Vermont: unused vacation when employment ends
Vermont mandates earned sick time at one hour per 52 hours of actual work. Paying out an unused balance at the end of an annual period is not required — but an employer that does pay out is then free to refuse carryover.
| Question | What the source says |
|---|---|
| Payout at separation | Not required |
| Use it or lose it | Allowed with conditions |
| Accrual cap allowed | Yes |
| Rate used for a payout | unverified |
Each answer traces to the lines quoted below.
What the source says
- One hour of sick time is accrued for every 52 hours of actual work, including overtime.
- Employers have two options: let employees accrue as they work, or provide a lump sum on a yearly basis.
- The law entitles Vermont employees to earn up to 24 hours per annual period of paid leave in 2017 and 2018, and 40 hours per year after January 1, 2019.
- The employee being paid out for unused earned sick time at the end of an annual period is not required, but employers may elect to do so.
- An employer that provides such a payout is not obligated to allow the employee to carry unused earned sick time into the next year — the payout and the carryover are alternatives, not both.
- On rehire the treatment splits by how the employment ended: whether an employee resumes where they left off with their waiting period and banked time depends on whether the earlier separation was a voluntary quit or a discharge, and on how long the gap was.
What we could not establish
- whether unused earned sick time must be paid at separation from employment
- the rate used for any voluntary payout
Sources
Read on 2026-10-02. Route: curl 200 → tools/pdftext.py (legislature.vermont.gov 는 ECONNREFUSED).
What 80 hours a year looks like on a biweekly schedule
The bar below is not specific to Vermont law — it shows the mechanic every schedule shares. Eighty hours a year across 26 paychecks is 3.08 hours a period. With a 40-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: 40 hours — and 40.08 hours never accrued because the ceiling was reached.
- Does Vermont require my employer to pay out unused vacation?
- Vermont mandates earned sick time at one hour per 52 hours of actual work. Paying out an unused balance at the end of an annual period is not required — but an employer that does pay out is then free to refuse carryover.
- Can a policy in Vermont erase vacation I already earned?
- On use-it-or-lose-it, the source read for this page puts Vermont at: Allowed with conditions. 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 Vermont Earned Sick Time Law — Frequently Asked Questions, Vermont Department of Labor. 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.