Do you have to claim vacation pay on unemployment benefits in NY?
I just got laid off last month and filed for unemployment with NYS Department of Labor. My former employer is paying out my accrued vacation time over the next few weeks - about $2,800 total. Do I need to report this on my weekly claims? I'm confused because some people are telling me vacation pay counts as wages and others say it doesn't matter since I'm not working anymore. The my.ny.gov website isn't super clear about this situation. Has anyone dealt with this before?
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Megan D'Acosta
Yes, you absolutely need to report vacation pay on your weekly claims. NYS Department of Labor considers vacation payout as wages for the weeks it covers, even if you're not actually working. When you receive the vacation pay, it should come with documentation showing which work weeks it's intended to cover. You'll need to report it during those specific weeks on your weekly certification.
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Samantha Howard
•Thanks for the clarification! My HR department said they're paying it all in one lump sum next week though. How do I figure out which weeks it covers if they don't break it down?
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Sarah Ali
Wait this is so confusing... I thought vacation pay was different from regular wages? When I got laid off they gave me severance AND vacation pay and told me they were separate things. Now I'm worried I messed up my claims from last year.
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Ryan Vasquez
•Severance and vacation pay are treated differently by NYS Department of Labor. Severance might not affect your weekly benefits depending on how it's structured, but vacation pay definitely counts as wages. If you didn't report vacation pay last year, you might want to contact them to correct it before they catch it in an audit.
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Avery Saint
Had this exact situation last year. I tried calling NYS Department of Labor about 20 times and kept getting disconnected. Finally found this service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that helped me get through to an actual agent. They have a video demo at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI showing how it works. The agent explained that I needed to divide my vacation payout by my weekly salary to figure out how many weeks it covered, then report it accordingly.
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Samantha Howard
•That makes sense about dividing by weekly salary. I'll definitely check out that Claimyr thing if I can't get through on the phone myself.
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Taylor Chen
•Never heard of that service but honestly anything that helps with getting through to NYS Department of Labor sounds good to me. Their phone system is absolutely horrible.
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Keith Davidson
ugh why does everything with unemployment have to be so complicated?? like they should just tell you straight up what counts and what doesn't instead of making us guess
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Ezra Bates
•I know right? And then if you mess up they act like you committed fraud or something. The whole system is designed to trip people up.
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Ryan Vasquez
Just to be extra clear for OP - vacation pay is considered wages for unemployment purposes in New York. The key is figuring out the weekly amount it represents. If your vacation payout is $2,800 and your previous weekly gross was $700, that covers 4 weeks of benefits. You'd report $700 for each of those 4 weeks on your weekly claims, which would likely make you ineligible for UI benefits during those weeks since it exceeds the partial benefit threshold.
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Miguel Silva
This is really helpful info everyone! I'm in a similar boat - got laid off three weeks ago and have about $1,500 in vacation pay coming. Based on what Ryan explained, I need to calculate my weekly gross salary and figure out how many weeks the vacation pay covers. My weekly gross was around $600, so that's about 2.5 weeks worth. Do I report the full $600 for 2 weeks and then $300 for the partial week, or do I spread it evenly across 3 weeks? Also wondering if anyone knows - does the vacation pay week start from when you actually receive the payment, or from when your employment ended?
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