How does your employer do vacation time?

[tvguy]

Here, salaried exempt employees are paid an annual salary and they get paid that salary regardless of the hours or days worked in that year. While vacation time is tracked, there is nothing in place to prevent salaried exempt employees from taking days off. We don't get paid extra for all of the Saturdays we work and we are not docked for any days we don't work. If there is an issue with work going undone due to absences, it's up to the executive manager (direct supervisor to exempt employee) to deal with through disciplinary measures.
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This is 100% correct in California. At my past employer it became an issue for an employee who was salaried/exempt and got called to jury duty. The company policy was 2 weeks cap on jury duty with pay. Her case went 3 weeks. Company withheld 1 weeks pay for the third week. The Judge wrote a letter pointing out that under state law, vacation, sick leave and jury duty leave can not be capped for a salaried-exempt employees. That is one of the things employers in California give up in exchange for being allowed an exemption to overtime laws. I got dragged into the situation because I was salaried-exempt 7 years earlier and was on jury duty 6 1/2 weeks and was paid fully for that time. But we had a change of General Managers. We were the only location in California, and this whole incident kicked off an investigation by the new GM, who then had to put out a 14 page supplement to the corporate employee handbook to note the corporate policies that did not apply in California because they violate the law.

 

[tvguy]

I do the payroll but when I asked if her time off in October was to be paid, no one can decide. I decided to research some other companies to present information to the "powers that be".

If this person gets two weeks paid vacation in the first year without earning it there are going to be some very unhappy employees. It's a small office so people already know what's going.

Well, SOMEONE has to decide. You just need to process the payroll based on that decision. But I'd be quiet about it because I would think this entire situation would be something considered to be confidential information.

 

[Skippy918]

We accrue a set amount of hours of PTO per month which increases every 8 years. It's used for sick and vacation and its a decent amount. We can borrow ahead as long as we don't go into the negative by the end of the year. We can now carry over 40 hours up from 20. Anything above that at the end of the year gets forfeited. California employees don't have a limit as to how much they carry over.

 

[sonnyjane]

Echoing those that are saying unpaid. We accrue, but if we need to take time off above and beyond that, or before we've accrued anything yet, it's unpaid.

 

[robinb]

I do the payroll but when I asked if her time off in October was to be paid, no one can decide. I decided to research some other companies to present information to the "powers that be".

If we pay this person for the October vacation, then that leaves them with no vacation time at all until December 2014. We do not do accrued vacation time....you get vacation time at one year anniversary. Sick leave does accrue (and they've used all their accrued sick leave already)

Hmmm ... the way I read your OP that she negotiated a paid vacation in Spring 2013 as a condition of her employment. That was a "free week" and it didn't come out of her vacation allotment. Since you don't accrue vacation and she receives her 2-weeks of vacation on her 1-year anniversary in December. I would say that if she wants to take a week off in October it would have to be without pay.

 

[Claire&TheBoys]

I think everywhere I've ever worked, we accrued vacation per month or per pay. It wasn't given as a lump sum at some point in the year (either anniversary date or first of the year). One employer I had did give sick time as a lump sum at the first of the year, and then whatever you had left in December was paid out to you (an extra Christmas bonus). I had just started working when I got married and I took my honeymoon off as unpaid vacation.

When I started at my current job, I was hired to work f/t and my boss did give me a week's vacation to start. I went p/t after my first son was born and don't get paid vacation anymore.

My husband works for the Dept of Defense and accrues both sick and vacation time per pay period as a salaried employee. He also can accrue up to 24 "credit" hours he's worked and take them off like comp time. I don't think there's any limit to his sick hours - he has almost 300 hours right now and gets 4 more per bi-weekly pay period. He gets 6 hours of vacation per pay period, but can't hold more than 240 hours.

I think the employee in question should have to take the October vacation off without pay.

 

[Lindaland]

We are having some issues with someone where I work and vacation time. It's a pretty relaxed office but we do have an admin manual. Our policy is salaried employees earn two weeks vacation after one year of employment.

We have a person hired in December who hasn't yet earned any vacation time. They informed the boss that they already had a spring break trip scheduled when they were hired and were granted permission to take the time off paid. Now there is another vacation scheduled in October. There is some debate going on as how to handle it.

My question is, where you work, are you allowed to take vacation time if you haven't yet earned the time? Would your vacation request be denied or would you be allowed to take that time off as unpaid?

Where I work, we accrue vacation & sick time as a percentage of our hours worked. The percentage rate depends on how long you have worked there. The first vacation would have been covered as a condition at time of employment, however the second would depend on how much time you had accrued to that point. If there was not enough time the request would be denied. Unless you could make enough trades within the pay period (without going into overtime) to cover the shifts.

In your situation, I would think the vacation would be denied per your policy on not getting vacation until after your first year. Sometimes they just have to wait and follow the rules where they work to get what they want.

 

[aprilgail2]

I think everywhere I've ever worked, we accrued vacation per month or per pay. It wasn't given as a lump sum at some point in the year (either anniversary date or first of the year). One employer I had did give sick time as a lump sum at the first of the year, and then whatever you had left in December was paid out to you (an extra Christmas bonus). I had just started working when I got married and I took my honeymoon off as unpaid vacation.

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Places I have worked have only given you the time in one lump sum the 1st of jan. So Jan. 1st -I got 5 Weeks Vac- 7 Personal Days and 12 Sick days. As long as you worked 90 days the pervious year. If you did not then you just got a little less but still got it on Jan. 1st.

 

[rdevine10]

The way I see it is as follows:

The spring vacation was a negotiated upon hiring. It would be a paid vacation.

The October vacation seems to be approved by management. That being said, if your company has a policy you get no paid vacation your 1st year (which is stinky, IMO) than it would be an unpaid vacation unless she also negotiated this upon hiring as well.

I work at a hospital and we have a very generous PTO policy. I have been there almost 10 years. If I was full time I would get 35 days off per year (includes holiday and sick time). I work in the ER and we are open on holidays so as long as I make my control hours per week I do not have to use my "holiday" pay during the holiday week. I have 16 control hours and this year I have 14 days of PTO (which works out to 7 weeks off- or longer if I scheduled it right). We accrue per pay period. We can also carry over 1 week in addition to our control hours. And yes I know I am very lucky to get PTO with working part time!

 

[StitchesGr8Fan]

OP, please do keep us updated on how this turns out.