There's a new law in California that requires an employer to provide 3 paid vacation days to employees a year. My wife is the manager of a s...

Question

There's a new law in California that requires an employer to provide 3 paid vacation days to employees a year. My wife is the manager of a salon and for the last two years has received 5 paid vacation days a year. With this new law for 2015 the owners of the business she works at are now TAKING AWAY 3 of her paid vacation days supplementing them with the 3 required paid sick days. She's obviously very disappointed they are doing things like this. Are they REALLY able to take away her paid vacation days that she's been getting for over 2 years now?

Answer

I assume your wife is an at-will employee. Under that assumption, the employer's actions are unfortunately legal. Employers can reduce an employee's salary or vacation accrual at any time (but they cannot take away earned vacation). Your wife's employer could therefore completely eliminate your wife's right to accrue paid vacation. Changing part of that vacation time to sick leave time is therefore lawful.