With winter holidays nearing, IU Human Resources offers reminders for staff about winter break holidays, how and when to use time off during office closings, and 2025’s final paycheck.

Winter break paid holidays

As an ongoing way to recognize the efforts of IU faculty and staff, the expanded schedule of paid winter break holidays was made official in 2024.

As per policy HR-05-30, business days falling on Dec. 26, 29, 30 and 31, 2025, are nonpremium paid university holidays. Most IU offices are expected to be closed, except where continuous service is required. On these holidays, eligible staff employees are excused from work and will receive their regular pay.

These closures are in addition to the university’s observed legal holidays on Thursday, Dec. 25, for Christmas and Thursday, Jan. 1, for New Year’s Day. These are paid premium holidays.

Timesheets and ePTO calendars will auto-populate with the holiday hours. For staff employees who must work on the paid holidays other than Dec. 25 and Jan. 1, refer to policy HR-05-30 for details about non-premium holidays. They have a fixed date and cannot be deferred to a workday of the employee’s choosing.

For more information, visit HR’s winter holidays web page.

Winter break office closings

Offices are expected to close on the following 2025-26 paid holidays dates or beyond for a winter break office closing:

• Thursday, Dec. 25, 2025
• Friday, Dec. 26, 2025
• Monday, Dec. 29, 2025
• Tuesday, Dec. 30, 2025
• Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025
• Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026

Use of accrued PTO during office closings

During any office closings other than paid holidays, staff may use accrued paid time off as follows:

• Non-exempt staff may use vacation hours or compensatory time off. Non-exempt PAO and PAU staff may use PTO or compensatory time off, as available. Exempt staff may use PTO. Staff in any of these categories may also choose to take the time off as absent without pay, with time off accruals.
• Non-exempt staff cannot use income protection time, and exempt and non-exempt PAO and PAU staff cannot use PTO sick leave to cover this time.
• Staff employees who do not have sufficient paid time off accruals to cover an office closing will either take the time off as absent without pay (with time off accruals) or be permitted to borrow up to 40 hours of time (see next section).

Borrowing vacation or PTO accruals during office closings

Staff employees who do not have sufficient time off accruals to cover holiday office closings beyond paid holidays will be permitted to borrow up to 40 hours of time off as follows:

• Employees should contact their unit payroll specialist for instructions.
• As soon as the employee earns vacation or PTO accruals, the borrowed time is charged against the accrued time.
• If the employee separates from university employment before earning the borrowed time, the employee’s final paycheck will be adjusted accordingly.

If the office remains open, staff may not borrow against future accruals. With supervisor approval, they may take time off (vacation/PTO) or be absent without pay and without time off accruals.

Year-end pay dates

• For non-exempt (including PAO and PAU) staff, the last pay date of 2025 is Dec. 19, for time worked between Nov. 23 and Dec. 6.
• Exempt staff will receive pay for work during December 2025 on Jan. 2, 2025.

Reminders for staff paid monthly:

• For tax purposes, the last 2025 pay date will be Nov. 26.
• The December 2025 paycheck will be paid on Jan. 2, 2026. Please take this into consideration if you have automatic withdrawals from your bank accounts and ensure that you have adequate funds to cover them.

Use of unused 2024 holiday hours accruals

For exempt employees, unused holiday accruals from 2024 must be used by the end of the last pay period of 2025, which is Dec. 31, 2025.

For non-exempt (including PAO and PAU) staff, holiday time off earned in 2024 must be used by Dec. 19, 2025.

PTO rollover information

The following applies to exempt staff and non-exempt, non-union PAO and PAU staff.

At the end of each calendar year, full-time (100 percent FTE) employees with unused PTO hours can allocate up to 136 of those hours to their PTO sick leave account, which can be used to cover absences for personal and family medical needs. For part-time staff employees, this amount is prorated by their position’s FTE.

PTO sick leave can be used to cover absences for personal and family medical needs.

Printable office-closing, year-end and PTO-rollover announcements are always available on the IUHR news and announcements web page. For HR-related questions, contact askhr@iu.edu. For payroll-related questions, contact the Office of the University Controller.