Unused vacation time carries high price tag for California

The Sacramento Bee reports:

In the past few years, California has paid out an estimated $100 million to state employees who have retired with large amounts of unused vacation pay, ignoring long-standing rules that prohibit them from amassing such time-off benefits.

The state sets a limit on how much vacation time state workers can accumulate during their careers. Most are allowed to bank up to 80 days worth of unused vacation, which is paid out when they leave state service.

But records show that supervisors routinely allow state employees to exceed that limit. State personnel officials acknowledge that at least $100 million, and perhaps tens of millions more, was paid between 2006 and mid-2009 to retiring state employees who went over the state caps.

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