Paid Personal Days

What Are Paid Personal Days Time Off?

Paid personal days constitute paid time off from work that an organization voluntarily provides employees as a benefit. The number of paid personal days often accrues to employees based on years of service to the organization and the level of their position within the organization.

Hours of paid personal time off from work often accrue over the calendar year, although most companies will allow employees to use paid personal days before they are accrued. Other companies, however, keep paid personal days simple—every employee receives the same number of paid personal days each year.

As you can see from the examples, paid personal time off is just that—personal—and is used at the employee’s discretion for needs that are personal in their life. Rarely will two employees use their personal days the same. purposes They are provided by the employer to meet the needs of each individual employee and, as such, they are deeply appreciated by your workforce.

Why Might an Employer Provide Paid Personal Time Off?

Paid personal days are normally part of an employer’s comprehensive benefits package and supplement other paid time off such as paid sick days, paid vacation days, and paid holidays.

As part of this package, employers provide two-three paid personal days a year. Paid personal days are paid at an employee’s normal base salary or on an hourly wage for hourly employees.

Employers provide these paid time off opportunities to remain competitive as an employer. Comparable employers provide these types of paid time off for employees and an employer who doesn't is at a disadvantage when it comes to hiring superior employees.

The employer also has the opportunity through his or her paid time off packages to limit the number of days that an employee takes off. The provided number of days off tends to set up the expectation with employees that this is the number of days that they are allowed to miss work without affecting their standing in the organization.

In a workplace that emphasizes flexibility, this minimal number of days works out well because employees may only need to use paid time off for events that will last 2-4 hours or longer. A one-hour parent-teacher meeting might allow the employee to leave work an hour early in the afternoon and start an hour early in the morning to make up the time. The employee would not use their paid personal days in a flexible workplace.

Employers Provide Guidelines for Using Paid Personal Days

Employers often have guidelines about when employees may use paid personal days. These guidelines will entail the process for requesting paid personal time off that gives the organization as much advanced notice as possible, except in an emergency situation.

This limits the employer's exposure, especially in jobs that require an employee at every workstation, to unscheduled absences which can shut work down.

Employees must generally use paid personal days during the year for which they were allotted with no carry-over into the next calendar year. If an employee leaves the company, unused paid personal days are not eligible for payout at employment termination.

When an employee misses work because of reasons such as illness, jury duty, military service, bereavement, or vacation, paid personal days are not used. These absences are generally covered by other company policies and guidelines.

Companies Are Favoring PTO Instead of Time Off by Type of Day

Currently, organizations are moving away from company policies that allot categories of paid time off such as paid sick days, personal days, and vacation days.

Companies are opting, instead, for a paid time off (PTO) policy that folds sick days, vacation days, and personal days into one bank of days that employees use at their discretion. Paid holidays remain separate from the PTO bank of days and are offered as a separate and appreciated benefit.

Benefits of PTO

PTO also provides these added benefits.

There are additional benefits to a PTO policy, and some disadvantages, too. For example, employees tend to regard PTO as vacation time and use all of it, whereas time that is allotted for different purposes is thought of in conjunction with the stated reason that employees are paid for the time off.

There are no Federal laws in the US that require an employer to offer paid personal days or personal time off as a benefit, but employers of choice offer employees paid personal days either alone or rolled into PTO as part of a comprehensive benefits package.