Vacation pay how does it work

Read a complete summary of the changes to the ESA. This employment standard has two parts: vacation time and vacation pay. Some employees have jobs that are exempt from the vacation with pay provisions of the ESA. For more information on these job categories, please see the special rule tool.

Employees are entitled to two weeks of vacation time after each month vacation entitlement year. Ordinarily, a vacation entitlement year is a recurring month period beginning on the date of hire. Where the employer has established an alternative vacation entitlement year that begins on a date other than the date of hire, the employee is also entitled to a pro-rated amount of vacation time for the period called a "stub period" that precedes the alternative vacation entitlement year.

Vacation pay must be at least four per cent of the "gross" wages excluding any vacation pay earned in the month vacation entitlement year or stub period where that applies. An employee who does not complete either the full vacation entitlement year or the stub period if any does not qualify for vacation time under the ESA. However, employees earn vacation pay as they earn wages.

So if an employee works even just one hour, he or she is still entitled to at least four percent of the hour's wages as vacation pay. Period between the date of hire and beginning of the first alternative vacation entitlement year or, the period between the end of a standard vacation entitlement year and the beginning of an alternative vacation entitlement year where the employer switches from a standard vacation entitlement year to an alternative vacation entitlement year e.

If an employer has chosen an alternative vacation entitlement year that runs January 1 to December 31 and the employee is hired on September 1, the stub period will be September 1 to December Vacation entitlement year and stub period will include time the employee spends away from work because of:.

Employees earn a minimum of two weeks of vacation time upon completion of every month vacation entitlement year. The ESA does not provide for any increases to the two-week vacation time entitlement based on length of employment although a contract of employment or collective agreement might do so. If the vacation entitlement year is a standard vacation entitlement year, the employee will be entitled to a minimum of two weeks of vacation time after the 12 months following his or her date of hire and after each month period thereafter.

If an employer establishes an alternative vacation entitlement year, the employee will be entitled to a minimum of two weeks of vacation time after each alternative vacation entitlement year but will also be entitled to a pro-rated amount of vacation time for the stub period preceding the start of the first alternative vacation entitlement year.

The vacation time entitlement for a stub period is calculated as two 2 weeks multiplied by the ratio R of the length of the stub period to 12 months. The vacation entitlement for a stub period is calculated as two weeks times the average number of days worked per work week during the stub period A multiplied by the ratio of the length of the stub period to 12 months R.

The vacation time earned with respect to a completed vacation entitlement year or a stub period must be taken within 10 months following the completion of the vacation entitlement year or stub period.

The employer has the right to schedule vacation as well as an obligation to ensure the vacation time is scheduled and taken before the end of that ten-month period. Riley was hired on February 24, His employer established an alternative vacation entitlement year of July 1 to June The pro-rated amount of vacation time that Riley earned for the stub period of February 24, to June 30, must be taken within ten months of the end of the stub period that is, within ten months of June 30, The vacation time Riley earned for the entitlement year July 1, to June 30, would have to be taken within ten months of the end of the vacation entitlement year that is, within ten months of June 30, If the deadline under the ESA for taking a vacation comes up when an employee is on pregnancy, parental, personal emergency, family caregiver, family medical, critical illness, organ donor, reservist or crime-related child death or disappearance leave, the vacation must be taken when the leave ends or at a later date with the agreement in writing of the employer and the employee.

Likewise, if an employee's contract requires that some or all of his or her vacation must be taken within a specified period that comes up when the employee is on a leave and the employee would otherwise have to give up some or all of his or her vacation entitlements under the contract, the employee may defer taking the vacation until the leave ends or take it at a later date with the agreement in writing of the employer and employee.

An employee can give up some or all of his or her earned vacation time with the employer's written agreement and the approval of the Director of Employment Standards. Employers may put vacation pay on every cheque. Employees are still entitled to take time off as vacation, but because it has already been paid, they do not receive any additional vacation pay while they are off. All employees start earning vacation time and pay from their first day of work for an employer. Employees are eligible for vacation once they have completed one year of work and must take their vacation within 10 months of it being earned.

Employees and their employers can agree on when vacation will be taken. If an employer and employee cannot agree on when the vacation will be taken, the employer sets the vacation date.

Employers can choose to schedule their employees' vacations as part of an annual shut down. General holidays are not counted as a vacation day. See the General Holiday page for more information. During a legislated or approved leave, employment is considered continuous. The time employees are away on leave counts toward their years of service when determining how much vacation they are entitled to.

Employees who return from leave are entitled to their full vacation time because they are still employed while on the leave.

If they were not earning wages while on the leave, the amount earned as vacation pay will be lower than it would have been otherwise. General holidays are deemed to be hours of work for the purposes of calculating overtime. When employment ends, employees must be paid within 10 working days from the last day worked, all of the vacation pay that has been earned.

Since vacation pay is earned from the first day of work, employees who have not yet completed one year of service are paid the portion they earned from the day they started with the employer. When employees are terminating employment, they may use vacation for the notice period if the employer agrees. Employees are entitled to all outstanding vacation pay when their employment ends. See the Termination of Employment fact sheet for more information.

The employment of employees who work in a seasonal industry is deemed to be continuous if they return to work with the same employer each season. Each consecutive season they return adds one more year of service. Employers can choose to have a common anniversary date so all employees receive their new vacation entitlements at the same time. If you are a member of a union and have questions about vacation time, contact your union representative.

State law does not require your employer to give you the day off on holidays Thanksgiving, 4th of July or to pay you extra if you work on a holiday. However if your employer does pay extra for example, double time if you work on a holiday, it must pay you what it promised. Unless your employer makes a promise to pay you extra, holidays are the same as any other day and you only get overtime if working the holiday puts you over 8 hours in a day or 40 hours in a week.

Under California law, your vacation time is considered wages. For example, if you get 2 weeks 10 work days of vacation per year, you will have earned accrued 5 days of vacation after 6 months of work or 0. Even if your employer tells you that you are not allowed to take that two weeks of vacation until the year is over, you are actually earning a part of it every pay period that you work.

Therefore, if you quit or get fired before the year ends, you get paid for the days of vacation time that you earned but did not take. Generally, yes. If you are a temporary or probationary employee, you may not be eligible for vacation benefits because employers sometimes have policies that say you cannot earn vacation time if you are in a probationary period. A probationary period can last 30 days, 60 days, or even one year. Your employer can tell you when and how long you can take a vacation.