Does Florida Law Require Vacation Pay?
For private sector employers, the short answer is no. That's why, in a Miami Herald article I was quoted in this morning, I said there's no compelling legal reason to tell employees to take vacation. I added that there are practical reasons for advising employees to take vacation -- so that they can recharge their batteries, avoid getting burned out, etc. But from a legal perspective, if an employee declines to take her annual vacation, or is forced to forego a vacation because of a heavy workload, that should not present a legal problem for a Florida employer, absent discriminatory treatment, or a contract or collective bargaining agreement that mandates vacation time. Florida law does not require employers in the private sector to offer vacations (though, of course, most employers do), to pay out unused vacation time at the end of the year or upon termination, or to carry over unused vacation time to subsequent years. Employers are free to adopt policies on these issues that meet their business needs. And the policies themselves should not be legally binding on the employer if they are merely contained in an employee handbook which contains the appropriate disclaimer that it is not a contract of employment.
All that said, Florida employers would be foolish to eliminate vacations as a matter of policy, even if workers in the current economic climate might accept such hardships. The job market will improve, and employees have long memories.
