Fact Check: Vacation Payout Calculator

§ 227.3 is the controlling statute; the DIR Vacation FAQ confirms the wage treatment, the bar on use-it-or-lose-it forfeiture (accrual caps allowed; forfeiture banned), and the § 203 cascade for late payment.

Nieto held that under CRS § 8-4-101(8)(a)(II)'s definition of "wages," earned but unused vacation pay is wages owed at separation; an employer policy purporting to forfeit accrued vacation is unenforceable. The decision is binding statewide on Colorado employers.

§ 148 establishes the same-day payment requirement on involuntary discharge and the next-regular-payday requirement on voluntary resignation; § 150 establishes the mandatory treble-damages remedy plus attorney fees. The Massachusetts Attorney General's Wage Payment guidance corroborates.

§ 48-1229 defines wages to include "compensation for labor or services rendered by an employee, … including fringe benefits, when previously agreed to and conditions stipulated have been met by the employee," which Nebraska courts have construed to cover earned vacation. § 48-1231(1) provides double damages plus attorney fees for willful nonpayment. HFWA codified the combined-PTO bank treatment at separation.

The 110% penalty is Montana-specific — final wages owed × 1.10, payable to the employee. The 4-hour involuntary-discharge window is unusual and the methodology surfaces it.

The generic bucket collapses ~15 states because the calculator's branching logic is identical across them: payout = policy. Illinois, North Dakota, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin have nuances (silence-defaults-to-payout in IL, voluntary-vs-involuntary distinction in ND, 1-year-service rule in RI, vesting-period rule in WI) — each documented in the companion article and surfaced via the cross-link from the methodology page. The simplification is honest about its scope.

Even in no-statute states, an employer policy promising payout creates a contractual obligation; the calculator's policy toggle handles this. The "~30 states" figure is the residual after 5 mandatory + ~15 follows-policy.

The penalty is intentionally not modeled as a dollar figure in the calculator (requires separation + payment dates).

Some sources include additional states under "mandatory payout" by treating policy-dependent states liberally; this calculator's 5-state mandatory list reflects the strict "earned vacation is wages by statute or controlling case" reading.