District of Columbia: unused vacation when employment ends
The District sets statutory accrual rates for paid leave that step with employer size, and an employee can begin using the leave after 90 days of service.
| Question | What the source says |
|---|---|
| Payout at separation | Not established here |
| Use it or lose it | Not established here |
| Accrual cap allowed | Yes |
| Rate used for a payout | unverified |
Each answer traces to the lines quoted below.
What the source says
- An employer with 100 or more employees must provide one hour of paid leave for every 37 hours worked, not to exceed 7 days per calendar year.
- An employer with 25 to 99 employees must provide one hour of paid leave for every 43 hours worked, not to exceed 5 days per calendar year.
- An employer with 24 or fewer employees must provide one hour of paid leave for every 87 hours worked, not to exceed 3 days per calendar year.
- An employee may begin to access paid leave after 90 days of service with the employer, so a new hire accrues before the balance becomes usable.
- The three rates mean the same hours worked produce very different balances: 2,080 hours yields about 56 hours at the largest size and about 24 hours at the smallest, before the day caps apply.
What we could not establish
These points are not stated on the pages we read. We leave them open rather than guess —
a wrong answer here would send someone into a dispute with the wrong expectation.
- whether unused leave carries over to the following year — § 32-531.02 does not address it
- whether the employer must provide the cash equivalent of unused accrued leave at resignation or termination — not in this section
Sources
Read on 2026-10-02. Route: WebFetch (code.dccouncil.gov — does.dc.gov 팩트시트는 PDF 추출 불가).
What 80 hours a year looks like on a biweekly schedule
The bar below is not specific to District of Columbia law — it shows the mechanic every schedule shares. Eighty hours a year across 26 paychecks is 3.08 hours a period. With a 56-hour ceiling the balance stops growing partway through the year, which is what a ceiling does: it halts accrual rather than deleting hours already earned.
Closing balance after a year: 56 hours — and 24.08 hours never accrued because the ceiling was reached.
- Does District of Columbia require my employer to pay out unused vacation?
- The District sets statutory accrual rates for paid leave that step with employer size, and an employee can begin using the leave after 90 days of service.
- Can a policy in District of Columbia erase vacation I already earned?
- On use-it-or-lose-it, the source read for this page puts District of Columbia at: Not established here. The quoted lines on this page are the basis for that, and anything the source did not settle is listed as not established.
- Where did these lines come from?
- From D.C. Code § 32-531.02 — Accrued sick and safe leave; accrual. Each one was opened and read rather than summarised from another site, and the links are on this page.
- Is this legal advice?
- No. This page quotes public sources so you can read them yourself. It is not legal advice and it does not replace your employer’s written policy or a lawyer in your jurisdiction.
Informational only. This page is not legal advice and it does not replace your employer’s
written policy. Where the two differ, the policy document and the current statute govern.