Am I Entitled to Paid Vacation Days in New Jersey?
Posted July 18th, 2024.
Categories: Blog.
In addition to salary and health insurance, paid vacation days are a great way for employers to offer benefits to their employees. New Jersey employees receive, on average, 11.4 days of paid vacation annually. While it is generally expected that full-time employees will receive vacation days, it is not a requirement by any federal or state law. For more information on your employment rights do not hesitate to contact a Cherry Hill employment law attorney.
Is My Employer Required to Offer Paid Vacation Days?
Despite paid vacation days being the norm in many industries and companies, there are no federal or state laws that require employers to offer vacation days. The choice is left up to the discretion of the company. Vacation days are considered a fringe benefit like severance packages and holidays off.
You can be entitled to paid time off only if your company has established that workers of your same tenure and position may have paid days off. You cannot be discriminated against for any reason protected under federal or state labor laws. For example, the following are protected groups in the workplace in NJ.
- Race or color
- Religion
- National origin
- Sex
- Sexual orientation
- Gender identity
- Pregnancy
- Disability
- Marital status
- Age
As long as your employer is not making decisions on who can have paid vacation days and how many they are awarded based on any of the above characteristics, they are within their rights to offer or deny paid time off.
How Do Paid Days Off Acrrue?
Because employers are free to create their own unique policies for paid days off, the ways in which employees accrue vacation days are left up to the company as well. Some employees accrue paid vacation days based on an accrual period. The period may be daily, weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, quarterly, or annually depending on the specific company.
Many employers have policies that allow employees to accrue paid time off based on the hours that the employee works. Generally, an employer will inform the employee of the maximum amount of paid vacation they are entitled to take and their accrual rates will be based on this number. Consult your employee handbook for more information on your company’s policies.
Can I Negotiate Paid Vacation Days?
Vacation days are generally offered to potential employees as an alternative method of compensation. The FLSA (Fair Labor Standards Act) has stated that paid time off is not considered part of an employee’s salary, however, days of paid time off can be negotiated just as a salary can.
If you cannot ask for a higher salary or the company won’t budge on the amount offered, requesting additional days of paid vacation can be a great way to get additional benefits during the negotiation process. Companies may allow this request so they can remain within budget for the position they are filling while still satisfying their new hire.
