Vacation and Other Personal Time Off

Overview

In addition to the leave local government employers are required to provide under federal or state laws, many chose to offer additional leave programs, such as vacation or paid time off (PTO). Finding a way to incentivize employees to take much-needed time away from work can help prevent burnout and boost short- and long-term engagement.

When developing local leave programs, employers must create clear policies that specify eligibility, outline benefits, and address exceptions so that employees and their supervisors understand program limitations. Further, MRSC recommends that local government employers give thought as to how local leave programs interact with federal and state-mandated leave and develop policies to help guide employee decision-making.

This page does not address holidays, which are covered on MRSC’s Paid and Unpaid Holidays webpage.

Vacation

Washington local governments are not required to provide their employees with vacation benefits, either paid or unpaid. However, most, if not all, local governments in the state provide vacation benefits to their employees through local policies and collective bargaining agreements.

Local governments typically cover the following issues in their leave benefits policies and agreements: eligibility, accrual, approval, and cashout or carry over of excess hours.

Eligibility and Accrual

In general, local governments provide vacation benefits to regular full-time and regular part-time employees at a set accrual rate based on years of employment. Some also offer vacation benefits to full-time temporary employees. Elected officials are not provided vacation benefits.

Often, new employees have a probationary period during which they cannot use their vacation leave. For example, employees with the city of Ellensburg have a six-month probationary period before they can use vacation leave (see Ellensburg Personnel Policies Manual, Sec. 8.1).

Local governments allow employees on vacation leave to continue to receive all benefits, including accrual of vacation, sick leave, and more, but employees on leave without pay generally do not accrue vacation or other leave benefits. See, for example, Shoreline's Employee Handbook, Sec. VI(Q): Continuation of Benefits and East Wenatchee’s Personnel Policies and Procedures, Pol. 234.4 (2022.)

Approval

It is standard for policies to require an employee submit a request to take vacation leave to their director for approval in advance of taking any leave. The specific notice period is agency dependent and MRSC has found that agency policies vary on requested notice. For example, some just require “reasonable notice,” while others request notice two or four weeks in advance of the vacation.

Maximum Accrual, Carry Over, and Cashout

Most local governments set a maximum accrual amount of vacation leave and a limit to the number of hours the employee can carry over from one year to the next.

Many local governments cashout unused vacation hours upon separation from employment, and some local governments allow for vacation cashout in other circumstances. For example, Kirkland Municipal Code 3.80.090 allows employees to cashout earned vacation leave in cases of unforeseen emergencies. Anacortes Personnel Policies, Policy 502, Sec. 7 allows employees to cashout vacation for distribution into a deferred compensation account.

Examples of Vacation Leave Policies

• Kitsap County Personnel Manual Ch. 8, Sec. G (2020) — Covers approval of vacation leave, accrual, carry over, and cashout.
• Shoreline Employee Handbook Sec. VI(E) (2023) — Provides an accrual table, defines carryover maximum and exceptions, and details considerations for vacation requests.

Paid Time Off (PTO)

PTO policies provide paid leave that can be used for a wide range of different uses, including emergencies, illnesses, sudden necessities, and planned vacations. Often PTO is offered in place of separate leave policies for vacation, sick time, personal days, and other forms of paid leave intended for specific purposes.

There are no federal laws regarding PTO and few state laws applicable to it, so local governments have quite a bit of discretion in this area. The one area to be mindful of is that any policy must comply with the state’s minimum paid sick leave requirements, as outlined on our Sick Leave and Family/Medical Leave webpage.

For more information see the section on Paid Time Off on L&I’s Optional Paid Sick Leave Policies webpage.

Examples of PTO Policies

• Ellensburg Personnel Policies Manual Sec. 8.1 (2023) — Provides PTO to all regular full-time employees with the rate based on years of service.
• Island County Personnel Policies and Procedures Sec. IV.1 (2023) — Provides PTO to regular full- and part-time employees with a rate based on years of service.

Bereavement Leave

Washington State does not require employers to provide leave or pay for bereavement, although some local government employers do offer bereavement leave through their employer policies or collective bargaining agreements.

For more information see L&I’s Holiday, Vacation and Bereavement Leave webpage.

