Do You Want a Few Extra Vacation Days This Year? Just Buy Them

Summer is here and that means vacation, but how is vacation time handled at your company. A couple of weeks ago, I wrote an article about how employers are not required to provide vacation time even though most do. What if you could buy a couple of extra vacation days, or better yet, what if you could sell vacation days to make a few extra bucks, would you do it? There are actually some companies that offer these types of options for vacation time and it really doesn't cost them anything, which is much better for you.

According to a soon-to-be released report by the Society for Human Resource Management, 9-percent of employers allow employees to cash out any unused vacation time. Five percent let workers purchase additional vacation days through a payroll deduction, while 7-percent allowed workers to donate vacation time to a company pool that can be used by other workers.

One company, USG Corp. allows employees to buy and sell vacation time, which allows for extra time off or a few extra dollars in your pocket, which sounds like a great idea. Kimberly Clark Corp. of Irving, TX has had a flexible vacation plan for employees for about 15 years and the workers love it.

Some companies even offer a plan by which you can sell back unused vacation time in exchange for an increase in another benefit like insurance or life insurance. These programs are more popular with companies whose PTO (paid time off) policy involves lumping vacation time, sick leave and personal time off into one plan.

According to recent survey numbers, companies that offer PTO plans has grown from 42 percent in 2009 to 52 percent as of this year, which is really good news considering where the economy has been over the few years.

[Fox News]