Why do hourly workers accrue time off?

Making hourly workers earn their time off is bullplop. There. I said it.

Hourly workers are often treated as second-class in the workplace. 

Salaried workers get flat, front-loaded time off balances because it's easier to manage for people whose productivity isn’t measured by time. 

Hourly workers often accrue time off based on the time actually worked, which may or may not be under their control.

Sure, there are reasons behind some of the asymmetry. 

• Under FLSA someone has to make a higher wage and direct their own work to be exempt from overtime.

• If you’re eligible for overtime, you need to track your hours. 

• If you’re paid by the hour, you need to have a defined PTO balance to pull from to be paid for hours you don't work.

• If you work part time, accrued time off is a fair way to distribute time off proportionately.

But if you track your hours and someone else determines your schedule, they may also micromanage how you track that schedule.

They may send you home to avoid paying overtime when there’s still more work to do. 

Unpaid meal breaks bleed tiny increments of accrued time from every shift.

Days off now limit your ability to take time off later.

And if you don’t work a regular schedule, you may not get to work as much as you want, leaving less paid time off later.

You may not even qualify for company-sponsored benefits, making healthcare less affordable, especially when you won't get paid for it.

It’s a vicious cycle by which the underpaid and under-resourced have less means to escape. 

Instead of accruing PTO by hour worked, you could just grant a flat PTO amount per pay period. That way, people can take sick time when they need it and plan for vacations. The difference is small to the company, but can mean the world to a worker who's living paycheck to paycheck.

Need help structuring a PTO policy that's fair?

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