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State employees (defined as full-time and part-time employees or officers; hourly employees; temporary employees; employees of the Teacher Retirement System of Texas, Texas Education Agency, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas School for the Blind and Visually Impaired, Texas School for the Deaf, Texas Juvenile Justice Department, Windham School District, or the Department of Assistive and Rehabilitative Services; or classified, administrative, faculty or professional employees of a state institution or agency of higher education) are entitled to be paid for the accrued balance of their vacation time if:
State employees who hold at least two positions and separate from one that accrues vacation time are entitled and eligible to be paid only for the vacation time credited to the position the employee separates from.
A state employee who has accrued six months of continuous state employment at any time during the employee’s lifetime, and who resigns, is dismissed or otherwise separates from state employment by an institution of higher education, is entitled to be paid for the accrued balance of the employee’s vacation time as of the date of separation.
An employee is not entitled and is not eligible to receive a lump-sum payment of accrued vacation time if the employee at the time of separation from state employment:
A separation from state employment includes a separation when a state employee:
The state agency that employed a state employee immediately before the employee separated from state employment is responsible for making the lump-sum payment of vacation time to the employee.
This responsibility exists even if the employee, immediately before separation, was employed by the agency in a position that did not accrue vacation time.
If a state employee’s accrued vacation time is allocated over only one month, the amount of a lump-sum payment for that time is equal to the product of:
If a state employee’s accrued vacation time is allocated over more than one month, the amount of a lump-sum payment for that time is equal to the sum of the amounts attributed to each month included in the allocation.
The balance of a state employee’s accrued vacation time must be allocated over the workdays following the effective date and time of the employee’s separation from state employment until the accrued vacation time is completely allocated.
Eight hours must be added to the employee's accrued vacation time for each state or national holiday that occurs during the period when the time is allocated. For part-time employees, the appropriate portion of eight hours must be added.
The exception to this requirement is that if an employee is separated because of moving from a position in a state agency that accrues vacation time to a position in that agency that does not accrue vacation or by moving from a position in a state agency that accrues vacation time to a position in another state agency that does not accrue, if the other state agency refuses to credit the employee for the balance, then the agency making the payment may not include any state or national holidays in the calculation of lump-sum payment of unused vacation time.
Part-time employees are paid a lump-sum as a percentage of 40 hours the employee is scheduled to work each week on the date of separation.
A state employee’s rate of compensation includes base pay, plus any emolument or stipend provided as a salary supplement in lieu of base pay.
A special item of compensation (such as housing, utilities, clothing and cleaning) may not be included in the employee’s rate of compensation, unless it was provided in lieu of base pay.
The amount of benefit replacement pay included must be determined in accordance with requirements of the Comptroller’s office.
Neither longevity pay nor hazardous duty pay may be included in the employee’s rate of compensation.
An employee’s rate of compensation must be expressed as an hourly rate for each month or part of a month included in the allocation of the employee’s accrued vacation time.
The hourly rate of compensation for a particular month is calculated by dividing monthly salary by the number of working hours in a month.
The number of working hours in a month will vary from month to month, depending on the number of workdays in the month for a Monday-through-Friday, 40-hour-per-week employee. Workday is defined as any day except Saturday, Sunday, or a state or national holiday.
A payment of accrued vacation time to a state employee must be made in a lump-sum, unless the employee is remaining on the payroll to exhaust that time.
A state agency and a state employee may mutually agree for the employee to remain on the agency’s payroll to exhaust that time instead of receiving the lump-sum payment. The employee may not use sick leave or accrue sick leave or vacation time while remaining on the payroll.
The payroll detail submitted with a payroll voucher to make a lump-sum payment for accrued vacation time to a state employee must include the:
A state agency must charge a lump-sum payment of accrued vacation time to an appropriation that may be used to pay compensation.
The payment must be charged to the appropriation year the employee’s separation from state employment becomes effective in.
A lump-sum payment of accrued vacation time is subject to federal income tax withholding and withholding under the Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA). The lump-sum payment is not subject to deductions for:
1. Because the employee’s vacation time balance is sufficient to pay for the entire month of July, no computation of a dollar amount is necessary for that month. The employee receives an entire month’s salary for that month ($2,374.00).
2. The number of working hours in July is subtracted from the employee’s beginning vacation time balance. Eight hours is not added to that balance as the July 4th national holiday falls on a weekend.
3. August involves payment for a partial month because the number of vacation time hours carried forward to August is less than the number of working hours in August. Therefore, compute an hourly rate of pay to multiply against the vacation time balance carried forward from July.
4. The agency must add eight hours to the employee’s vacation time balance for each holiday that occurs during the period the balance is allocated over, but only if the holiday occurs in August and on a workday. The holiday is included in this calculation.
5. The amount paid to the employee for vacation time allocated in August 2009 is:
$14.13095/hour x 160 hours = $2,260.95
6. Total gross lump sum:
July: $2,374.00
August: $2,260.95
Total gross: $4634.95
1. The employee is entitled to be paid for the Memorial Day holiday that occurs on May 25, 2009, and will receive payment for that holiday on their final regular paycheck. Therefore, the holiday does not affect the calculation of the lump-sum payment.
2. The employee’s vacation time balance is allocated over three workdays in May. Therefore, compute an hourly rate of pay for May to multiply against the vacation time balance allocated to May:
3. The amount paid to the employee for vacation time allocated in May 2009 is:
$8.69643/hour x 24 hours = $208.71
4. The number of working hours in May used to compute the amount of the vacation time payment for May is subtracted from the employee’s beginning vacation time balance.
5. June involves payment for a partial month because the number of vacation time hours carried forward to June is less than the number of working hours in June. Therefore, compute an hourly rate of pay to multiply against the vacation time balance carried forward from May.
6. The agency must add eight hours to the employee’s vacation time balance for each holiday that occurs during the period the balance is allocated over, but only if the holiday occurs in June and on a workday. There is one holiday in June 2009, which falls after the allocation period and therefore is not added to the employee’s time. The vacation hours to be allocated in June 2009 = 92.
7. The amount paid to the employee for vacation time allocated in June 2009 is:
$8.30114/hour x 92 hours = $763.70
8. Total gross lump sum:
Texas Government Code, Sections 661.061-661.067, 661.091-661.094.