The PTO & holiday glossary

A bridge day is the single highest-leverage move in leave planning. If a public holiday falls on a Tuesday, taking Monday off as PTO “bridges” the weekend to the holiday and turns one PTO day into a four-day break.

Most bridge days return roughly 4 days off for 1 PTO — a 4x ratio. Some configurations (two holidays in the same week) return 7x or higher. See PTO efficiency for how we measure this, and the bridge-day finder for the year’s best ones in your country.

When a public holiday lands on a Friday or Monday, you get a 3-day weekend without spending any leave. We call these “anchor windows” because they’re the fixed points you plan the rest of your year around.

Anchor windows have an infinite efficiency ratio (any number of days off divided by zero PTO). They’re also the cheapest weekends to travel locally, and the most expensive ones to fly — everyone’s going somewhere.

The single number Leavewise uses to rank leave windows. If you take 4 PTO days and end up with 9 consecutive days off (because the window includes a weekend on each side and a public holiday in the middle), your efficiency is 9 / 4 = 2.25x.

A 1.0x window is just plain PTO — useful, but no leverage. Anything above 2x is worth planning around. Above 3x is a window you should book travel for. The optimizer ranks every possible window in your year by efficiency.

A leave window is the unit Leavewise plans around: a single uninterrupted stretch of non-working days, however it’s built. A pure weekend is a 2-day window. A weekend + Monday off is a 3-day window. A 9-day Chuseok stretch is a 9-day window.

Every window has two numbers attached to it: total length, and PTO cost. The ratio between them is its PTO efficiency.

When a Tuesday is a public holiday and Thursday is also one, the Wednesday in between is a “sandwich” — you’re working a single isolated day with days off on either side. One PTO day collapses the sandwich and yields a five-day stretch.

Sandwich holidays are the textbook case for a bridge day, and they tend to produce the highest PTO efficiency ratios of the year.

A public holiday is set by national or regional law and applies to most workers automatically — you don’t spend PTO to take it. New Year’s Day, Christmas, Korea’s Liberation Day, and the UK’s Spring Bank Holiday are all public holidays.

Not every “holiday” is a public holiday. Mother’s Day, Valentine’s Day, and Korea’s Pepero Day are observances, not legal days off. Leavewise’s holidays page only lists the legally protected ones.

If Independence Day (July 4) lands on a Saturday, US federal employees get Friday July 3 off — that Friday is the “observed” date. The actual holiday and the observed holiday can be on different days.

In planning terms, what matters is the observed date — that’s when offices close. Closely related to substitute holiday, though the term is more common in US/UK usage.

Many countries grant a make-up day when a public holiday collides with a Saturday or Sunday. Korea calls this a 대체공휴일; the UK calls it bank holiday substitution; the US uses similar rules for federal holidays.

Substitute holidays usually shift to the following Monday, but the rules vary — Korea’s only apply to certain holidays, and only when they fall on Sunday (or Saturday, in newer law). Always check the country-specific holiday calendar rather than assuming.

A floating holiday is a paid day off provided by the employer (not by law) that the employee chooses when to take — typically for a personal observance the company doesn’t formally recognize. Common in US tech companies as a way to cover religious or cultural days outside the federal holiday list.

Floating holidays usually expire at year-end if unused, behave like a separate bucket from PTO, and don’t accrue. Worth tracking separately because they’re cheap to forget.

A day the company closes (or grants paid time off for) that isn’t mandated by law. Examples: the Friday after Thanksgiving in many US companies, “summer Fridays,” the day before/after Korean Lunar New Year for some employers, or a company-wide year-end shutdown.

Company holidays don’t cost PTO and stack with surrounding weekends like public holidays do — useful free leverage if you know yours in advance. Add them to the optimizer to see what windows they unlock.

Most labor law in pluralistic countries requires “reasonable accommodation” for religious observances that fall on regular workdays — Yom Kippur, Eid, Diwali, Ash Wednesday, etc. Whether that means paid leave, swap-day rules, or just permission to take unpaid leave varies by jurisdiction and employer.

In the US, this falls under Title VII of the Civil Rights Act; in the EU, under the Equal Treatment Directive. Document the request in writing and give as much notice as possible.

Statutory leave is the floor — what the law forces an employer to give you, before any company policy adds more on top. The EU mandates at least 20 days. Korea grants 15 after one year of service. The UK requires 28 (including bank holidays). The US mandates zero.

Anything above the statutory minimum is “contractual” leave — negotiable, and often the difference between a generous job and a stingy one.

Most employers don’t hand you the full year’s PTO on January 1. Instead, you accrue it at a steady rate. A 20-day annual allowance accrues at 1.67 days/month, or roughly 0.77 days per pay period if you’re paid bi-weekly.

The practical consequence: in February, you may not yet have enough PTO to take a long July break, even though it’s “your” allowance. Some companies let you go negative (borrow against future accrual); most don’t.

