Work for the State, cash in banked vacation days when you retire

Silicon Valley Mercury News/Thomas Peele and Daniel J. Willis, 10/13/12.  "California's retiring state workers cash in vacation for big bucks."  

Banked vacation days, here I come

....  "An analysis of the last three years of government salary data shows state employees are continuing to store up massive banks of vacation, instead of heading to Big Sur or hitting the slopes at Lake Tahoe. They're cashing in by retiring with whopping final paychecks worth, in some cases, more than $500,000 in unused time off.  

Retiring from the State is great!

....  It's an accounting liability that private companies work aggressively to avoid, but one that continues to pile up in Sacramento. And, ironically, the problem grew even worse in recent years when the state tried to save cash by forcing workers to take unpaid furlough days as an emergency budget fix. As a result, banks of unused vacation grew even larger. 

....  Payouts in state government spiked in 2010, topping $300 million, data shows. Part of the reason is that when former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger ordered workers to take as many as three unpaid days off a month in 2009 and 2010, saying it would reduce costs by $1.66 billion, they were still allowed to accrue vacation at their normal rate. That can be as high as 15 hours a month for rank-and-file workers and 16 hours for managers. But vacation balances climbed even higher because employees were required to take furlough days first, said Lynelle Jolley, who retired last week as the spokeswoman for the Human Resources Department."  Read article.

Posted by Kathy Meeh