Human Resource Blog

Accrued Vacation in Iowa

I put in 2 weeks notice at a company I had been working at for 9 1/2 years. They are telling me I do not get paid for my vacation. I have accrued almost 70 hours of unused vacation. I wanted to know what the law is in Iowa?

There is no state law in Iowa that an employer must pay accrued vacation time to a worker who is terminated. However, if the employer has agreed or promised to pay accrued vacation, they cannot back out of that agreement, under state law.

Nine states have laws that require employers to pay workers for any accrued vacation upon termination, but Iowa is not among them. Those states are California, Illinois, Louisiana, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Tennessee.

If an Iowa employer has a written or unwritten policy of paying accrued vacation, then they must honor that policy. If the company has paid accrued vacation time to other workers in similar circumstances, then the usually must extend the same benefits to other employees.

Iowa state law requires that employers honor their commitments to workers. This law is enforced by the Iowa Division of Labor, which handles claims regarding unpaid wages, vacation pay, unpaid expenses, unauthorized deductions, payment of minimum wage, etc. This is far more than most states offer. In many states, the Department of Labor only requires that employers pay workers the minimum wage. Workers must file a lawsuit to collect any additional payments due, such as expenses, higher wages, etc.

There are a few exceptions here. The Iowa Division of Labor does not handle claims more than one year old. They do not handle claims for amounts exceeding $5,000. and they do not handle claims for work performed outside of Iowa.