I live in Illinois. I was recently downsized out of my job. My question is do they have to pay me my vacation pay? They normally give 2 weeks after 1 year. I was on the job 9 months. They do pay you for your vacation pay, they accrue it, but claim unless your there a year you aren’t entitled to it.
I contacted the labor board and they say the law is vauge it says “Vacation pay IS a earned benefit and must be paid upon termination.”
But the question is when does it become earned. I was advised to get a lawyer. But it seems I should get 9/12 (3/4) of two weeks pay to me. But that is hardly worth taking time off my new job AND paying a lawyer too.
Has anyone else had anything similar?
This is the only job I had that won’t pay earned vacation pay.
At the two large corporations I have worked for you didn’t earn a day of vacation until you had been there one full year. On your anniversary date you got two weeks vacation. So, based on my experience, you’re screwed. Sorry.
The worst experience I ever had was working for a company that didn’t pay you for holidays but didn’t let you work, either. It was just a chunk out of your paycheck. Merry Christmas to you too!
“non sunt multiplicanda entia praeter necessitatem”
Does your vacation show up on your paycheck? Mine is listed there along with all the deductions. In my state, too, they are required by law to pay you vacation. I have a friend who had a run in about this, and because she had documented proof (ie, her paycheck saying she had XX amount of vacation) they had to pay her for it.
In Canada, where i happen to live, i don’t get vacation or unemployment insurance deductions back even though i don’t work enough hours to qualify for either a vacation or unemployment insurance. Go fig.
If you earn two weeks vacation after one year on the job, then you are entitled to pay for two weeks vacation only when you have been on the job a year. Not nine months, a year.
Employers with this very common policy (I live in IL too) are under no obligation to change their vacation rules simply because you think it should be prorated.
In short, you’re SOL. Take the lawyer money and buy yourself a new Rolex.
In the U.S., the laws vary by state and are pretty much at the whim of the company. Vacation can be accured monthly, in which case you would have a claim to unused vacation; or vacation can accrue after one year of service, in which case you got nothin’. Thus, companies are pretty much free to do as they please.
Different countries have different requirements (or lack thereof).
Not to mention the fact that it might be accrued weekly or monthly, but unavailable (not vested) until after one year of service. I have had that happen at three different employers in California.
It really doesn’t matter what company policy says. It is the law that matters. For instance when I did payroll for my staff, If they punch in early, even without authorization, you still have to pay them. You can fire them or you can write them up, but you STILL must pay them. Despite my company policy saying this isn’t so.
Also in IL you MUST take your lunch break no later than 5 hours after you start your shift. Even if the employee says they would rather wait it is an offensive subject to 100 dollar fine per occurance. But my company H/R department says it’s OK to delay lunch.
That is why I really don’t have faith in anything the H/R dept says.
ILLINOIS WAGE PAYMENT AND COLLECTION ACT
820 ILCS 115/1-1
Unless otherwise provided in a collective bargaining agreement, whenever a contract of employment or employment policy provides for
paid vacations, and an employee resigns or is terminated without having taken all vacation time earned in accordance with such
contract of employment or employment policy, the monetary equivalent of all earned vacation shall be paid to him or her as
part of his or her final compensation at his or her final rate of pay and no employment contract or employment policy shall provide
for forfeiture of earned vacation time upon separation.
Key words: Vacation time earned
and “employment contract or policy.”
Those contracts are entered into voluntarily on the part of an employer, and/or an employer sets their own paid vacation policy.
There are no laws, Federal or State that I can find that set minimun standards for paid vacations. This benefit is completely voluntary on an employer’s part, and they could concievably offer none, zip, nada. You’re free to wander around the Illinois Dept of Labor at: