That’s fine but two points:

- Most hourly jobs don’t have “pto” do they?

- if more people want to take time off at Christmas/NYE than it takes to operate someone will have to work then, so closing is a nice option.

> I prefer to determine when I take my breaks. That's what PTO is for.

That's fine, I'm sure they have vacation time too, but it can get into being a coördination problem: if you want to spend time with friends and family during your time off, it may be hard to arrange the same days off. One benefit of holidays† is that everyone gets the same ones, and so large(r) gathers can happen.

† From the Old English for "holy day", where "holy" (originally) means 'set aside' or 'apart from'.

For what it’s worth, we close during the Christmas and New Years break every year but still pay our employees/don’t use up their PTO.

I don’t want to work during that time, and don’t think it’s reasonable to make my employees align their holiday schedules with mine.

Many people feel compelled to work. This removes all barriers.

You mean you prefer to aks for your breaks, your boss determines your breaks, unless they are mandatory.

I switched from staff to faculty which technically gives me more hours off. the difference is that staff have set holidays but faculty get more days off. the problem is that I no longer have an excuse to take the days off. so i take off fewer.

Who said this replaces PTO?

While you may prefer that, I wager you wouldn't turn down additional paid holidays as well.

So you work weekends? This seems more like an extra break, akin to having a holiday off.

I would imagine retail workers are discouraged from using PTO over the holiday season

PTO is just not getting paid all the time so you can get paid for not working some of the time. You’d be better off banking the money instead of one’s employer, just like tax withholding.