal or other holidays". The eleven federal holidays bind federal employees and no private employer. A paid Thanksgiving is a benefit your employer chose.
Which raises a question worth asking about your own policy: are holidays given on top of PTO, or are you expected to spend PTO on them? Both are common, neither is the default, and the difference is roughly two weeks a year. It is one of the largest single variables in an American benefits package and it is usually one line in a handbook.
The real job here is unit conversion
American PTO policies are written in at least three incompatible units, and they can describe the identical benefit:
10 days a year = 80 hours
= 1.5385 hours per weekly pay period
= 3.0769 hours per biweekly pay period
= 3.3333 hours twice a month
= 6.6667 hours per month
= 0.0385 hours per hour workedAn offer stating 3.08 hours a fortnight and a current policy stating ten days are the same thing, and no employee can see that without doing the division. Nobody publishes the conversion, which is why comparing two PTO offers is unreasonably hard.
One small thing falls out of it. The exact biweekly figure for ten days is 3.0769, and every payroll system writes that as 3.08. Over 26 periods that is 80.08 hours rather than 80: about five minutes a year, in your favour. It is also why the conversions above will not land on exactly ten days when you type the number off your own payslip.
Twice a month is not every two weeks
Worth separating, because the two get used interchangeably and they are 24 periods against 26. The same per-period figure is a different annual benefit depending which cycle you are on, by two periods' worth. On a 3.08 policy that is about six hours a year.
Per pay period against per hour worked, which is the one that bites
These look like the same benefit written differently and they behave differently in one important way: whether working less reduces it.
An hourly accrual tracks hours actually worked. A slow quarter, a lay-off, a period of unpaid leave: each one cuts what you build up, proportionally and automatically.
A per-pay-period accrual does not care. Thirty hours that fortnight or fifty, you accrue the same.
For anybody on stable full-time hours the two are equivalent and the distinction is academic. For anybody whose hours swing, which is most of construction, it is the difference between the two offers. It is also the reason an employer with seasonal work often prefers the hourly method, and that preference is not a secret, it is just never explained.
A granted year is available up front
The third method hands you the whole year on day one. That is better than it looks if you leave mid-year with most of it taken, and worse if the policy recovers unused advances out of your final paycheck. Whether it may do that is, again, a state question.
Use-it-or-lose-it, and why this tool will not tell you if it is legal
The calculator works out what a carry-over cap would cost you in hours. It deliberately does not tell you whether the cap is enforceable, and that is a considered omission rather than a gap.
Some states treat accrued vacation as earned wages. Wages cannot be forfeited, so in those states a use-it-or-lose-it clause is unenforceable and unused time must be paid out when you leave. Other states permit forfeiture outright. There is no federal rule either way.
Fifty states on fifty legislative calendars is not a table one person can keep accurate, and a stale answer here would be worse than no answer, because it is exactly the sort of thing somebody relies on when deciding whether to book time off in December. So the useful output is the question: does my state treat accrued PTO as wages? That single question resolves the whole thing, and your state labor department answers it.
Where an American entitlement does exist
The DOL page carries two exceptions, and they are the most useful part of it for anybody working on public infrastructure.
The McNamara O'Hara Service Contract Act. On a government contract to which its labor standards apply, holiday and vacation fringe benefit requirements are stated in the SCA wage determinations, in contracts exceeding $2,500.
The Davis-Bacon and Related Acts. On a covered contract, holiday pay or vacation pay is required for specific classifications of workers only if the wage determination for that contract specifies it.
So the same tradesman can have a genuine legal entitlement on a federally funded job and none at all on private work the following week. The document that decides is the wage determination for that particular contract, not any general rule about American leave. That is worth knowing before accepting that the answer is simply "there is no entitlement in America", which is what most writing on this says and which is wrong for a large part of the construction workforce.
The DOL cites 29 CFR 4.173 for the detail of the federal contract fringe rules.
Why this is not the same page as holiday entitlement
Because the question is different, not just the vocabulary. A British page asks how many days the law gives you and whether your employer counts bank holidays inside it. An Australian one asks whether you are a shiftworker and which award sets your leave loading. Both have a statutory number at the centre of them.
This page has no statutory number to put at the centre, so it asks how your policy is written and converts it. The words differ too, and by a long way: the measured American search volume for "PTO calculator" is around two hundred and seventy times that of "holiday entitlement". A page called holiday entitlement is not competing badly in the United States, it is invisible there.
Our UK holiday entitlement tool covers the British statutory position, and the three link to each other rather than pretending to be one page with a flag on it.
Common questions
How much PTO am I legally entitled to in the United States?
None. The Department of Labor states that the Fair Labor Standards Act does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations, sick leave or federal or other holidays, and that these benefits are matters of agreement between an employer and an employee. There is no federal minimum, not a low one. Whatever you get is whatever your employer wrote down, which is why this tool asks about your policy rather than about the law.
Are the federal holidays paid days off?
Not for private employers. The same DOL sentence covers federal or other holidays, so the eleven federal holidays bind federal employees and nobody else. Some policies give them on top of PTO, some expect you to spend PTO on them, and the difference between those two is worth about two weeks a year. It is worth checking which yours does, because both are common and neither is the default.
What does 3.08 hours per pay period actually mean?
On a biweekly cycle it is 80.08 hours a year, which is just over ten days on an eight hour day. The exact figure for ten days is 80 divided by 26, which is 3.0769, and payroll systems round it to 3.08. So a policy stating 3.08 is very slightly more generous than one stating ten days: about five minutes a year in your favour.
How do I compare two offers when they state PTO differently?
Convert both to annual hours, which is what the table above does. One offer saying 3.08 hours a fortnight, another saying 0.0385 hours per hour worked, and a third saying ten days a year are the same benefit. Nobody publishes that conversion, which is the main reason PTO offers are hard to compare and the main reason this tool exists.
What is the difference between accruing per pay period and per hour worked?
Whether working less reduces it. An hourly accrual tracks hours actually worked, so a slow quarter, a lay-off or unpaid leave all cut what you build up. A per-pay-period accrual gives you the same whether you worked thirty hours that fortnight or fifty. On paper the two can look like an identical benefit and for anybody whose hours vary they are not.
Can my employer take away PTO I did not use?
It depends on your state and there is no federal rule. Some states treat accrued vacation as earned wages, which cannot be forfeited, so a use-it-or-lose-it clause is unenforceable there and unused time has to be paid out when you leave. Others permit forfeiture outright. This tool works out what a cap would cost you and deliberately does not tell you whether it is lawful, because fifty states on fifty legislative calendars is not something one person can keep accurate.
Is there ever a legal right to vacation pay in America?
Yes, on federal contracts, and it matters on a construction job. Under the McNamara O Hara Service Contract Act, holiday and vacation fringe benefit requirements are stated in the SCA wage determinations for contracts exceeding $2,500. Under the Davis-Bacon and Related Acts, holiday or vacation pay is required for specific classifications of workers only where the wage determination in the covered contract specifies it. So the same tradesman can be entitled on a federally funded job and entitled to nothing on private work the following week, and the wage determination is the document that decides.
How does US PTO compare with other countries?
It is the outlier. Britain requires 5.6 weeks, which is 28 days on a five day week, though bank holidays may be counted inside it. Australia requires four weeks with public holidays separate on top. Canada requires two weeks federally, rising with service, with provincial variation. The United States requires nothing at all, which is why an American PTO calculator is a policy calculator and every other country has an entitlement calculator.