Labour Standards
Full-time, part-time, and seasonal employees earn vacation pay for every 12 months worked.
Your vacation pay must be at least 4% of your total wages before any deductions or tax for the first 7 years of your employment, then 6% for the years after.
Vacation pay can be collected over the 12-month earning period by the employer then paid out at least one day before the vacation period, it can be added to each pay cheque for the employee to collect and save themselves, or it can be included in the employee’s hourly rate.
You can request that your vacation pay be paid earlier, but your employer does not have to grant this request.
Many workplaces give employees “vacation days” where you are entitled to take a certain number of paid days off instead of being paid 4-6% on top of your wages. However, if this is not a part of your contract you are not entitled to pay at your normal rate during your vacation, the accumulated vacation pay is intended to support you while on vacation.
Certain employees are entitled to pay on statutory holidays such as New Year’s Day, Nova Scotia Heritage Day, Good Friday, Canada Day, Labour Day, and Christmas Day. More about paid holidays in the following chapters.
If you leave your job after accumulating vacation pay, this pay does not disappear! Your employer must pay you the accumulated vacation pay within 10 days of the end of your employment. For example, if you worked for 7 months and did not receive your vacation pay, then you would be entitled to 4%-6% of your wages during those seven months after the end of your employment.
If there is a disagreement about whether vacation pay was paid, and the employer cannot prove that the vacation pay was paid to you, they may be ordered by Labour Standards to pay you for the vacation pay.