applepearorange
Junior Member
What is the name of your state? Florida
After working for this employer for a couple months and seeing that he was not honoring the terms of employment that we had agreed to verbally over the phone, I drew up a Terms of Employment contract for myself, reviewed it with my employer, and we both signed it. I will share with you the parts of this agreement that apply to my question: "Vacation time- 3 weeks; 5 personal / sick days; 2-3 week notice for vacation time; Max 2 weeks at one time. Vacation and personal/sick days do not accrue if not used up before anniversary. Any unused vacation will be paid out instead. Unused sick days do not get paid out. 1st review at 90 days."
I quit the beginning of this week, and then today sent an email to my former employer about my final paycheck. I told him it should include last week (2 paid vacation days, plus 3 days at work), the final hours I worked on the day that I quit, as well as the 4 days of vacation time that I had not used. (I had to tell him this because the whole time I worked for him, I had to figure out everything about how much I should be paid each paycheck, how much to withhold for the IRS, how much in SS and Medicare taxes to take out, etc.)
He replied and said that not only would he not pay me for my 4 days of unused vacation, but that I would not be paid for most of the hours I worked last week. Here is his reasoning: In my previous paycheck, I was paid for 8 days of the 10 days vacation I had just taken (the remaining 2 days would be applied to this recent, final paycheck). He said since I had only worked there over 5 months, I had only earned 6.58 days of vacation, and since I already took 11 days of vacation (in addition to the 10 days already mentioned, I had taken 1 day off in May), I actually OWE him 4.42 days of pay.
I feel this is not only morally wrong, but legally wrong as well. The contract I wrote up, which we both signed, said that I have 3 weeks, or 15 days of vacation each year, and that any vacation that I do not use at the end of the year gets paid out. I thought it was understood by both of us that those 15 days of vacation were mine each year, not that I had to accrue my vacation days. It does not state anywhere in the contract that vacation had to be accrued according to how long I was working there, and he never verbally said anything to this affect either, up until now that I have quit. I called him up and tried to explain this to him, but he says "every" company does it this way, and even though he didn't specify it in the contract, that I should have known this. I told him the last company I worked for did not base vacation on how many days you have worked, and he did not believe me.
Doesn't the fact that he already paid me for 9 of the 11 days vacation I've taken imply that I have indeed earned those 9 days vacation, and that he himself saw it this way when he signed the check? It seems that he just came up with the argument that I had "not earned the vacation days that I took," only as a way to try to get out of paying me what I earned.
After disputing this point in circles, I finally told him I was willing to compromise and not ask him to pay me for my 4 days of unused vacation, but that he needed to pay me for last week (2 days vacation, 3 days in office) as well as the final hours I worked this week. He still did not want to even compromise, saying he only owed me for a little over 1 day's worth of work, since I "owe" him 4.42 days.
Is this fair/right/legal? After an employer has paid me for vacation days taken, can he withhold the amount paid for those days out of my last paycheck, under the argument that I had not yet earned those vacation days? And, if he really believed I had not yet earned those vacation days, wouldn't he have said something about it when I put in my vacation request? Wouldn't he have refused the request, telling me then that I had not earned enough vacation for my request? Even if he truly thinks he was "lending" me those vacation days, shouldn't he have specifically told me this at the time, rather than now, when I am trying to collect my last paycheck?
Thank you very much for your time and advice. I really appreciate it very much.
