Vacation Benefits

System

We are a small company with less than 100 employees. I am new to this company and believe that we need to change our vacation policy. Right now we give no vacation to employees until they have completed one year of service. After completion of one year they are given 10 days vacation. After six months of employment, they can borrow up to 5 days of vacation from the 10 days allotted in their 2nd year. The BNA survey only gives number of days of vacation after one year of service. Every company I have worked for accrues vacation on day one of employment or begins accruing vacation after 6 months of employment. I would like to know what other companies our size are offering their employees. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

John Phillips TN

Although it is difficult to say that there is a rule of thumb for any size
company, I think it is more common to begin accruing vacation during the first
year than waiting until a year has passed. There is no law on this one way or
the other, but beginning to accure vacation early on helps in recruiting and
retention.

John Phillips, Tennessee Employment Law Letter

System

Thanks for the info.

JohnnyDangerously

We employ about 175 employees and have a paid time off (PTO) system. New employees start earning PTO upon hire and become eligible to use it after the successful completion of their introductory period (90 days). Our employees earn 15 days their initial year. I hope this helps.

cedupree

1. Full-time new employees are entitled to one-week (five days) paid vacation earned at a rate of one day for each full month of employment, beginning with the first month from date of employment through the fifth month of employment.

2. Full-time employees with one year of continuous service, but less than five years of continuous service, are entitled to two weeks (ten days) paid vacation each year, earned at a rate of two days per month beginning on the employee's anniversary date.

3. Full-time employees who have completed five years of continuous service are eligible for three weeks (fifteen days) paid vacation, earned at a rate of three days per month beginning on the employee's anniversary date. However, no employee should schedule more than ten consecutive days of vacation without prior approval of the president of the Bureau.

4. Full-time employees who have completed ten years of continuous service are eligible for four weeks (twenty days) paid vacation, earned at a rate of four days per month beginning on the employee's anniversary date. However, no employee should schedule more than ten consecutive days of vacation without prior approval of the president of the Bureau.

5. All vacation time due an employee should be taken within the year of eligibility. Approval of the President is required for paid vacation to be taken prior to a term of eligibility. Under exceptional circumstances an employee may be allowed to carry unused vacation time over to the next anniversary year following the year of eligibility for the unused vacation with written permission of the President.

Rockie

This seems to be a somewhat antiquated system from years back. What is generally done now is what you described - start accruing leave from date of employment. We have ours based on years of experience. We are a large medical practice and our vacation and sick time is rolled into Paid Time Off (PTO). This system also alleviates the "abuse" of sick leave as many individuals will use their sick leave in lieu of vacation time if they are allowed to accrue it. They think more about how sick they are if they know it is also considered vacation time. We don't allow employees to take PTO for 90 days, but after that, they can use with supervisor's approval or in case of sickness, etc.
Our lowest accrual is 10.66 hours per month for 0-1 year and from 1-5 years, it goes up to 14.0 hours. Then there is not another "bump" until the five year point, at which time it increases to 17.33 hours per month. Like I said, this is generous, but it will give you some idea on how to begin structuring. I would say that most companies would go from 8.0 hours to 12 hours to 14 hours based on the same number of years of service. Hoped this helped some!

Annie

I work for a small county in Michigan. Our policy is 5 days vacation accrued after one year of employment. In addition, each employee accrues 8.3 hours per month in PTO, but no time may be used until they have completed a 6 month probationary period. If you get sick during your 6 month probationary period, your department head may give you the time off unpaid, or may terminate your employment based on your probationary period!!! In checking with surrounding counties, this is average for the area.