Vacation Policy

Responsible Unit: Human Resources | Executive lead: Vice President of Human Resources and Workplace Experience
Created: 2008 | Reviewed/Revised: 5/24/2019, 3/28/2023, 8/31/2023, 7/29/2025 | Effective: 8/1/2025
Compliance: NWCCU 2.F.1 
Approving Body: ELT | Classification: Institution-wide 

Policy:  
This policy applies to non-faculty employees.

Accruing Vacation:

Employees begin accruing vacation the first day of hire and are eligible to use accrued vacation after completing 30 days of employment. 

Vacation Eligibility:

Vacation hours are earned by full-time employees (0.7 – 1.0 FTE) at a rate of 6.15 hours per pay period, up to a maximum of 200 hours. Employees working part-time (0.5 – 0.69 FTE) accrue vacation on a pro-rated basis. Employees with an FTE below 0.5 do not accrue vacation. Accrual is calculated based on the employee’s actual hours worked.

Vacation Cap:

An employee’s unused vacation balance may not exceed 200 hours. Employees who have reached the maximum accrual of 200 hours will not accrue additional vacation until the employee uses vacation and the accrued balance drops below the maximum. 


When an official University holiday falls within an employee’s vacation period, vacation is not charged for that day. 

Vacation Pay:

Vacation pay is payable under the following conditions: when vacation time is used, upon separation of employment, or under the vacation cash-out provision:

Separation of Employment

Unused earned vacation, up to a maximum of 160 vacation hours, will be paid out with the employee’s final paycheck. Vacation is only paid upon separation when the employee gives 10 working days’ notice. 

Vacation Cash Out 

Employees are allowed to cash out up to 40 hours of accrued vacation time once per fiscal year at the employee’s base rate. To be eligible for a vacation cash out, the employee must have at least 40 hours of earned vacation in their bank at the time the cash-out payment is processed. The maximum allowable amount is $2,500.

Vacation Donation for illness:  

Vacation donations to another employee’s sick time bank may be granted in instances where an employee, who is benefit eligible, has exhausted all their sick and vacation leaves and needs additional time off due to illness. Donations are made from person to person on an hour for hour pay period basis. The employee donor must have at least 40 hours of earned vacation in their bank at the time the donation is processed. Donation is voluntary and confidential. All requests for donation are made through Human Resources.

Length of Service Recognition – Special Vacation award

Non-faculty employees receive an award of additional vacation days in the year they achieve 10 years, 15 years, 20 years of service and beyond in 5-year increments. This special award is usually awarded in December at an Employee Awards ceremony. For example, when an employee completes their 10th year of service, the employee is awarded 5 days of vacation to be used within the following 12 calendar months. The awarded days do not accrue, are not eligible to be cashed out and do not carry over to the following calendar year. This special award of vacation days, if not used, will be automatically forfeited. The special vacation award days will be tracked through the Paylocity system.

Vacation allowance for Changing Classifications from Faculty to Non-Faculty roles: Faculty members who do not earn vacation and have served the organization for 10 or more years, and who promote or transfer to a position that is eligible for vacation accrual, in accordance with this policy, will have 40 hours of vacation awarded as part of their promotion/transfer. The newly promoted faculty member would be eligible to use the awarded vacation without having to complete 30 days in their new role. 

Note: Staff or administrators transferring to faculty roles will have their accrued vacation, up to 160 hours, cashed out upon transfer.

Definitions: N/A

Procedure: N/A     

Related Documents: 
Vacation Request form
Vacation cash-out form

Policy Resources

For assistance with policies and procedures contact:

Dee Dennis
ddennis@pnwu.edu