Human Resource Blog

Nebraska Vacation Pay

	Benefits
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	Termination
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Is there any Nebraska law that requires employers to pay terminated employees for accrued vacation time?

No. Only nine states have established laws to require employers to pay for accrued vacation time.

State law doesn’t require companies to provide vacation benefits for workers. Each business can establish its own vacation policies, including whether vacation time will be paid upon termination. If a company does establish a policy to pay workers for accrued vacation, the company is legally bound to make that payment. (Policies regarding vacation time are usually provided in the employee handbook.)

Any company which has paid workers in the past for accrued vacation (in comparable situations) is required to always pay for that time. Otherwise, the company could open itself up to charges of discrimination. Benefits must be paid without regard to race, sex, color, country of origin, pregnancy, disability, age (over 40) or religion. To illustrate, an employers which pays all employees, except those who are of Asian descent, is breaking the law.

States, both those with laws that require payment or those without, handle paying workers in a variety of ways.

Every employee in Indiana and North Carolina is entitled to receive pay for their vacation time when they leave the job. This is assumed and upheld by the courts. Only companies which have a detailed, written policy outlining the circumstances which preclude workers from receiving payment are exempt from this policy.

Oklahoma, among a number of states, has laws that require employers to uphold any promises made to their employees. If the company policy states that workers will receive payment for their vacation time when they leave the job, the company is legally bound to make that payment. Enforcement of this policy comes under the jurisdiction of the state Department of Labor.

In Maine, Illinois and California, and six other states, laws are in place to require employers to pay all employees for their accrued vacation time. Though the laws in these states vary, the norm is for all employees to be paid, regardless of whether they quit, got fired, or were laid off. JH