Laid Off? You Still Have Rights! Part 3: Get Your Vacation Pay
Published by James Peters December 2nd, 2008 in California Employment Law, Wages : OtherIn most layoff situations, especially these days, the layoff is legitimate and a necessary evil in cutting costs. However, just because an employee has not been wrongfully terminated in a layoff does not mean they have no California employment law rights. One common example is receiving all unpaid vacation pay.
Vacation Pay
Under California employment laws, once employees have accrued vacation time, they must either be allowed to use it to take time off or have it paid out at termination. This is commonly referred to as California’s “no use-it-or-lose-it” rule.
Employees should also be aware that even if an employer calls it “Paid Time Off (PTO)” or a “personal day” instead of “vacation” it most likely must still be paid out. Under California law, vacation pay is defined as any hours an employer provides an employee to take off for any reason.
One example of something which might not qualify as vacation pay is sick pay, which most employers only allow use of when an employee is sick. Otherwise, most forms of PTO is the same thing as vacation pay.
Payment Must Be Made on Exact Termination Date
Whether you are owed accrued vacation pay, hourly wages, salary, commissions, or some other form of wages, an employer who terminates an employee MUST pay ALL money out on the last day of employment-no exceptions.
If this is not done, then an employee is entitled to “waiting time” penalties equal to one day of wages for each day the wages remain unpaid, including weekends and holidays, up to a maximum of thirty days. These issues come into play even where the employer does not dispute that the employee is owed money. For example, if the employer puts the check in the mail or does not pay all of the wages until the next payday, the employee is automatically entitled to penalties from their last day until they actually receive the check.
For example, if your employer does not pay out all of your vacation pay and you make $60,000 per year, after thirty days you would be entitled to approximately $7,000 in penalties even if the vacation is eventually paid out to you.
These are tough times for many laid-off employees. They should make sure they receive all of the wages they are owed, since every dollar counts in making it through their unemployment.
Table of Contents for This Series
- Laid Off? You Still Have Rights! Part 1: Is Something Fishy?
- Laid Off? You Still Have Rights! Part 2: Are You a Statistic?
- Laid Off? You Still Have Rights! Part 3: Get Your Vacation Pay
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DISCLAIMER
What about severence money or bonus money still owed to the employee that got laid off? Is that do at time of everything is turned in or do they have a certain time frame for that money?
John:
ALL wages must be paid to an employee immediately upon termination, regardless of how it is characterized. I hope that helps.
Here’s my situation…I will be getting laid off somethime today…due to another re-org, this is the 5th re-org since of mid 2008, the company office is located in Ohio, but I work in California and they stated that the do not pay PTO. Can I fight this? I still have about 2 weeks of PTO and 80 Hrs of Vacation time unuse… I have been promise alot during these re-orgs but it never happen…now I’m out of a job. I’m been trying to find out in california law will could back me up to get my remaining PTO. Any help will be appreciated…
George
Mr. Salgado:
Thank you for contacting us. Regardless of where your company is headquartered, if you worked in California you must receive your PTO paid out in full. Good luck!
Hello,
I worked for a Temporary Staffing company for over a year and my assignment ended due to layoffs at the job. Thru the Staffing company I had over a week of Paid Time Off. When the assignment ended they didn’t pay me for the accrued PTO. I have tried contacting the Reps and they aren’t returning my calls or emails. Do they owe me the money? How do I go about getting it? Thanks James!