PILOPTO ? Should I do it?

[jackson145]

My new employer offers something called PILOPTO or Pay In Lieu Of Paid Time Off.

Has anyone else had any experience with this at their workplace? Instead of accruying(sp?) PTO with each paycheck, you receive a differential added on to your hourly wage. For me, the differential ends up being about $1.50 more an hour. I'll earn more money each check, but later if I want to take a vacation, I won't receive a paycheck for the time I'm off.

I know it's pretty much all equal in the end, but I can't decide which way would work out better for me.

Has anyone else gone with this option? Did you like it?

[kmarie724]

My employer offers that option and I took it. I like getting the bigger paycheck, but when I was on maternity leave, I wished I would have had some PTO. Going 6 weeks with no income from my job was tough. So that would be something to consider, don't know what your family situation is. I would ask yourself if you are disiplined enough to set some of the extra money you will be making aside so you have something to fall back on if you get a smaller check one week because you had to take some days off.

[Kymmi]

All works out in the end if you work 36-40 hours/week however if you are one that tends to work OT the you have to consider for every hour worked over 40 in a week you will be earning 1 1/2 times that hourly diff also. So I agree as long as you can budget to make up for any time off you might want to take because you wont receive a paycheck then I'd say the hourly diff would benefit more. Also consider if you want to take a week or two week vacation will you facility allow you to take time off without pay and not have it effect your benefits?

[pers]

I'd work it out financially first.

Is that differential over your base pay or added to it? Will you get $2.25 when you are being paid time and a half or is your base pay at time and half and then you get $1.50 on top of it?

How is PTO earned at your facility? Do you earn X amount of PTO every pay period regardless of how many hours worked? Or do you earn Y amount of PTO for every hour you work in a pay period? If you work 36 hours a week versus 40, that extra bit can really add up over the course of a year! If you work overtime, there will be an even bigger difference.

If it really does all work out to be about the same, I personally would take the PTO. A bigger check is nice, but no check is too not nice for me!