Combined Time Off


The CTO Program will be modified in September 2023. Visit this link to learn more. 

Combined Time Off (CTO) can be used for vacation, personal illness, doctor's appointments, and other personal reasons, including care of immediate family who are seriously ill and require care at home, and for children's doctors' appointments which cannot be scheduled outside of working hours.


Departments establish practices for providing notice of absences from work and for scheduling time away. Some departments whose workload is directly dependent on students being on campus take their time off when students are not in residence. Other departments schedule time off by mutual arrangement based upon the person's need and the department's workload.

  • Full-time benefit-eligible staff and administrators accrue CTO each payday. CTO accrual tables are available on the HR website. CTO does not accrue during unpaid leaves or once an employee has reached the maximum accrual.

  • Employees who are in the "part-time with partial benefits category receive 30 hours of CTO upon employment and each work anniversary date thereafter. The maximum accrual for this employment category is 45 hours.

  • Employees (exempt and non-exempt) who work less than twelve months or have a pro-rated weekly schedule receive the appropriate accrual based on the months/hours scheduled to work; and CTO can only be used during the months in which the employee is scheduled.

  • When using CTO, non-exempt employees record hours used. Exempt employees should report CTO in half or full day increments to preserve exempt status.

  • To learn more about recording CTO, refer to this page for Workday job aids under Time Entry and Time Off.

  • Employees may not elect to take leave unpaid if accrued time exists in their CTO bank without prior approval from Human Resources, and only then for exceptional circumstances.

  • Beginning January 1, 2021, employees who leave the University will be paid for unused CTO up to a maximum of 20 days, as long as CTO has been recorded appropriately throughout their employment.

  • To ensure employees who are at or near their CTO maximum continue to earn CTO each pay period, Workday automatically transfers hours from the CTO plan to the SLR plan when necessary, provided the SLR plan is not at its maximum accrual of 60 days.

   Because both bi-weekly paid and monthly paid employees participate in the CTO plan, the automatic transfer occurs
   the first day of each bi-weekly pay period when employees are within these limits:

          -For 35 hour/week employees, the transfer occurs when your CTO balance is in excess of 295 hours
          -For 40 hour/week employees, the transfer occurs when your CTO balance is in excess of 340 hours

Click here to review CTO accrual rates for your position.

For information on sick leave, short term disability, long term disability, and other extended leaves click here.