Adult Financial Literacy Guide | Page 13

Employer Benefits Vacation Pay Employees are allowed to take time off for annual vacation and to be paid vacation pay. During the first year of employment, you earn (or accrue) vacation time to be taken in the second year of employment. After completing twelve months of employment, you have earned two weeks of annual vacation to be taken the next year. This means that starting in the second year, you are allowed to take the vacation earned in the year before. After completing five years of employment, an employee is allowed to take three weeks of annual vacation. Your employer may offer you additional benefits that are above your salary. These could include sick days, insurance (e.g. health, dental, life, disability etc.), a pension plan etc.. It’s helpful to know all of the benefits that are included at the time you are offered a job. These benefits are an additional bonus above your rate of pay and can help you decide between multiple job offers. Some employers will allow you to take paid vacation before you have earned it. You will have to check this with your employer. Some employers will add your vacation pay to each paycheque, rather than paying you when you take vacation. Photo credit GotCredit via Visual hunt CC BY Even though two weeks of vacation is the minimum, your employer may offer you more vacation pay. 13