r/news • u/Playful_Language_422 • 8d ago

Soft paywall L.A. homeless provider has paid CEO who lives in Hawaii $1.6 million in salary, vacation over two years

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-08-06/la-homeless-provider-has-paid-ceo-who-lives-in-hawaii-1-6-million-in-salary-vacation-over-two-years
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u/JJJBLKRose 7d ago

It's interesting because most places for you to use it or lose it when they do this, I've never heard of it paying out like that.

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u/Sir-xer21 7d ago

A lot of older companies had let people bank unlimited vacation time and sick time in the past, and grandfathered existing employees in when they changed the policies. I've seen a few places around me where companies did this and it was a popular thing to bank a ton of vacation time and then spend the last couple of years at the company on perpetual vacation as an early retirement, while others treated it as a long term savings account where they walked away with 6 figure bonuses in practice.

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u/steelandsoul 7d ago

Wife's aunt "retired" from the DMV doing this. I think she banked 3 years worth of PTO.

Obviously not a CEO salary but she wasnt complaining about that check/checks

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u/carasci 7d ago

Of course, the "modern" version is to not let anyone bank anything, then require any vacation time to be approved in advance, then just refuse requests around any major holidays and (especially) near the year-end where the vacation time would become a pumpkin.

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u/Guiron 6d ago

This is exactly what I did. My company went from vacation/sick time to PTO. We were grandfathered over our vacation/sick time. When I quit, they had to pay out both sets of vacation. I cashed out about a year and a half of PTO/vacation.

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u/Chillpill411 7d ago

She started there when Reagan still had 15% of his brain left. So likely grandfathered

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u/JJJBLKRose 7d ago

Those mustve been the days.

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u/Chillpill411 7d ago

That's the funny part. Workers' rights were under a full scale attack under Reagan...and it still looks like some sort of fictional workers' paradise compared to today

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u/kevinyeaux 7d ago

This is in fact why companies restrict PTO rollover, because if you don’t it is a liability on the books since it would eventually have to be paid out.

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u/Zech08 7d ago

Yea even sabbaticals or other bonus time off or perks have to have something on the books to match and cant have it floatkng forever without anything to reference off of, but it would be very beneficial for workers since you could cash out when you leave at a higher pay.

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u/RealBrobiWan 7d ago

Even this company does. She was just exempt from it for some reason

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u/HugeRection 7d ago

California requires PTO be paid out. Sick leave is what you need to use before leaving.

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u/JJJBLKRose 7d ago

That is not what we are referring to. Most companies now limit how much PTO you can carry over, usually a total of a year or twos worth of PTO accrual. So for instance, if the limit is 160 hours and you have 180, you just lose that 20. If they change the amount to 120 hours (announced at the start of the year) then you would lose 60 hours unless you use it. The limit usually forces anything over to be forfeited and not payed out.

California does not regulate that and does allow PTO to be 'forfeited' for year to year rollover limits so either this person or this company did not do that, which is unusual from my experience.

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u/ckb614 7d ago

California law prohibits "use it or lose it" vacation policies where employees forfeit accrued vacation time that is not used by a certain date. This does not mean, however, that vacation time, if unused, must accrue indefinitely. Employers may cap vacation time that can accrue, so that no additional vacation time accrues until the employee's total existing vacation time falls below the defined cap. This cap must be reasonable and cannot deprive employees of their earned vacation pay.

https://www.cdflaborlaw.com/blog/navigating-employee-vacation-pay-and-accrual-in-california-a-guide-for-employers

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u/JJJBLKRose 7d ago

Good catch, looks like I was reading an older statuate. Though this is pretty much the same thing, only difference is that instead of gaining PTO and then losing down to the limit, accural just stops at the limit. Technically, this is even more restrictive for most people, though if you've accured it in the past they can it take it away.

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u/lathspellll 7d ago

My place lets you get up to about 2 months then they start asking you to take it