New Brunswick Vacation Pay Calculator

Your vacation year is not your hire anniversary

Section 24(2) defines the "vacation pay year" as the period from the first day of July to the last day of June then following. Every employee in the province is on the same clock.

This is genuinely unusual. British Columbia, Alberta, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland all run their entitlement from each employee's own start date. Ontario permits a common date but requires a stub-period calculation to bridge the gap. New Brunswick simply legislates one year for everybody.

The practical consequence is that a New Brunswick employee hired in May accrues barely two months of vacation pay before their first vacation year closes. Vacation must then be given not later than four months after the year ends.

Eight or more — one word away from Nova Scotia

Section 24(1) gives two weeks of vacation to an employee with less than eight years of continuous employment, and s. 24(1.1) gives three weeks at eight or more years. Section 25(1)(b) pays 4% and 6% to match.

Both tiers in s. 24 carry a pro-rating cap — "or one day for each calendar month during the vacation pay year in which the employee worked, whichever is less" — so an employee who did not work the full year receives the smaller of the two figures.

What New Brunswick leaves out

The s. 1 definition of "wages" includes salary, commissions and compensation in any form measured by time or piece, but excludes:

• public holiday pay and pay in lieu of public holidays
• vacation pay and pay in lieu of vacation — so it does not compound
• gratuities and honoraria

Overtime is not named in that exclusion list, and falls within "compensation … measured by time", so it counts. That makes New Brunswick the opposite of Manitoba, which excludes overtime and keeps holiday pay.

Vacation pay is due at least one day before the vacation begins, with at least a week's notice of the dates (s. 25(1)). On termination it is payable no later than the final pay (s. 26(1)).

Vacation pay carries double the director liability

A complaint must be made within twelve months of the alleged violation under s. 61(1), and recovery reaches back twelve months under s. 63.

Where the asymmetry appears is in director liability. Section 65.1(2) makes directors personally liable for up to six months of wages — but up to twelve months of vacation pay or pay in lieu of vacation. If your employer is insolvent, your vacation pay reaches twice as far into the directors' pockets as your ordinary wages do.

Teachers, community college instructors and athletes are exempt from ss. 24–27 entirely under s. 3(2) of General Regulation 85-179.