How Much PTO Should You Give?
It's summer, which makes it the perfect time to talk about everyone's favorite gray area: PTO.
I field more questions about paid time off than almost any other topic — how much to give, whether to go unlimited, and whether people should really use all of it.
Quick history: PTO used to be two separate buckets, vacation and sick pay. About 10 to 15 years ago most companies merged them into one pool called paid time off.
Here's a number that shows why this matters: 46% of U.S. workers don't use all their paid time off, according to Pew Research. The reasons are telling. Many worry they'll fall behind, and 43% feel guilty about handing extra work to coworkers.
So let's clear up the confusion.
How Much Should You Give?
It depends on your industry and what your competitors offer. My benchmarks:
Professional services: Three weeks to start is table stakes. It usually moves to four weeks after five years, and some companies stretch to five — rarely six — to hold onto long-tenured people. For CPA and law firms, four weeks to start is the norm.
Blue-collar-heavy businesses: Two weeks to start, often capping around three. Executives typically start higher and sooner.
What About Senior Hires?
Say a controller joins you from a company where she earned four weeks, and your policy starts new hires at three. Forcing her to step down is a fast way to sour a great hire.
My move: grandfather her in. Honor those four weeks, at least for the first year. People at higher levels rarely accept a cut in time off, and it isn't the note you want to open a relationship on.
Why I'm Not Sold on Unlimited PTO
Unlimited PTO sounds generous. In practice it often backfires.
I compare it to putting a child on a playground with no fences. Without knowing where the line is, kids often won't play at all. Employees are the same. Take five weeks — is that too much? Take one — is that too little? Nobody knows where the line is, so two things happen.
Your most conscientious, high-performing people take too little and quietly burn out. Meanwhile the ones who are half-in take too much, and sometimes get pushed out for it.
That's why a lot of companies that went unlimited are moving back to a defined number of weeks.
Yes, Everyone Should Take It All
"Should employees use all their PTO?"
An emphatic, 100% yes — and that includes you.
The research on workplace mental health keeps landing on the same finding: people who take the right amount of time off are less likely to develop work-related mental health struggles. Real downtime — no laptop, no "quick questions," no checking in — rejuvenates people, and their productivity climbs when they return.
Time off isn't lost work. It's an investment that pays you back.
Leaders Set the Tone
Here's the catch: your team watches what you do, not what you say. If you're glued to your phone on the beach, that becomes the company standard.
I once had a client praise an employee in a staff meeting: "Bill loves the company so much he doesn't even take time off." That's exactly backwards. Skipping vacation isn't a badge of honor to celebrate. It's a conversation to have at review time: "We want you to take your time off, because we're investing in you."
Sounds soft. It works.
The Bottom Line
Good PTO policy is simple:
Benchmark it to your industry
Give clear numbers instead of a foggy "unlimited"
Make sure people — leaders included — actually use it
Do that and you protect both your team's wellbeing and your bottom line.
Not sure whether your PTO policy is competitive, or whether it's quietly hurting retention? Grab a free 30-minute session with one of our HR experts, and let's take a look together.