# Vacation pay



## Zzed (Feb 16, 2011)

Hi,

In my contract with my current employer I have 4 weeks vacation days for the year, so if i'm there till June technically i should have 2 weeks vacation time. 

It's a small company of about 25 people, and the owner seems to use the size to get away with alot of things with the government.

So I was wondering if I give my 2 weeks notice and they need me to work the entire 2 weeks, does the employer have to pay me for unused vacation days?


Thanks!


----------



## Jungle (Feb 17, 2010)

I have left jobs before and my last cheque was larger because it included the vacation pay that was not used. 

As long as you are entitled to it, it will be paid out to you.


----------



## financialnoob (Feb 26, 2011)

The word contract kind of confused me, as I read that to mean you're a contract employee. But with vacation, so that makes me think you're a regular employee and contract is like your offer letter or similar?

If you're an employee, then yes, you would be paid out any vacation time owing at the end of your employment. It has to be paid out within a certain period depending on your province. This link has a handy chart at the bottom for part-time, seasonal, and employees who haven't worked a full year:

http://www.canadaone.com/ezine/july07/inoutvacation.html

Or governmental links from each province can be found here:

http://canadaonline.about.com/od/labourstandards/Canada_Employment_and_Labour_Standards.htm


----------



## LondonHomes (Dec 29, 2010)

It really depends on your company and how it works.

There are companies where:

a) you earn vacation this year and get to take it next year.
b) you earn vacation this year and take it this year.
c) They pay you your vacation as part of your cheque.

However, every day you work you earn some vacation days (in your case approx 8%). You should make sure you know how much is owing to you and make sure it's paid out when you leave.


----------



## Zzed (Feb 16, 2011)

Great, thank you for your replies


----------



## I'm Howard (Oct 13, 2010)

Be careful, many companies have a clause that vacations earned in a certain period must be used by a certain period, or they are lost.

My Son, also with a small company has thirty weeks of unused vacation time, but no clause that forces him to use it, so if He leaves he will get a good severance cheque.


----------



## HaroldCrump (Jun 10, 2009)

^ Right, but that applies to full-time employees.
The word _contract_ confuses me whether the poster is a FT or contract employee.

Carry-over vacation is great when you need to take several weeks off together, like getting married, summer trip, etc.
But it's not good for cashing-out.
I found this out the hard way.

When I quit a previous employer, I had 10 weeks of vacation time saved up.
The whole thing got paid out with my last paycheque but the damn govt. took almost half of it.
Never again, I swore.
Since then, I use up most of the vacation time every year and carry forward no more than 1 week from year-to-year.


----------



## m3s (Apr 3, 2010)

HaroldCrump said:


> When I quit a previous employer, I had 10 weeks of vacation time saved up.
> The whole thing got paid out with my last paycheque but the damn govt. took almost half of it.
> Never again, I swore.
> Since then, I use up most of the vacation time every year and carry forward no more than 1 week from year-to-year.


There's a T Form for retropay to spread it over previous years I though it worked for vacation/severance pay as well. I can't remember the T Form though


----------



## Zzed (Feb 16, 2011)

To clarify by 'contract' I actually mean employment agreement, so I am a full-time employee with my current company and not a contractor.


----------

