Payment of Wages Upon Termination of Employment
When an employee's employment is terminated, they are owed all of their earned and unpaid wages immediately.
Payment of Wages When an Employee Quits
When an employee quits their job, all of their earned and unpaid wages must be paid within 72 hours of their resignation.
What is the Penalty for an Employer's Failure to Timely Pay an Employee Their Wages Upon the Termination of Their Employment?
If an employer does not timely pay an employee all of their earned wages upon the termination of their employment -- immediately for a fired employee and within 72 hours for an employee who quits --- the employee is able to recover their daily wage for each day they are not paid up to 30 days.
Example: An employee's employment is terminated on Monday. Since the employee's employment was terminated, his earned and unpaid wages must be paid to him immediately. The employer fails to do so and the employee is not paid all of his earned and unpaid wages until the following Monday. The employee will be able to recover, as a penalty for the employer's failure to immediately pay him all of his earned wages upon his termination, his daily wage for each day that he did not receive his earned and unpaid wages. Thus, the employee would be able to recover seven additional days of wages, since he did not get paid for seven days after his termination (Monday to the following Monday).
Note: Vacation pay is compensation and thus, like all other forms of compensation must be timely paid upon termination.