Some employers stop crediting new PTO once your bank reaches a ceiling — typically 1.5x or 2x your annual allowance. The point is to nudge you to use leave instead of stockpiling it. Once you’re at the cap, every workday you don’t take leave is a day of accrual you forfeit silently.

If you’re at or near your cap, the carryover deadline tracker can show what you’re at risk of losing and help you plan a window before the next pay-period top-up vanishes.

The opposite of accrual: on January 1 (or your work anniversary), you receive your entire annual PTO allowance at once. Common in Korea, parts of Europe, and a few US employers — particularly with senior roles.

Lump-sum systems are operationally simpler but typically come with stricter use-it-or-lose-it rules at year-end. You also can’t take a partial-year exit without owing the company back unused leave.

Increasingly common in US employers: instead of separate buckets for vacation, sick days, and personal time, you get one merged balance — a “PTO bank” — that you draw from for any reason. Often quoted in hours rather than days.

The trade-off: a single bank is more flexible (no “I’m not actually sick” awkwardness) but means sick days come out of your vacation. Important to convert hours to days correctly when reading your HRIS — see how much unused PTO is worth.

Some employers let you carry unused PTO into the next year — sometimes capped (e.g. “up to 5 days”), sometimes with a deadline by which it has to be used (“by March 31”). Others don’t allow it at all (see use-it-or-lose-it).

Carry-over rules are the single most important policy detail to read in your contract. A 25-day allowance with no carry-over and a strict December 31 cutoff is functionally very different from 25 days with unlimited rollover. The carryover deadline tracker calculates what you’ll lose under each policy type.

Under a use-it-or-lose-it policy, any PTO not taken by a fixed cutoff (usually December 31, sometimes a fiscal year-end) simply disappears. No payout, no carry-over.

These policies are legal in some jurisdictions and banned in others — California, for example, treats accrued PTO as wages and forbids forfeiture. Where they’re allowed, they’re the strongest argument for planning your full year of leave in advance instead of leaving days on the table.

Some employers — and some jurisdictions by law — convert unused PTO into a wage payment at year-end or at separation. Korea’s default is cash-out (called 연차수당) when the employer hasn’t completed a formal use-promotion process; California treats accrued PTO as wages owed; some EU countries forbid cash-out except at separation.

Cash-out is paid at your current salary. If you’re due a raise, the day is more valuable taken than cashed out. The unused PTO value calculator shows the dollar amount on the table.

Some employers shut the office between Christmas and New Year, during the August summer week, or for an annual factory maintenance period — and require employees to use PTO during that time, even if they’d prefer to work. Sometimes called a “directed leave” period.

If your employer does this, the “real” PTO available to you is your annual allowance minus the shutdown days. Plan the rest of the year around that ceiling, not the headline number on your contract.

In jurisdictions that allow unlimited carry-over (Australia, parts of the EU), employers can sometimes require an employee to take a portion of their accumulated leave once the balance crosses a threshold (commonly 8 weeks). The Fair Work Act covers this in Australia; similar provisions exist elsewhere.

This isn’t a punishment — it’s a balance-management tool — but it usually means giving up scheduling preference. Better to use leave proactively than to be told when to take it.

Compensatory time off (US: “comp time”) and time off in lieu (UK/AU: “TOIL”) both refer to the same idea: instead of paying overtime, the employer credits the equivalent time as future paid leave. A 5-hour Saturday becomes 5 hours of comp time you bank.

In the US, comp time is generally only legal for public-sector employees; private-sector overtime must be paid. In the UK, EU, and Australia, TOIL is widely used and contractually negotiated — the conversion ratio matters (1:1 vs 1.5:1).

If you work a public holiday (often required in retail, healthcare, or hospitality), many employers grant a “lieu day” — a substitute weekday off. Sometimes paid as 1 day for 1 day; sometimes at premium (1.5 days for working a Sunday holiday).

Different from TOIL, which compounds overtime; a lieu day specifically replaces a holiday or contracted day off you couldn’t take. Document the date when granted.

Common in Australia and parts of the construction / heavy-industry world: employees work nominally longer hours (e.g. 38 hours over 4.75 days) and accumulate time toward a regularly scheduled day off, typically once every 2 or 4 weeks.

RDOs are not PTO and don’t count toward your annual leave allowance — they’re built into the work-time arithmetic itself. Their schedule is usually fixed by the roster, not chosen.

In most countries outside the US, sick leave is a distinct statutory category — separately accrued, often unlimited, and not deductible from vacation. Korea grants paid sick leave under labor law; the EU mandates it; the UK has Statutory Sick Pay.

The US is the major exception: federal law mandates no paid sick leave, and many employers consolidate sick days into a PTO bank. Some states (CA, NY, etc.) require paid sick leave separately.

