Does vacation pay affect unemployment benefits in NY?
I got laid off from my job last week and I'm planning to file for unemployment benefits. My employer is paying out my accrued vacation time (about 2 weeks worth) in my final paycheck. Will this vacation payout affect my unemployment claim or delay when I can start receiving benefits? I'm worried NYS Department of Labor might consider this as wages and make me wait before I'm eligible. Has anyone dealt with this situation before?
12 comments
Join the conversation
Ryan Kim
Vacation pay can definitely impact your unemployment benefits depending on when it's paid and how it's structured. If it's paid as a lump sum for your final week of work, NYS Department of Labor typically counts it as wages for that week only. But if it's paid 'in lieu of notice' or covers future weeks, it could delay your benefits. You'll need to report it when you file your claim and during your weekly certifications.
0 coins
Daniela Rossi
•Thanks for the info! It's being paid as a lump sum with my final paycheck, so hopefully that means it won't delay things too much. Do I report the full amount or just divide it by the weeks it represents?
0 coins
Zoe Walker
yeah this happened to me too, my company paid out like 3 weeks vacation when i got terminated. basically nys unemployment made me wait until those weeks were 'used up' before i could collect. super annoying but thats how they do it
0 coins
Elijah Brown
•That's not always accurate. It depends on how the vacation pay is allocated. If it's paid as a lump sum but not designated for specific future weeks, it might only affect the week it's received. The key is how your employer codes it on the separation paperwork they send to NYS Department of Labor.
0 coins
Maria Gonzalez
I had the worst time trying to get through to someone at NYS Department of Labor about this exact issue. Spent hours on hold just to get disconnected. Finally used a service called Claimyr (claimyr.com) that actually got me connected to an agent who explained exactly how my vacation payout would be handled. They have a demo video at https://youtu.be/qyftW-mnTNI that shows how it works. Way easier than dealing with the phone maze.
0 coins
Daniela Rossi
•That sounds helpful! The NYS Department of Labor phone system is impossible. I'll check that out if I can't get clear answers through the regular channels.
0 coins
Natalie Chen
•Never heard of that service before but honestly anything is better than trying to call NYS Department of Labor directly. Their hold times are absolutely ridiculous and half the time you get cut off anyway.
0 coins
Santiago Martinez
Make sure you're completely honest about the vacation pay when you file. NYS Department of Labor cross-references with employer reports and if there's a discrepancy it can cause major delays in your claim processing. I've seen people get their benefits held up for weeks because they didn't report vacation pay correctly initially.
0 coins
Daniela Rossi
•Definitely planning to be upfront about everything. The last thing I need is more complications with my claim.
0 coins
Samantha Johnson
this whole system is such BS, they make it so complicated for no reason. vacation pay shouldnt count against unemployment since you already earned it while you were working!!! but nys unemployment doesnt care about logic
0 coins
Ryan Kim
•I understand the frustration, but the reasoning is that vacation pay represents compensation for time periods, so if it covers future weeks it could conflict with unemployment benefits for those same weeks. It's not perfect but there is some logic to it.
0 coins
Destiny Bryant
I went through this same situation about 6 months ago. The key thing to understand is that NYS Department of Labor looks at vacation pay differently depending on how it's designated. When I filed, they asked me to specify exactly how many weeks the vacation pay covered and whether it was paid "in lieu of notice." In my case, I had 10 days of vacation paid out, and they treated it as covering two work weeks, which delayed my benefits by exactly two weeks. The important thing is to have all the documentation from your employer showing how they calculated the payout - this will help when you're doing your weekly certifications. Also, keep copies of everything because you might need to reference it later if there are any questions about your claim.
0 coins