I work for a company based in California but I myself live and work in Minnesota. I believe we abide by california labor laws as everything else seems to go by California law. Anyhow, last year I was in a position where I really didnt need to take PTO ever, so I accrued enough to hit the PTO cap(just barely) in the companies PTO policy.

This year I got a promotion and I am in a new role. When I started this new position my new manager was aware of all my PTO and I told her I would take a day off here and there to keep myself under the cap but I didnt plan on taking many days at all. She was fine with that. Halfway through the year I have taken 9 days and all of a sudden they came to me saying they were going to limit me to taking 15 days all year now. This is the number you usually accrue in a year (120 hours).

So now I have a couple concerns... one they changed how they are letting me use my PTO mid year and I have used 9 days. I would have managed my PTO FAR differently had this been the policy from the beginning of the year. Secondly, even if I take 6 more days I will be capped out again before the end of the year and all those hours that I will accrue once at the cap will be "wages" that I am losing. Can they do that? I understand they can designate when and how much I take but I dont think this is the same thing. No where in their policy does it say I am limited to taking 120 hours in a year. By the way our cap is 160 hours.

Is this something I should have a lawyer look over? Or would I be wasting their time?

The company may choose to apply the same policies for non-California workers as they are required to have by California law for California employees, but they don't have to.

The wage and hour laws that apply are the ones in the state in which the employee works. Anything over and above that the employer provides is gravy.

And even in California, the employer could force you to take vacation days in a block and even if it wasn't the particular time you wanted off.

I don't see anything for a lawyer to look over. You're fortunate that they are letting you take the days so you don't hit the cap and stop accruing; they aren't required by law in your state to do that (although it is conditionally required in CA).

I'm not saying this was necessarily the right way to handle the changeover. Just saying that I don't see any illegal action by your employer.

Thank you, I didnt think so but I wanted to be sure...