Final Paycheck Laws by State

Purpose

When an employee leaves, their final paycheck must include all wages earned, plus commissions, bonuses and accrued vacation pay where your state requires it. It must be issued within your state's deadline. There is no federal final-paycheck deadline. State law governs, and many states set a different deadline depending on whether the employee was dismissed or resigned. Use this table to decide whether the next regular pay run is soon enough or whether you need a Special Payroll.

Who needs this: anyone who processes terminations or runs payroll, typically the Employer Admin or Payroll Admin.

How this works with UZIO

UZIO does not enforce these deadlines or choose the pay date for you. The termination itself pays nobody. Final pay is issued by whichever pay run you process next:

• If the next regular pay date falls inside your state's deadline, the terminated employee is included in that run for the days worked up to the termination date, with any PTO payout their policy allows.
• If the deadline is sooner, run a Special Payroll for that employee. A Special Payroll for a terminated employee carries their approved hours and the PTO balance payout. Check the time-off hours and any approved expense reimbursement on the grid before you approve, and enter anything that is missing.

When the termination is processed, UZIO clocks out any running time entry and approves the employee's open pay periods as the system user. Those hours still reach payroll only when the pay period is synced, so review the final period before you run either payroll. See Terminating an Employee for the full order of operations and Automatic PTO Balance Payout on Employee Termination for what the payout includes.

State-by-state deadlines

Related articles

• Terminating an Employee
• PTO Balance Payout on Termination
• What Happens to Benefits When an Employee Is Terminated