I recently switched jobs. I had been in my previous position at a small business just over a year. In my previous job, PTO reset at the hire date anniversary and as I worked 4-10 hour shifts, any holidays that fell on a day I already wasn’t working was an extra 10 hours added to my PTO bank. This meant that just over a month before I left, my PTO returned to 40 hours and with the 4th of July holiday being on a Monday, my bank showed 50 hours of available PTO.
I’m aware that paying out PTO isn’t a legal thing, but it’s listed in our employee handbook that if we give adequate notice (4 weeks), we will be paid out our balance of days. I was very aware in providing that 4 weeks because I did want this paid out (along with our field’s ethical guidelines with regards to client abandonment).
I’ve now been at my new position three weeks. I’ve received my last paycheck a couple of weeks ago, which reflected only my last week of work. When I emailed the business owner, I received no response. I additionally am unable to contact the person who handled HR as she left a week after I did (turnover there has been very high the past several months). I emailed the owner again today, as this would mark the following paycheck date after what was meant to be my last check (just in case the payout showed up today) but it’s still crickets.
My question is, if I were to try to apply pressure about this, do I actually have a leg to stand on? I’m in the United States, if that helps any. I know it’s technically up to company discretion, but it’s also in our handbooks. The money would be a large enough check that it would be really appreciated. Is this worth fighting or should I just move on and forget about it?