Final Paycheck Check
Guide

Do they have to pay out my PTO when I quit?

Start with the free checker

Your state, your last day, your rate — and the verdict prints your owed-by date, the penalty in dollars, your vacation verdict, and one total-owed number. Free, and nothing leaves your browser.

Run the free money verdict

It depends on one thing: which class your state is in

There is no federal law requiring vacation payout at separation. The states split three ways, and the split decides everything:

The handbook test

In class two and three, four sentences in the employee handbook decide your money: the sentence that says how vacation accrues, the sentence about what happens at separation, any sentence requiring notice to earn payout, and the sentence reserving the right to change the policy. Screenshot or photograph those pages before you lose access — people lose this money to a policy they never read, applied after they can no longer read it.

Two traps that eat PTO money

Unlimited PTO. If nothing accrues, in most states nothing is owed — there is no bank of hours to pay out. Sick time is different from vacation almost everywhere: even payout-required states rarely require sick-time payout unless the policy merges them into one PTO bank — in which case the merged bank usually follows the vacation rule.

Your verdict, in dollars

The checker asks for your accrued hours and prints your state's class, the payout verdict, and the dollars — counted in your total if the law requires them, shown separately if your policy has to promise them. The kit's PTO fight sheet walks the handbook test line by line.