BootsnAll Travel Community

Are companies required to cash out vacation/personal/sick time when you leave? Or is that just a nice little perk of working at certain companies? I'm not going to be staying too long where I work, and I'm just trying to figure out if I need to scramble and use it all up, or wait for a nice little bonus when I leave....

Thanks for the advice!

It depends on the company, so you really need to be asking them (not us). My employer does cash out vacation time, and since Ive been planning to leave for over a year, I didnt use any vacation days, I stacked it up, so Id get a big fat check when I left! My last day will be July 6th. And my raise takes effect July 1st, so my PTO check better be the increased rate (and not my current one). Yay.

Ah, that's just what I was wondering, if it is up to the company. Thanks! I'll look into it....

my last day is 27july and my company is cashing out my vacation time but, unfortunately, not my sick time (which is 3 weeks... darn!) But does depend on the company. Even though I'm not really planning on coming back after our RTW my boss arranged it w/ HR that this could be considered a leave of absense so if I DO come back it's at same salary, seniority, etc.

^Well, that's cool--IF you decided to come back. Yeah, darn @ the 3 weeks! Our vacation time and sick time is the same thing. So Im expecting a check for every single one of my hours.

Yay for our last days!

And congrats to you, that takes balls.

It depends how their classified, Keppie.

In California, they cannot take away vacation time and must pay it out. However, if this is classified as "personal days," and the vacation and your sick are all lumped in, then they may not pay.

I suggest referring to your employee manual, or intranet, or something that explains your benefits. Information should be there.

Sick days generally aren't paid out or carried over.

I will get cashed out when i leave.


what's more, they just announced here the other day that anyone with 10 or fewer years tenure now will get 15 days vacation (they used to have several different gradations). That gives me 3 more days!

With my work, if you leave, you get nada for your vacation time but a paycheck for your accrued sick time. Also, your unused sick time counts toward your retirement pay. (both incentives given to deter people from "taking" the occasional sick day too often, since they'd either lose the pay when they leave or when they retire).

If you can stick with a job for a long time and rack up a LOT of un-used sick days, it makes for one HECK of a kick-a** check when you leave

I wonder though, is it worth sticking around for years just to get paid out for a week or two of sick days? How much money does that even translate into? I know people who have to work 7 years to get a month long sabattical. Yes, it's nice to get paid for a month of your time, but to me the 7 year wait is too high a price to pay.

I'm in an industry where it's more typical to bounce around every 2 years, so that has something to do with it. And right now I've decided to work for myself because I get paid more to freelance and I can make my own schedule. I feel very lucky for this mind you!

Just wondering what others think.

I think most people who work in offices work there because that's what they went to school for (IT work, data entry, management etc) so they're sort of stuck with that career and it's allotted vacation time, unless they're willing to change careers and start all over again. I graduated with a broadcast degree, and am a freelance videographer of sorts, and have 2 to 3 other mini jobs that add up to a full time job and I wouldn't change it for anything else. I'd imagine I'd want to kill myself(well no not that drastic, lol) after a week if say I went another career direction and worked in a data entry position or some bottom feeder job in an office because I didn't have the relevant experience.

At the company I am with we get paid for vacation time but its is my understanding (meaning- I haven't checked with HR) that this gets taxed at a much higher rate like a bonus would. I think it all varies from state to state and company to company.