PTO Cash Equivalent Calculator

Letting 25 days lapse hands back 9.6% of your salary

Annual leave is deferred pay that expires. On a salary of 60,000 across 260 working days each day is worth 230.77, so a full unused entitlement of 25 days is 5,769.23 — nearly a tenth of the year's earnings, returned to the employer for nothing. Nobody would decline a 9.6% pay cut, and letting leave lapse is arithmetically identical.

How it works

• Converts an annual salary into a daily rate using working days, not calendar days.
• Values unused leave in cash so the cost of not taking it is visible.
• Expresses the total as a share of salary, which is the number that changes behaviour.

daily rate = annual salary ÷ working days per year

cash value = unused days × daily rate
share of salary = unused days ÷ working days

260 working days is the standard basis before holidays and leave

Worked example

A 60,000 salary with a 25-day entitlement, at several levels of unused leave.

1. daily rate = 60,000 ÷ 260 = 230.77
2. 5 days unused = 1,153.85
3. 10 days = 2,307.69
4. 15 days = 3,461.54
5. 25 days = 5,769.23

A full entitlement left untaken is 9.6% of annual salary. Even five days — the amount people casually let slide at year end — is 1,153.85, which is more than most would leave on a table in any other context.

Reading the result

• In most of Europe the statutory minimum cannot be paid out while employment continues, so the choice is genuinely take it or lose it. The cash value is what the days are worth to you, not a sum you can request instead.
• Carry-over rules decide whether the deadline is real. Some employers allow a few days into the next year, some allow none, and statutory carry-over is often time-limited — check the actual cutoff rather than assuming December 31.
• On termination, accrued and untaken leave is usually paid out, and the settlement rate may be higher than salary ÷ 260 because it can include recent bonuses and overtime. That makes the leaving calculation different from the in-employment one.
• The value of rest is not in this arithmetic and is the actual reason to take the days. The cash figure is here to make the cost of not taking them legible, not to reframe leave as a financial instrument.

Common questions

Can I ask for the money instead of the days?

Usually not for the statutory portion while you are still employed — European rules generally prohibit paying it out, precisely so the rest is actually taken. Days above the statutory minimum are sometimes exchangeable, depending on your contract.

What happens to unused days if I leave?

Accrued and untaken leave is normally paid in the final settlement, often at a rate that includes recent variable pay. That is the one situation where the days reliably convert to money rather than simply expiring.