Yeah, and unfortunately, like you said, that entire practice is fully illegal in the states. However, most employees are unwilling to report it and then file the evidence of why it was done. Because while there is no mandatory vacation time in the US, if you are provided It as a benefit, it must be something that you can use. And if they are regularly denying your PTO because they don’t have the people to be able to cover it, then they are denying you a benefit which they are legally obligated to provide since they offered it as part of your benefits.

The amount of times that people just decide, oh well it’s only PTO. It’s no biggie. I don’t want to rock the boat. It’s insane. Like my mom lost over 600 hours of PTO because the business closed up and she didn’t fight that they needed to pay it. She doesn’t put two and two together that she’s overall getting paid less because she has the benefit of having that PTO. So if they were to not offer the PTO, they are just paying less.

Your PTO, if offered, is part of your benefits package, meaning that it’s part of your hourly wage calculation. So if you are given PTO and then not being allowed to use it, you are voluntarily being given a demotion.