Paid Time Off for Exempt Staff

Learn how your paid time off (PTO) is accrued and approved

Paid time off (PTO) benefits provide time off for vacation, sick leave, funeral attendance, and other absences from work.

  • As a full-time exempt staff or non-exempt non-union PAO and PAU staff employee, you earn 20 hours per month, equaling 30 days (240 hours) of paid time off each year.
  • After five years of service, you earn 24 hours per month, equaling 36 days (288 hours) a year.
  • All appointed staff also enjoy paid holidays.

Submit your PTO usage every month

You need to submit your PTO usage to your supervisor through ePTO every month, whether or not you have taken any time off.

Learn how to use the ePTO system

General rules

As an appointed exempt staff employee, you:

  • Can use PTO on the first day of the month following the month it is earned.
  • Rules for using and recording your PTO vary according to your salary plan
  • Can carry over your unused PTO to the next calendar year. No more than what is earned in one year can be carried over.
  • Can allocate up to a maximum of 136 hours of unused PTO to a sick leave account at the end of each year. There is no limit on the total amount of time you may have in your sick leave account. Time in the sick leave account can be used to cover absences for personal and family medical needs.

If you are a staff employee with an FTE less than 100% but 50% or greater, you earn a prorated amount of PTO.

Unused PTO is paid at time of separation from the university.

IU’s PTO policy

For a full explanation of this plan and its provisions, see the policy, paid time off (PTO) for exempt staff and non-exempt non-union PAO and PAU staff. If you have heard about a change in the policy that you don’t see reflected on this page, you can visit the University Policy website, which is always up to date.

View this policy (HR-05-70)