Most individuals ask the question, What’s PTO and how does it work in the real world. The meaning of PTO is Paid Time Off, which is a policy whereby employees are assigned several paid days off annually. This time may be spent on vacation, on sick leave, on emergency, or on personal engagements.

Those companies that offer PTO at the start of the year, and other companies use the accrual system, whereby employees earn days as they work. The appealing feature of PTO is that it is a desirable benefit since employees can make their own time-off decisions depending on their personal needs.