A personal day is for things that aren’t illness or vacation: a closing on a house, a parent-teacher conference, a DMV appointment. Some US employers grant 1–3 per year on top of PTO; most don’t require explanation.

Where they exist as a separate bucket, personal days usually expire at year-end. If your employer combines everything into a PTO bank, the distinction doesn’t matter operationally.

Includes maternity, paternity, and adoption leave. Statutory minimums vary enormously: Sweden grants 480 days shared between parents; the UK has 52 weeks of statutory maternity leave with 39 paid; Korea has up to 12 months parental leave per parent; the US federal minimum is 12 weeks unpaid under FMLA, with no paid mandate.

In most countries the leave is partially paid by the state (or social insurance), partially by the employer, with the split varying by tenure and salary. Topics this connects to: parental-leave articles.

Most employers (and some statutes) grant 3–5 days of paid leave after a death in the immediate family. Definitions of “immediate family” vary — some include grandparents, siblings, in-laws; some don’t.

For longer needs (executor work, primary caregiver duties for surviving relatives), employees commonly stack bereavement with accrued PTO or unpaid leave. The bereavement notification template covers the conversation when the news is fresh.

Where bereavement leave covers what happens after a death, compassionate leave covers what happens before — caring for a terminally ill family member, accompanying someone through major surgery, supporting end-of-life arrangements. Often unpaid; often requires medical documentation.

The UK formalized this as Carer’s Leave in 2024; Australia has Compassionate Leave separately codified; the US falls back on FMLA for qualifying conditions.

Originally an academic term, now used by knowledge-work employers to describe an unusually long break. Usage varies: some companies have a formal sabbatical policy (4–8 weeks of paid leave at a tenure milestone); others grant ad-hoc unpaid sabbaticals on request.

Sabbatical asks are a different conversation from vacation asks — coverage planning matters more, and the manager is being asked to plan around a multi-week absence. The sabbatical proposal template covers the structure.

When an employee resigns (or is dismissed), some contracts let the employer require the notice period to be served at home — fully paid, but barred from working, accessing systems, or starting a new job. The point is to keep recently-departing employees away from clients and confidential information.

Garden leave is most common in finance and senior roles, and most rigorously enforced in the UK. It’s not vacation — you’re still employed and bound by your contract — but it functions as paid time off for planning purposes.

Australian employees accrue long service leave on top of regular annual leave: typically 8.67 weeks of paid leave after 10 years of continuous service with the same employer (state-by-state variations apply). New Zealand and parts of the South Pacific have similar structures.

Long service leave is paid out at separation if unused, and is widely used for once-in-a-lifetime trips, sabbaticals, or extended family time. Doesn’t exist as a category in most other countries.

An Australian convention: when you take annual leave, you’re paid your normal salary plus a 17.5% loading on top — meant to cover overtime and shift premiums you’d otherwise have earned. Originally an industrial-award concept, now applied widely.

The practical consequence: a week of annual leave in Australia pays roughly 117.5% of a regular work week. Doesn’t exist outside ANZ.

The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 entitles eligible US employees to up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave per year for: birth or adoption, serious health condition (own or family), or military caregiving. Eligibility requires 12+ months of service, 1,250+ hours worked, and an employer with 50+ employees within 75 miles.

FMLA is unpaid by default — the protection is job security and continued health insurance, not income. Many employees stack PTO or short-term disability to bridge the income gap.

The ADA requires employers (15+ employees) to provide reasonable accommodation to qualified employees with disabilities, where doing so doesn’t cause undue hardship. Leave can be one form of accommodation — beyond FMLA’s 12 weeks, intermittent leave, or modified schedules.

ADA leave is unpaid (unless employer policy or other statutes apply) but job-protected. The interaction between ADA and FMLA is complex — see ADA-related blog content for specific scenarios.

The Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act gives servicemembers (active duty, National Guard, Reservists) the right to return to their civilian job after military service of up to 5 years cumulative. Job, seniority, and benefits must be restored as if the employee had been continuously employed.

USERRA is unpaid by federal law, though some employers and states pay differential. The protection is reemployment and benefits continuity. Documentation matters — give written notice before deploying when possible.

Under Korean labor law (근로기준법), unused annual leave normally must be paid out as annual leave allowance at year-end. The exception: if the employer follows the formal “promotion of use” procedure (사용촉진) — written notification 6 months before year-end specifying remaining days, then a follow-up — the employer is no longer obligated to pay out forfeited days.

If your employer hasn’t served you a written promotion-of-use notice, you keep the right to cash-out at year-end. Document any oral “please use your leave” requests.

In Korea, when an employee doesn’t use accrued annual leave by year-end and the employer hasn’t completed the promotion-of-use procedure, the employer must pay out the unused days as 연차수당 at the employee’s ordinary wage rate. Owed at year-end and at separation.

The amount is calculated on the employee’s base wage, not including bonuses. Many employers pay this in the January or February pay cycle following year-end.