Pear Is Changing How PTO Works: Employees Choose Time Off or Cash

Pear targets 25,000 employees by next open enrollment with a model that adds cash flexibility without touching banked PTO.

SAN DIEGO, CA, UNITED STATES, October 6, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Pear, a San Diego-based fintech company, announced a new model for paid time off that gives employees more choice before the benefit year begins: keep future PTO as time off or elect to receive the value as cash. Previously banked PTO stays untouched. Employees who do not elect Pear see no change, while employers maintain control over eligibility, limits, timing and program rules.

Pear is working with employers across manufacturing, retail, financial services and healthcare and is targeting to onboard approximately 25,000 eligible employees by the next open-enrollment cycle to its platform.

So, how does Pear work exactly? An employee expecting to earn 120 hours of PTO next year might choose to keep 40 hours available as traditional time off and elect the value of 80 hours as cash. As those hours are earned, the elected portion is converted to cash through Pear, subject to applicable payroll taxes and withholdings. Previously banked PTO remains untouched, and employees receive the full value of the portion they elect, with zero conversion fee.

The scale of the opportunity is significant. Vacation Tracker reported in 2026 that 62% of U.S. employees do not use all of their PTO, representing an estimated $312 billion in unused vacation value. Industry research cited by SHRM found that the average U.S. employee holds approximately $2,953 in unused accrued vacation.

For Pear, the bigger issue isn’t simply unused PTO. It’s lack of flexibility.

“We built Pear around a simple belief: benefits should bend to real life, not the other way around,” said Asif Huda, Founder and CEO of Pear. “A few hundred dollars at the right moment can fix a car, cover childcare or open a door that would otherwise stay closed. When one person moves forward, the impact rarely stops with them. It moves through friends, families, workplaces and communities. That’s what we want employee benefits to become.”

That belief sits at the heart of Pear: giving people greater freedom to respond to life, pursue possibility and create impact in ways that extend beyond themselves.

For CHROs, Pear makes an existing benefit more valuable.

Benefits leaders are being asked to improve employee experience, retention and financial wellness while managing cost and complexity. Pear gives them a new way to do it without simply adding another benefit. Employees gain more choice within a benefit the company is funding, while HR maintains control over eligibility, election limits and program rules. Pear is designed without a monthly recurring platform fee, creating a differentiated employee experience without replacing the employer’s existing PTO program.

“As a small practice, retention is huge for us,” said Amy Nadimi, CEO of Tri-Valley Neurofeedback, an early Pear client. “Pear was a no-brainer because it helped our employees. Giving people more flexibility around a benefit they value has had a significant impact on employee satisfaction and morale.”

For CFOs, Pear creates greater financial predictability.

Accrued PTO can become a growing financial obligation as balances accumulate and the timing of future use or payouts remains uncertain. Because Pear elections happen in advance, finance teams gain earlier visibility into how much future PTO is expected to remain as time off and how much will be converted to cash. That creates a more structured planning model and can support better expense planning, stronger cash forecasting and greater control over PTO-related obligations. In certain scenarios, Pear helps to reduce liability, and reduce taxable income.

For employers, the result is a benefit that can serve two very different priorities at once: a more flexible employee experience for HR and a more predictable financial model for Finance. For employees, it is much simpler. More choice over how one of their most valuable benefits fits into their life.

Pear is starting with PTO, but the vision is much bigger: a world where employee benefits are as flexible as the lives they’re meant to support. Because when people have more choice, they have more freedom to respond to life—and when one person moves forward, the impact rarely stops with them.

Alex Morgan
Pear
alex.morgan@pear-hr.com
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