What is a Standard PTO Policy in an Employment Contract?
What is PTO?
How should PTO or paid time off be reflected in your employment agreement? First, let’s talk about what PTO is. Is it customary that you do receive it? I will say, specifically, with dental employment agreements, sometimes you are not given PTO time. It’s considered unpaid time off. Sometimes also, if you are a healthcare provider and your compensation is based on collections, occasionally, you will receive unpaid time off. It should be listed though in your employment agreement. Normally it is under the benefits section where it addresses it. I do feel like it’s important that your agreement does specify how much PTO or unpaid time off you receive.
PTO Policies: Vacation, Paid Time and PTO Tracking
Occasionally it will refer to a company policy, but policies can change. Your employment agreement cannot be changed unless both parties consent and it’s in writing. So, it’s just better, in my opinion, that your PTO time is actually reflected in the employment agreement itself. Then let’s talk about how it is stated in your contract. Most of the time in the contracts, it does say PTO or paid time off. Occasionally it can be called vacation time or time off. Again, you want to verify though, that you’re compensated when you’re taking this time off. And then, is the PTO time reflected in hours, days, or weeks? This is also important if you have a sort of hybrid schedule. If you have a normal work schedule where you’re working eight hours five times a week, 40 hours a week, that’s easy to figure out if it says weeks, days, or hours.
PTO Days vs Paid Time Hours
However, if you’re a healthcare provider and have sort of a hybrid schedule where you may be working 10-hour shifts, or you’re working 12-hour shifts or even 24-hour shifts, those change the way PTO might be figured out. I have seen some issues with clients in the past who have signed a contract, and their contract states that they have 20 days of PTO time. However, the days are not defined, and the company interprets that as eight-hour days, not 10-hour days or 12-hour days. And so, therefore, the PTO that you’re expecting to receive is much less. That’s why if you have a non-traditional schedule and it’s not eight-hour shifts, it’s better, in my opinion, that PTO time is reflected in hours.
Review PTO on your Employment Contract
Also, I think it’s important if you’re unsure of how they figure out how much a day is, you can also ask for them to provide you with any policies they currently have for PTO for their providers. There also may be more details in there, so there’s a clear expectation whenever you are commencing your employment. The other thing to note is if you do have sort of longer shifts, like 4/10, or you have 12-hour shifts, or sometimes when you have a week on or a week off, your PTO time may be limited. Especially if it’s a week on or a week off, you may not actually have any PTO time because they expect you to use that time when you’re off schedule to take your vacations or use that for your own personal time. But again, you should always read your employment contract very carefully to know what your schedule is going to look like, and then when you read your PTO and how much you received, you should be able to understand that completely.
How Much Paid Time Off Should a Physician Assistant Get? | PA Paid Time
How much paid time off should a physician assistant get? What is the industry standard as far as time off goes? Well, first, you’re only going to get paid time off if you are an employee. If you are an independent contractor and receive a 1099 at the end of the year, it is very unlikely that you’re going to be given any paid time off at all. There are many PAs that work as independent contractors, especially those in the surgical specialties. They are only working sporadically, maybe a couple of weekends a month, or even only a couple of days a month. And in that scenario, if you’re an independent contractor, you are not going to get paid time off. This discussion will be about employed physician assistants who receive normal paid time off as part of their professional benefits offered.
Physician Assistant PTO Receive
Paid time off is broken down into four categories: vacation, sick days, holidays, and then continuing education. And most employers will then give a certain number of days for each of those things. There are other employers, especially if you’re working for maybe a big hospital or hospital network, where they’ll have what’s called a pure PTO system. And in that system, there’s basically one giant bucket of time. And then any time you’re out of the office, you take that out of the bucket, it doesn’t matter what you’ve gone for. It doesn’t matter if it’s sick days or you’re on vacation, or you’re doing continuing education. If you’re not in the office, you’re taking time out of that one bucket. Now, if it’s not like that, let’s break down what’s kind of normal for each of those. The total time off for a PA should be somewhere between like 20 to 30 days.
How Much Paid Time Off Should a Nurse Practitioner Get? | Paid Vacation Days
How much PTO should a nurse practitioner receive? The short answer is, it really varies based upon what is offered in your professional benefits package. And it really depends on how long you’ve been there. Have you accumulated seniority? Have you been practicing for a long period of time? Where are you in the country? It really depends on a plethora of factors, but some things to really consider that I see honestly day to day with PTO is if you have a four-day work week, sometimes your PTO is less than it would normally be. And that’s just the employer thinking that because you have an extra day off every week, therefore you’re entitled to less PTO.
