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Comment by mooreds | Hacker News Reader

This isn't contractual, but I always ask "so, how many days did you take last year" or "how many days does the leadership team take" or "how many days does the team take on average".

Give me a feel for what I'm walking into.

I don't know if a company with unlimited PTO would put it in a contract, because that might put them on the hook for a payout for unused vacation when you leave. IANAL.

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In some countries like Canada you have to pay out unused vacation regardless, its the law.

Well, that's the other thing. I'm in Ontario, and I'm not even 100% sure on the legality of "unlimited PTO" here.

Presumably it's basically, legally, no contractual paid PTO but then they let you take PTO anyways? Because if they put N days in writing, well, then it's just the same as always. A liability on their books, etc.

At this point, I'd ask a lawyer.

Also in Ontario with unlimited PTO. They have to pay out the minimum provincially required amount of vacation if you don’t take it, so two weeks.

> In some countries like Canada you have to pay out unused vacation regardless, its the law.

But this is a totally incoherent statement. The company offers unlimited PTO. When you leave, they have to pay you an infinite amount of money? That obviously is not the law, no matter how much you say it's the law.

Could be that not having a set number of days avoids the payout, as I believe is the case in the US. Another charitable interpretation of their comment might be “Unlimited PTO is at odds with Canadian law, so potentially could be illegal.“

In the UK there is a statutory minimum of 21 days holiday. If you quit or are fired from a company with an unlimited PTO policy and haven’t yet used your statutory minimum (calculated pro rata) you will be paid for those extra days in your final salary payment.

Yes, that is usually the motivation for not specifying vacation time. People mostly don't take vacation not allotted.

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