question regarding a salaried employee and vacation time

What is the name of your state? Colorado

Hi there. I am an office manager in a medical office and I have recently resigned from my job. I am a salaried employee and when I was changed from hourly to salaried 3.5 years ago I was told that I did not acrue time for vacation, that I was given 120 hours per year (june to june) to use for vacation. I have practiced in this manner for the past 3.5 years and have 1 weeks vacation left at the time of my resignation. When we have terminated employees or employees have resigned in our office, their PTO (paid time off) banks are emptied out and they are paid for these hours in the last paycheck. I know that Colorado does not have any requirements nor does it restrict employers regarding vacation pay, however since in our employee manual there are sections discussing that that is a benefit for a full time employee and with the precedent set by the use of my vacation time in the past years, plus the precedent with how they have handled the other hourly employees... should I expect that they should pay me for my remaining 1 week of vacation. I could have told them my last day would include a week of vacation when I turned in my resignation letter and I am told that they would have had to pay me. So need a little help here!

Thanks very much!

Stating you were due 1 week of vacation pay in your resignation letter would not have obligated the employer to pay you. Using that logic, departing employees could state they are due 20 weeks of vacation and the employer would be obligated to pay.

Colorado law DOES obligate the employer to pay out unused vested vacation at the time of termination. Apparently the debate is how much vested vacation you have. I suggest you sit down with the appropriate person (your boss? payoll?) and see if you can come to agreement about how much vacation you're entitled to per year at this point and how much you've taken. If you can't come to agreement, then you can contact CO's Department of Labor and see if they can assist you.

Thank you very much for your help. I will have to contact Colorado's department of Labor, since when I did bring up the issue and explained that I had 40.5 hours left in my "bank" of PTO time I was told that they would not pay out these hours of PTO. Again, thanks for your help

Colorado law DOES obligate the employer to pay out unused vested vacation at the time

We are also in Colorado and my husband is a salaried manager for a company that has told all managers that if they leave the company before they use their earned vacation time for that year that they will not pay them for that vacation time. From what you wrote that is against the law. Where is this referenced in the law? Thanks!

Beth3 said:

Stating you were due 1 week of vacation pay in your resignation letter would not have obligated the employer to pay you. Using that logic, departing employees could state they are due 20 weeks of vacation and the employer would be obligated to pay.

Colorado law DOES obligate the employer to pay out unused vested vacation at the time of termination. Apparently the debate is how much vested vacation you have. I suggest you sit down with the appropriate person (your boss? payoll?) and see if you can come to agreement about how much vacation you're entitled to per year at this point and how much you've taken. If you can't come to agreement, then you can contact CO's Department of Labor and see if they can assist you.

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dotcommom said:

We are also in Colorado and my husband is a salaried manager for a company that has told all managers that if they leave the company before they use their earned vacation time for that year that they will not pay them for that vacation time. From what you wrote that is against the law. What should we do if this happens? Thanks!

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Did you not read the part where she said Contact the CO Dept. of Labor???

Yes, I read it. She was telling another member to contact them concerning her situation.

Before contacting them about our situation I would like to know more about that specific part of the law. Two of us searched the Dept. of Labor website and we could not find any law or reference that requires employers to pay salaried employees for vacation time if they were no longer with the company, whether voluntary or involuntary.

In CO, all employees, regardless of how they are paid, are entitled to have any earned but unused vacation paid out at termination. If you are looking for something specific to salaried employees you aren't going to find it because there is no such limitation.

I don't know what makes you think that the recourse for you would be different from the recourse for the poster whose thread you hijacked. However since you require proof, please look at page 32 of the document linked here:

http://www.coworkforce.com/LAB/AB.pdf

Under Colorado law:

VACATION AS WAGES OR COMPENSATION: Colorado Wage Law provides that
vacation pay, earned in accordance with the terms of any agreement, may be classified as wages or compensation. If an employer provides paid vacation for an employee, the employer shall pay upon separation from employment all vacation pay earned and determinable in accordance with the terms of any agreement between the employer and the employee.

My husband now tells me that he thinks they made him sign a memo that he agreed that he would not get any vacation pay if he left the company. Does that mean that they can now withhold the vacation pay. Would we still have a case against them because of this?

Yes, they would still have to pay. The LAW says that they do have to pay it. It doesn't matter what he signed, he cannot agree to allow them to violate the law.

Thank you. That is music to my ears.