Question about leaving my job
FarmingBride
member
I gave my two weeks next last Monday with my current employer. Our vacation time and sick time gets re-issues every Jan 1. My question is does my employer have to pay me for my vacation time that I did not us? I work for a smaller company with under 50 employees and no HR department. There have been no handbooks issued to every employee ever. It is a 2 store location. The main controller at the southern store handles all the insurance, pay-checks, etc. She's horrible to deal with! The other controller at our northern store has had some questions about insurance, pay-checks, etc and has asked our main controller for a handbook. The main controller says the company has one but she's never product one for our other controller to take a look at to know what the rules are for different things (we all think that the company really has no handbook so they can make the rules up as they go and do what the want and change them to fit their needs). Vacation we have to use it or lose it by the end of the year. They will pay out sick time if have it left over at the end of the year. Come Jan 1 of this year I got my 2 weeks vacation and 3 sick days. I have has used 3 1/2 days vacation before I gave my 2 weeks notice. After I gave my two weeks notice this main controller gal called me up and said that they do not pay vacation or sick and that I have actually used up more sick than what I have earned for the year so far so I can't use anymore.
Now at my husband's company if they give notice they get paid on their remaining vacation but not sick as they earn that (so many hrs sick time after you have worked so many hrs as you go thru out the year).
But now my daycare provider's baby came a month early--after I gave my two weeks notice and I supposedly can't take any more time off (what the main controller told me) so I had to take a few days off to get a plan in place for my son as I had my plan ready for a few weeks from now but not quite this quick.
I was just wondering if there is a state law somewhere talking about vacation time--right from wrong. Or how other companies are structured. I know each company can be different, but just wondering what you have ran into out there. I know darn well I have heard other companies employees come in and give notice and use their vacation time remaining to finish it out. They aren't even letting me us a day or two vacation once I give notice----doesn't seem right to me. But my boss said that if after Jan 1 I decided to take 2 weeks vacation then give my 2 weeks notice---I would be paid my 2 weeks vacation in full and their is nothing they can do about it. But what, once I give my 2 weeks they won't pay? Just doesn't make sense to me!
Oh also---another employee is kind of fighting the similar fight as he gave notice 1 week before I did. He said that since our vacation----our entire year's worth of vacation (so for me that would be 2 weeks worth) is on our pay stub that we have earned that vacation time. So to explain come Jan 1 my pay stub shows I now have 2 weeks vacation and 3 sick days. He said that as soon as the employer shows that on the pay stub that we have earned it. The main controllers argument is that we are always behind--meaning we have to work this full year 2011 before we get our earned 2012 vacation or something like that. Kind of tough to explain.
Anyone have any links or advice on what is right and wrong with this subject.
Re: Question about leaving my job
https://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:2PQc-TKh_8cJ:www.iowaworkforce.org/labor/wagefaqs.pdf+iowa+state+labor+laws+vacation&hl=en&gl=us
Employers need to pay you the vacation time only if that is in your contract or in a benefits manual.As I understand vacation, you earn it throughout the year. In some cases you can take ALL of your vacation at the beginning of the year, but if you quit before the end of the year you owe them back that money. I worked as a nanny and one family got into their day care so they opted out before my year had finished.. I did not get all my vacation b/c I had not worked the full year. It really sucked.
At my job now you earn vacation throughout the year in hourly installments. Each pay period you get x amount of hours depending on how long you have worked there. If I quit or get laid off at any point I am owed that vacation b/c I already 'earned' it.
I used to work for a company that sounds a lot like yours. When I left, they basically figured up what vacation/sick time I had earned up to that point in the year, and compared it to what I had already used. Whatever I had not used that I would have been entitled to at that point, they paid me for. However, I've also worked for a company who did not care what I had earned up to the time I left...I didn't get a penny!
Basically, it all boils down to how nice they want to be. With as few employees as they have, they aren't subjected to near the amount of regulation that big corporations are. I would start negotiating now, if you can.
This is how it happens at my company too.