Examples of Bereavement Leave Policies

• Lake Whatcom Water and Sewer District Personnel Policies Sec. 7.6 (2023) — Provides three days of paid bereavement leave for the death of a family member, to be used within 21 days of the loss.
• Mason County Personnel Policies Sec. 7.8 (2023) — Provides three days of paid bereavement leave, plus two additional days chargeable to accrued sick leave, for the death of an immediate family member.

Other Types of Leave

Various other types of leave can be provided for in personnel policies, both paid and unpaid. Examples include executive administrative leave, leave for inclement weather, jury duty, personal leave, and leave without pay.

Executive Administrative or Management Leave

This type of leave is granted to FLSA-exempt employees who are not entitled to overtime pay. Sunnyside Personnel Policies Sec. 1.11, for example, provides 80 hours of executive administrative leave each year to its exempt employees.

Inclement Weather Conditions

Jurisdictions do not normally provide special paid leave for inclement weather conditions that may prevent an employee from arriving to work as expected, although policies do typically provide for inclement weather pay if the agency officially shuts down the facility due to weather conditions. See, for example, the Woodland Personnel Policies and Procedures Sec. 12(g) (2022) and Auburn Administrative Policy on Absences - Weather Related (2019).

Jury Duty and Other Court Duty Leave

Employees receive their normal pay from their employer while on jury duty leave and sign over to the employer the compensation received by the court for jury duty. If an employee is subpoenaed to testify related to their role as an agency employee, they receive their full pay. If an employee is a plaintiff, defendant, or witness in a private matter, they must take accrued leave. See, for example, the Issaquah Personnel Policies Sec. 7.8 (2022).

Leave Without Pay

Leave without pay (LWOP) is permitted in certain circumstances with the approval of the executive or the employee’s supervisor.

Similar to other types of leave, LWOP must be requested in advance and can be denied. Vacation and sick leave generally do not accrue when the employee is in LWOP status, and the employee may have to pay health insurance premiums during this time as well.

Personal Leave

Personal leave is another type of paid leave provided annually to all employees who have been employed with the agency for one year or more. See, for example, the Poulsbo Personnel Handbook Sec. 8.3 (2022).

Shared Leave Policies

Some jurisdictions provide a shared leave program, which allows employees to donate their accrued leave to another employee who is suffering from or has a family member suffering from a severe illness, injury, or physical or mental condition that has caused or is likely to cause the employee to take leave without pay or to terminate their employment.

An important consideration when adopting a shared leave program is determining which type of leave to include in the program. Some jurisdictions will allow only vacation leave to be donated, while others allow donation of both vacation and sick leave.

Another critical component of a shared leave program is to structure it to avoid double taxation, which is what happens when a tax is assessed on both the donor and the recipient of the leave. To avoid double taxation, a shared leave program must meet the following requirements:

1. The availability of shared leave must be limited to situations where an employee needs leave for a medical emergency and/or natural disaster; and
2. The leave must be donated to a general bank and not to a specific individual. 

For more information, see the Internal Revenue Service’s (IRS) Private Ruling 200720017 (2007). This ruling notes that contributions by employees to a 'leave donation program' considered qualified by the IRS are not treated as wages and, therefore, are not subject to employment taxes.

Examples of Shared Leave Programs

L&I’s webpage, Implementing a Paid Sick Leave Policy, has sample policies for a shared sick leave program, as well as sample employee request forms to donate paid sick leave and to receive paid sick leave.

Below are examples of a few shared leave programs Washington local governments offer:

• Everett Municipal Code Ch.2.128 — Establishes a shared leave program; includes shared leave benefits for employees on active military duty; limits the amount of sick leave donations employees can receive to a total of 131 working days; requires those who wish to donate to have at least 10 days of accrued vacation leave after donation.
• Lake Whatcom Water and Sewer District Personnel Policies Sec. 7.8 (2023) — Provides for a shared leave program; allows employees to donate vacation and/or sick leave to another employee who is ill or has a family member who is ill, so long as the donating employee has 144 hours of accrued sick leave and 112 hours of accrued vacation prior to donation and maintains 144 hours of vacation and sick leave after donation.
• Pierce County Municipal Code Ch. 3.70 — Establishes a shared sick leave program; donating full-time employees must maintain a sick leave balance of no less than 30 days.
• Tumwater Personnel Policies Sec. 6.07 (2017) — Establishes that sick leave donations during an employee’s career may not exceed 1040 hours for a full-time employee.