You're still not making the point you think you are. The unused PTO I can get paid in February cannot be paid to me earlier unless I take an actual day off and in that case my gross pay to that point didn't change. I am not loaning anything to my company.
I don't not take days off to carry over time because who the fuck uses 240 (plus access to an additional 80 hours of CTO) hours of PTO in a year? I could take 20 days off in a year and still get 20 days of PTO paid back to me that I DID NOT PAY FOR!
Ok, I don't really have an interest in continuing to beat this horse long after it's death, especially as I get ready to head out on vacation. But, it occurs to me that we might be talking about two different things here.
It appears that you may be talking about a situation where you are paid a salary, say $200,000/year, and with that you are given 240 hours of PTO. Now, you get paid your $200,000 for your year's work, but if you want, you can choose not to work up to 240 hours of it. If you choose not to work part of the year, your PTO hours are decreased. If you work the whole year, they are not. But either way you get paid $200,000.
If you work the whole year, and still have the 240 hours, then maybe your company only lets you hang onto them and will not pay them out to you, but when you leave or retire, you continue on the payroll until such time as you use up your banked PTO. Or maybe you use it up because you are sick.
That's a pretty common type of plan. If that's the plan, then you aren't giving a loan to the company.
What I was talking about is a situation where a person works and accrues PTO. They are paid for each hour they work. If they choose not to use their PTO during the year, they are given a couple of options. They can have it paid out, or they can bank it for future use or payout. In that situation, I would argue (and have argued in multiple posts) that it's silly to not have it paid out just to somehow create an employer held savings account for you should you need it in the future. Cash it out and put it in your own account and use it in the future.
I would also point out that if in my first example with the salaried employee, that
if the company did permit you to work the whole year, not take PTO, then pay out to you your unused 240 hours at the end of the year or let you bank them for use at a later time, then in that case you'd certainly be making an interest free loan.
