PTO is paid time off or paid vacation time. An employer may or may not offer PTO, as employers are not required to provide PTO. If an employer has policies that provide its employees PTO, then the employees are entitled to whatever is stated in the company’s policy. Employees can use their PTO for essentially any reason, however employers generally may decide when an employee can use paid PTO.
Paid sick leave functions similarly to paid time off, but has limited specific purposes. Employees can use paid sick leave for preventive care or diagnosis, care or treatment of an existing health condition. There are also some other specified purposes that paid sick leave may be used for, such as if an employee is a victim of domestic violence. Employees may use paid leave for themselves or a family member.
Employers can either give employees all the hours at once up front or may allow the paid sick leave to accumulate 1 hour for every 30 hours worked. An employer may cap the paid sick leave at 24 hours and usually will. Unlike with PTO, employers are required to let employees use paid sick leave for qualifying reasons if employees have unused paid sick leave hours available.
When employees choose to use paid sick leave, they may use however much they want, but an employer can require an employee to use a minimum of at least two (2) hours. Finally, when the employment ends for whatever reason, employers are required to pay out all accrued unused PTO, but are not required to pay out the unused the paid sick leave.