PTO leave Sell Back Election Period & Traditional Leave Conversion to PTO

PTO Sell Back Election Period details
To be eligible for the sell-back options, co-workers must have at least 148 hours of PTO available. Co-workers are eligible to automatically receive a sell-back based on their election of 25%, 50%, 75% or 100% of all hours over 140, with a minimum of eight hours required for distribution.

An employee electing to sell-back hours during the sell-back period will receive 90 percent of the base rate cash value of requested PTO sell-back hours at the time of distribution. A 10 percent forfeiture of cash value is necessary to make this plan compatible with IRS regulations regarding taxability.

Traditional Leave conversion to PTO plan
In addition to the PTO sell-back period, employees on the Traditional Program will have the opportunity to convert to the PTO plan during the February 1 – February 28 period. Click here to view a side by side comparison of the two leave plans.

Please note the following information about the PTO sell-back periods:

• In addition to the standard deductions, the sell-back amount will have State Retirement deducted. PTO sell-back amounts are subject to the IRS supplemental tax rate of 25% for federal tax withholding.
• An online Sell Back Election form must be submitted during the election month in order to receive a PTO sell-back distribution. Employees will receive an email and online confirmation that their election was received for processing. The submission of the Sell-Back Election form does not limit the use of the PTO during any period. If no election form is submitted, then the employee is assumed to not have elected to use PTO sell-back for that election period.
• Employees with an existing H.E.L.P. loan balance will have the sell-back amount applied to the outstanding balance first and then receive the residual in payment.
• Employees on the Traditional Leave Program will have an opportunity to request conversion to PTO Leave. These employees may also request a sell-back following the PTO conversion. To start the program in this election period, employees on Traditional Leave will have the opportunity to convert to the PTO plan during the February 1 – February 23 period and also elect a sell back of PTO using the online Sell Back Election form.

PTO sell-back example
John Smith has three years of service, an hourly pay rate of $20 per hour and a PTO accrual balance of 280 hours at the start of the quarterly sell back election period.

If John submits the sell back election form to the Payroll office during the quarterly election period, requesting 100% of eligible hours, then he is eligible to receive a sell-back of 140 hours of PTO, the maximum number of hours he will automatically have credit for sell-back is 140.

Since the cash value of the eligible sell back hours is 90%, the following calculation would be applied: 140 (hours) X $20 (rate of pay) X .90 (90%) = $2520.00 distribution.

The resulting PTO accrual balance in John’s account following this distribution would be 140 hours, using the following calculation: 280 (starting balance) – 140 (eligible sell back hours at 100%) = 140 (ending balance).