Human Resource Blog

Employer withholding paycheck

	Attendance Management
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I went on approved vacation for 7 days. When I returned I worked for two days. On the third day I voluntarily resigned. My vacation pay was not released on the regular pay cycle. I went to Payroll and asked why I hadn’t been paid and was told that I had taken off too much time. After explaining and proving that I was on approved vacation the payroll dept assured me that my check would be deposited the next day. It was not. I called and was told that the lady was not in and I would just have to wait. I am in Alabama. Is this legal?
Thank you for your help
Neal Gunn

You may be entitled to the vacation pay, but in Alabama it might be hard to collect. The Alabama Department of Labor enforces wage claims, but vacation time is usually not considered a wage claim. Most likely, even if the employer has a written vacation policy, you would have to take them to court to collect.

Some companies also permit employees to take time off before they have accrued the vacation time. If that’s the case here, then the company would not actually owe the employee anything.