Exempt vacation pay at termination

[rasberry]

What is the name of your state? North Carolina

If an exempt employee with four (4) weeks vacation leaves his/ her job in January, what determines how much of the current year's vacation pay the employee is entitled to? I have been told both that the employee is entitled to be paid for all four weeks and have also been told the employer only has to pay what has been accrued.

 

[pattytx]

The only time there would be a difference between what is accrued (earned) and the vacation balance would be if the employer granted the full entitlement at the beginning of the year (either calendar, anniversary, or some fixed date).

Say for example, your hire date was 7/1/04 and you get 2 weeks of vacation per year. On 9/1/05, you would have earned (accrued) the full 2 weeks for 2004 and 2.5 days for 2005. However, if the employer front-loaded your vacation on your anniversary date, you would have 4 weeks on the books (2 for 2004 and 2 for 2005). Assuming you had not taken any vacation, the employer would only be required to pay you the 12.5 days at termination, since that is all you would have earned.

Hope this helps explain the difference.

 

[cbg]

You only have to be paid the time you have accrued. How much that would be, would depend on the accrual process, as Patty has described.