Vacation Time

Eligibility

Staff with an assigned FTE of 0.50 or greater, with appointments of greater than six months, are eligible for vacation, pro-rated based on FTE. Faculty are not eligible for accrued vacation time.

Accruals

Vacation time is accrued at the rate of .0924 per compensated hour. For non-exempt staff, the accrual rate will cap at 77.50 for bi-weekly paid staff and 80 hours for bi-weekly paid Public Safety worked in a pay period. You are able to carry over up to 24 months of accruals and cannot exceed 372 hours in any given month (prorated by FTE).

Important Note: Members of Macalester’s collective bargaining units (CBU) should refer to the collective bargaining contract for vacation policies.

Table is reflective of a 1.00 FTE

	Hours Accrued per pay period	Annual Days Accrued	Max Carryover Hours
Bi-weekly paid Staff	7.16	24	372
Bi-weekly paid Public Safety	7.39	24	384
Monthly paid Staff	15.50	24	372

Calculations

For staff employees who are below a 1.00 FTE, we have provided three calculations to help employees understand their annualized vacation accruals by total hours and by total days. When calculating, the number will not return evenly and will need to round to the nearest quarter. Public Safety should use 192 annual hours when determining their annual hours and annual days accrued.

• Annual hours accrued: 186 x FTE
• Annual days accrued: (186 x FTE) / Number of hours the employee works in a day

Example 1: Mary’s FTE is 0.84 and they work all 12 months of the year. Mary wants to understand how many hours and days of vacation they will earn in the calendar year. Mary would use the following equation to determine the total number of hours: 186 x 0.83 = 154.8 -> 154.50 hours accrued. Mary’s regular work schedule is 6.5 hours per day. To find the number of days those hours are equivalent to, Mary would take 154.50 / 6.5 = 23.77 -> 24 days. Mary will receive 24 days of vacation. 

Example 2: Blake’s FTE is .75 and they work 9 months of the year during the academic year. Blake wants to understand how many hours and days of vacation they will earn in a calendar year. Blake would use the following equation to figure out the total hours they will accrue: 186 x 0.75 = 139.5 hours. Blake’s regular work schedule is 7.75 hours per day during those 9 months. To find the number of days those hours are equivalent to, Blake would take 139.5 / 7.75 = 18 days. Blake will receive 18 days of vacation per year. 

Example 3: Sean is a Public Safety Officer and a 1.00 FTE. Sean wants to understand how many hours and days of vacation they will earn in the calendar year. Sean would use the following equation to determine the total number of hours: 192 x 1.00 = 192 hours. Sean’s regular work schedule has them working 8 hours per day. To determine the number of days those hours are equivalent to, Sean would take 192 / 8 = 24 days. Sean will receive 24 days of vacation

Note: For non-exempt employees, accruals are based on actual hours worked. If they work fewer hours, the accrual will be calculated based on those hours and will result in a lower per pay period accrual amount which will impact their annualized hours. The calculations above are to give employees an estimate of the annual accruals based on their positions assigned FTE.

Recording Hours

Employees record hours in their timesheet or leave report and will record the total hours used for that day. If you are recording a full day that will be equivalent to the number of hours the employee is normally scheduled to work on the day they select to use vacation. When using vacation, non-exempt staff should record time utilized in ¼ hour increments (i.e. .25, .50, and .75) and exempt staff may utilize time in two hour increments.

Example 1: Quinn’s work schedule is not the same each day. They work 9 hours on Mondays and Tuesdays, 5 hours on Wednesdays and Fridays, and 4 hours on Thursdays. Quinn is going to take Thursday and Friday off. Quinn would record 4 hours for Thursday and 5 hours for Friday as that is their normally scheduled shifts.

Example 2: Andy is a 1.00 FTE and works a consistent schedule throughout the entire year. Andy is going to take 5 days off, Wednesday – Tuesday. When Andy reports their vacation hours, they will report 7.75 hours per day for a total of 38.75 hours.

Vacation Time Payout

Employees that depart the College after less than six months of employment are not entitled to be paid for any accrued vacation time. Eligible employees that depart the College after six months or more of employment with the College may be paid accrued vacation time equivalent up to one year’s worth of accruals.