Vacation Leave

Full-time employees

All full-time regular employees are eligible for paid vacation leave. Refer to the employee handbook for complete policy details.

  • Leave is accrued with a minimum of 80 hours paid per pay period.
  • Employees who terminate, retire, or are off work due to a work-related injury or illness will accrue vacation in the month of termination/retirement/leave, provided they worked 80 hours that pay period.
  • No partial monthly accruals are allowed.
  • Employees can carry over vacation days from one month to the next.
  • The maximum vacation carryover from one fiscal year to the next is twice the employee's annual allowance.
  • Any vacation exceeding this maximum will be lost at the end of the fiscal year (June 30).

Accrual - nonexempt employees

  • Nonexempt employees on regular 12-month appointments accrue vacation leave every pay period based upon the schedule shown in the following table. 
  • The leave is posted to the leave balance at the end of each month. 
  • The schedule shown in the following table also applies to employees who transfer from an exempt to a nonexempt position. 
  • Staff members with appointments of less than 12 months (e.g., nine-month positions), will accrue vacation leave on a basis pro-rated to full-time, 12-month appointments.
  • The effective date for the increase in the vacation accrual rate to the next higher rate will be the pay period in which the years of service milestone is reached and is posted to the leave balance at the end of the month.

Nonexempt employee vacation accrual summary

Years of Service Monthly Accrual Annual Accrual

Maximum

Less than 2 years

 8 hours 96 hours (12 days) 192 hours (24 days)
At least 2 but less than 4 years 10.67 hours 128 hours (16 days) 256 hours (32 days)
4 or more years 13.34 hours 160 hours (20 days) 320 hours (40 days)

Accrual - exempt and professional nonexempt employees

  • The vacation leave accrual rate for exempt/professional nonexempt employees is established at the time of employment. 
  • Typically, exempt/professional nonexempt employees accrue vacation at the rate of 20 days annually. 
  • The department head, with approval from the appropriate vice president and the Director of Human Resources, may establish the annual allowance at 15 days, with justifiable reasons. In such cases, the accrual rate for the exempt/professional nonexempt employee will increase to 20 days at the two year anniversary of the exempt/professional nonexempt employee's date of employment. 
  • The department head is responsible for notifying the Office of Human Resources of the effective date of the increase in the accrual rate. The department head may, however, withhold the increase to the higher accrual rate, based upon objective considerations, if approved by his/her vice president and the Director of Human Resources.

Exempt and professional nonexempt employee vacation accrual summary

Monthly Accrual Annual Accrual Maximum
1 day 2 hours 15 days 30 days
1 day 5 hours 20 minutes 20 days 40 days
  • The accrual raes shown above apply to employees on full-time, 12-month appointment. Staff members with appointments of less than 12 months (EG. nine-month positions), will accrue vacation leave on basis pro-rated to full-time, 12-month appointments.

Using vacation leave

Vacation can only be taken after it is accrued and recorded at the end of each month. It cannot be taken before accrual or in anticipation of future accruals.

Vacations can be taken in weekly periods, individual days, or quarter-hour increments with departmental approval and sufficient leave balance. Absences under 15 minutes will count as a quarter-hour. Vacation leave is subject to University convenience.

Due to scheduling and workload, some departments may limit vacation approvals or specify the number of employees on vacation at one time. Some departments may also require leave to be taken in defined increments (half days, whole days, or weeks).

Employees must follow departmental policies on vacation scheduling and request leave at least two weeks in advance. In certain departments, summer vacation requests may need to be submitted early in the spring to finalize the summer schedule.

Unused vacation leave

Employees terminating employment for any reason are entitled to payment for their accrued, unused hours of vacation, up to a maximum of two times their annual accrual.

Staff changes to full-time, regular faculty

Staff employees transitioning to a full-time, 9-month faculty position will no longer accrue vacation. Vacation accrual stops on the effective date of their faculty appointment.

Employees are encouraged to use any accrued vacation before starting faculty duties. Unused vacation days will be paid as a supplemental payment if not taken before the faculty position begins.

Unused sick leave days will be retained until the employee resigns or retires. Upon resignation or retirement, unused sick leave will be reported to MOSERS for service credit according to their policy.