**By the way, I was the only employee he ever had. When I was hired, I had to figure out how to register myself as his employee, and all the legal paperwork that goes along with hiring an employee. I even had to figure out how much my paycheck would be after taxes and withholdings, as well the taxes he had to pay in order to have an employee. In other words, I had to in essence do everything that I feel he, as the owner of the company and as my boss, should have figured out before even hiring me. He is a 1-man business and doesn't seem to know much about employment laws, and so maybe this is why he doesn't seem to understand how this, in my opinion, is ethically and possibly legally wrong?**
After working for this employer for a couple months and seeing that he was not honoring the terms of employment that we had agreed to verbally over the phone, I drew up a Terms of Employment contract for myself, reviewed it with my employer, and we both signed it. I will share with you the parts of this agreement that apply to my question: "Vacation time- 3 weeks; 5 personal / sick days; 2-3 week notice for vacation time; Max 2 weeks at one time. Vacation and personal/sick days do not accrue if not used up before anniversary. Any unused vacation will be paid out instead. Unused sick days do not get paid out. 1st review at 90 days."
I quit the beginning of this week, and then today sent an email to my former employer about my final paycheck. I told him it should include last week (2 paid vacation days, plus 3 days at work), the final hours I worked on the day that I quit, as well as the 4 days of vacation time that I had not used. (I had to tell him this because the whole time I worked for him, I had to figure out everything about how much I should be paid each paycheck, how much to withhold for the IRS, how much in SS and Medicare taxes to take out, etc.)
He replied and said that not only would he not pay me for my 4 days of unused vacation, but that I would not be paid for most of the hours I worked last week. Here is his reasoning: In my previous paycheck, I was paid for 8 days of the 10 days vacation I had just taken (the remaining 2 days would be applied to this recent, final paycheck). He said since I had only worked there over 5 months, I had only earned 6.58 days of vacation, and since I already took 11 days of vacation (in addition to the 10 days already mentioned, I had taken 1 day off in May), I actually OWE him 4.42 days of pay.
I feel this is not only morally wrong, but legally wrong as well. The contract I wrote up, which we both signed, said that I have 3 weeks, or 15 days of vacation each year, and that any vacation that I do not use at the end of the year gets paid out. I thought it was understood by both of us that those 15 days of vacation were mine each year, not that I had to accrue my vacation days. It does not state anywhere in the contract that vacation had to be accrued according to how long I was working there, and he never verbally said anything to this affect either, up until now that I have quit. I called him up and tried to explain this to him, but he says "every" company does it this way, and even though he didn't specify it in the contract, that I should have known this. I told him the last company I worked for did not base vacation on how many days you have worked, and he did not believe me.
Doesn't the fact that he already paid me for 9 of the 11 days vacation I've taken imply that I have indeed earned those 9 days vacation, and that he himself saw it this way when he signed the check? It seems that he just came up with the argument that I had "not earned the vacation days that I took," only as a way to try to get out of paying me what I earned.
After disputing this point in circles, I finally told him I was willing to compromise and not ask him to pay me for my 4 days of unused vacation, but that he needed to pay me for last week (2 days vacation, 3 days in office) as well as the final hours I worked this week. He still did not want to even compromise, saying he only owed me for a little over 1 day's worth of work, since I "owe" him 4.42 days.
Is this fair/right/legal? After an employer has paid me for vacation days taken, can he withhold the amount paid for those days out of my last paycheck, under the argument that I had not yet earned those vacation days? And, if he really believed I had not yet earned those vacation days, wouldn't he have said something about it when I put in my vacation request? Wouldn't he have refused the request, telling me then that I had not earned enough vacation for my request? Even if he truly thinks he was "lending" me those vacation days, shouldn't he have specifically told me this at the time, rather than now, when I am trying to collect my last paycheck?
Thank you very much for your time and advice. I really appreciate it very much.
**By the way, I was the only employee he ever had. When I was hired, I had to figure out how to register myself as his employee, and all the legal paperwork that goes along with hiring an employee. I even had to figure out how much my paycheck would be after taxes and withholdings, as well the taxes he had to pay in order to have an employee. In other words, I had to in essence do everything that I feel he, as the owner of the company and as my boss, should have figured out before even hiring me. He is a 1-man business and doesn't seem to know much about employment laws, and so maybe this is why he doesn't seem to understand how this, in my opinion, is ethically and possibly legally wrong?**
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