Does waiting time penalty for unpaid wage to employee apply to unused vacation time earned?

Hypothetical question: Employee was discharged from his job two weeks ago. At that time employee was paid the wages for all of the hours that employee had worked, but was not paid for my 15 days of earned, accrued and unused vacation until 10 days later. Is employee entitled to the waiting time penalty, and if so, in what amount?

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Yes. The waiting time penalty is assessed only when an employer willfully fails to pay in accordance with Labor Code Sections 201, 201.5, 202, or 202.5, any wages of an employee who quits or is discharged. Under California law, earned vacation time is considered wages; and under Labor Code Section 227.3, unless otherwise provided by a collective bargaining agreement, whenever an employment relationship ends for any reason whatsoever and the employee has not used all of his or her earned and accrued vacation, the employer must pay the employee at his or her final rate of pay for all such earned, accrued and unused vacation.

Here, employee is entitled to the waiting time penalty in the amount of 10 days’ wages. 

In this situation, since employer was obligated to pay employee all of your wages at the time employee was fired, including employee’s 15 days of vacation wages, and did not do so, employee is entitled to the waiting time penalty in the amount of 10 days wages, the number of days between the date employee were discharged and the date employee received all of his final wages, i.e., the 15 days vacation pay.

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