Hello.

My father works as an exempt salaried employee in MA. Recently his company decided everyone's PTO balances were too high and they they'd recieve a cash payment for part of their balance and be allowed to carry over the rest. MA allows you to accept payment in lieu of time off, however when he received payment it was only for an equivalent of 11 days PTO time but they deducted 15 days from his balance. Their calculation was:

hourly rate = (yearly salary) / 360 / 8

Their reasoning was that they're paying him 7 days a week to work, they just don't ask him to come in Saturday and Sunday. So they used 56 hours a week to calculate this hourly rate rather than 40.

I know that there's nothing in the law that says they are required to offer PTO time, but I would think that if MA requires it to be paid to an employee, it would be at their current wage. Otherwise couldn't they have just paid him the 15 days at minimum wage and have been just as legal?

Thanks,
Rob

My understanding is that MA (in practice) does not allow "use-it-or-lose-it" vacation/PTO policies. If he had 15 days of PTO deducted from his balance, then he "lost" 4 days of PTO.

Their calculation is stupid. How many days are charged if he takes a full workweek off?

That's the kicker. When he saw the discrepancy he asked his boss (the owner of the company about it) and he confirmed that if he took the time off he would have had 3 weeks off (although not an option), but since it's being paid out he only gets 11 days.

They've done payouts before but this is the first time that they're using this new math.

It is my opinion that the state of Massachusetts will not approve this method.

If they are paying down the balance and he retains the remaining days, that's fine. But if this is supposed to be a payout to bring him to zero, that's not gonna fly with the state, I don't think. He can file a complaint with the MA AG's office (they function as the DOL here).

It is my opinion that the state of Massachusetts will not approve this method.

If they are paying down the balance and he retains the remaining days, that's fine. But if this is supposed to be a payout to bring him to zero, that's not gonna fly with the state, I don't think. He can file a complaint with the MA AG's office (they function as the DOL here).

That's what I was thinking, too.