Comprehensive Nurse Practitioner Benefits Package
I would disagree with this, so it’s something that you would maybe want to advocate and double-check. Also, another thing you want to consider is what is in your PTO amount of time, sometimes you’re given just several days and that includes vacations, holidays, CEs or continuing education, and sick time. When you get that initial number of PTO, it looks great. You’re like, wow, going on vacation, but you want to be careful because you need to see what’s included in your PTO time. You should always receive PTO for continuing your education. And that should be an additional three to five days. You also want to account for all of your national holidays, you should have that time off, or you should be compensated for working on those holidays, additional compensation. And then normally, it’s anywhere from like three to five weeks, I would say is average starting out.
And then it just kind of goes up from there. But just to recap, you just want to know how much and what’s included, because it can get a little tricky. Another thing I see with PTO is your schedules in days and sometimes your shifts vary on how many hours; is it 10 hours and eight hours? But PTO is in days, so that gets a little confusing. Are those eight-hour days you’re being compensated for or 10-hour days? You don’t know. And then also, again, if you have a four-day work week, but you have three to four weeks off, is that including the four days or five days? So, it gets a little confusing. However, your schedule is broken down, if it’s broken down to how many hours or how many days per week, it’s customary that your PTO should be broken down in this same amount of time.
Vacation and Paid Time Off for Dentist Employee
You must ensure that the contract states how much time you get. And what part of that total number corresponds to the vacation, sick days, holidays, and CE. Some places use a pure PTO system, meaning everything comes from the same bucket. So, if you’ve gone from the office for whatever reason, it’s a holiday. You’re continuing education. You’re sick, or you’re on vacation, it doesn’t matter. Everything comes out of that bucket.
But others specify, and this is the most common way, exactly how many days you get for each thing. Let’s break down those four elements. Regarding vacation, most dental associates will get somewhere between 10 to 15 days of vacation. If they offer you five days of vacation, that is not enough. So, somewhere between 10 to 15 days paid vacation.
How Many Sick Days Can Dentists Take?
Sick days can vary by state. Some states have an actual law that states that if you’re a full-time employee, you get this many sick days. There are other states where it’s ambiguous. Normally, most places offer somewhere between 3 to 5 sick days, or they might lump it into the vacation. But that’s a reasonable amount. Regarding federal holidays, in most places, 6 or 7 federal holidays per year. That’s easy to understand. And then continuing education, once again, somewhere between 3 to 5 days. time
How Much Paid Time Off Should You Aim For?
A dental associate should aim for somewhere between 20 to 30 total days of time off. When you add up those four things, it should be somewhere between 20 to 30 days. If you’re not within that range, I mean if you’re beyond that range, great, good for you. If you’re not getting the 20 days adding all that up, you’re not getting enough time off. Or at least you’re not getting enough time off compared to your peers, so you need to ask for more.
How Much Vacation Time Do Doctors Get?
How much vacation time do doctors get? Let’s break down what is considered time off and then what is normal. First, I find that many people lump everything into vacation, meaning just any time away from work. No one lumps it like that. It’s generally thought of as paid time off or PTO. And then there are four things that go into paid time off. You do have vacation time, you have sick days, you have holidays, and then you have continuing medical education. Those four things all go into the pot for paid time off. And then that determines how much time off you get.
Normal Amount of Vacation Time Physicians Should Receive
The average physician gets around 30 days of total time off. So, when you add up, let’s just say a normal amount would be 15 days of vacation and five sick days. Now, many states have actual laws in place that dictate how many sick days an individual can get. I would check into that prior to figuring out how much actual time off you get. You’ll usually get somewhere between three to five days for CME and around seven to eight federal holidays. It depends upon the office and then also the call responsibilities of the physician. And this is specialty-dependent, so when I say the average amount, I’m just taking the average amount across all specialties, around 30 days.
If you’re getting less than that, it’s probably not enough. And certainly, if you’re getting 20 days, that’s well below average if you add everything up. Now, there are some specialties that get a significant amount of more than 30 days. Radiology and anesthesiology, for whatever reason, tend to get much more. Obviously, if you’re doing shift work, so if you’re in the ED or a hospitalist, many of you won’t get any time off. So, if you’re seven-on/seven-off, your time off is the week that you have off, and you’re not going to get any additional paid time off. However, I have seen recently, which I’ve never seen before, a few hospitalist jobs that are offering paid time off in addition to the time off that they get, which I think is abnormal but obviously great for the hospitalist.