vacation entitlement

I was recently asked if it was OK to increase the vacation entitlement for an employee who had been with the company for a long time.  As this question came from a Vancouver based company I will answer in the context of the BC Employment Standards Act.  The simple answer is: Yes!

Actually, the Employment Standards Act already has a provision for increasing the minimum annual vacation entitlement after 5 consecutive years of employment.  If you look up Part 7 - Annual Vacation you will find:

Entitlement to annual vacation

57 (1) An employer must give an employee an annual vacation of
(a) at least 2 weeks, after 12 consecutive months of employment, or
(b) at least 3 weeks, after 5 consecutive years of employment.
(2) An employer must ensure an employee takes an annual vacation within 12 months after completing the year of employment entitling the employee to the vacation.
(3) An employer must allow an employee who is entitled to an annual vacation to take it in periods of one or more weeks.
(4) An annual vacation is exclusive of statutory holidays that an employee is entitled to.

Now as you can see it says “at least” which means this is the minimum amount of vacation entitlement and you can choose to increase it sooner.

I typically see an increase of one week after 3-4 years of employment.

Just remember: whatever you decide you need to document it so that all the employees understand and are treated equally.  I like to lump together: annual vacation, vacation accrual (which would cover carry forwards or not), sick days (how many do you allow?), statutory holidays and how you interpret “winter break” all into one document and post it on your internal information site.

Don’t feel like writing another guideline? Business Ready has created a vacation guidance template to get you started.

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Because I am thinking about my fellow Americans today, on election day (and fighting the urge to write about it - please vote! - oops, I guess that was me writing about it.  Sorry.  My bad.), here are some good sites to review for your vacation guidelines:

• strictly speaking the US does not have national holidays (e.g. certain days when all Americans have the same day off) however the Federal Government has to recognize holidays for their employees which are found here. Most state and local governments follow these however always make sure to check there aren’t local nuances (e.g. inauguration of the President and Vice President in Maryland).
• confirmation that there is no federal requirement for a minimum of sick days is here along with other good guidance regarding Employment Standards Administration.
• here is a cool list of statutory minimum employment leaves by country!
• there is no documented minimum annual vacation entitlement in the United States other than it is best practice to offer 10 days vacation plus the 10 national holidays observed by federal employees.