Home › Final paycheck letters › Missouri › pto

Unused PTO in Missouri: must it be paid out?

Missouri requires payout of accrued vacation only where the employer's policy or contract provides for it.

The practical question is not whether your employer has a policy — most do — but whether that policy actually forfeits earned time, and whether it was communicated before you earned it.

Statute
Mo. Rev. Stat. § 290.110
If fired
On discharge — with or without cause — unpaid wages earned at the contract rate become due and payable on the day of the discharge (Mo. Rev. Stat. § 290.110). Missouri is a same-day state.
If you resigned
If you quit, wages are due on the next regular payday; the same-day rule in § 290.110 is written for employees who are discharged or refused further employment.
Late-pay penalty
Section 290.110 is titled 'penalty for delay': wages are due the day of discharge, and a late payment exposes the employer to a court-assessed penalty and, for a wilful failure, criminal exposure. The statute does not fix a percentage you can compute yourself, so this letter demands the wages and puts the exposure on the record.
PTO
Missouri requires payout of accrued vacation only where the employer's policy or contract provides for it.
Small claims limit
$5,000 for an individual
Last verified
2026-11-03 single source

What to put in the file before you write anything

  1. Your accrual balance on the last day of work, from the payroll system rather than from memory.
  2. The policy in force during your employment, with its effective date — a policy adopted after you accrued time is a weaker defence for the employer.
  3. Whether the policy says "use it or lose it", caps accrual, or is silent. Silence usually favours the employee.
  4. The payout rate: accrued hours are normally paid at your final rate of pay, not at an older, lower rate.

What the letter does that a phone call cannot

A demand letter fixes three things at once: the amount, the date each item was due, and the date the employer was on notice. Every forum that can help you — the Missouri Department of Labor — Division of Labor Standards, a small claims judge — starts from those three facts. The letter is built from Mo. Rev. Stat. § 290.110 and your own figures, so the deadline it states is the one that applies to your separation, not a generic thirty days.

If the amount fits inside $5,000, small claims court is usually faster than an agency queue; if it does not, the agency route and a demand first is the cheaper path.

Build the Missouri letter — $9.99 Free: calculate my deadline

Questions

Does Missouri law require vacation payout?

Missouri requires payout of accrued vacation only where the employer's policy or contract provides for it.

Can my employer retroactively cancel my PTO balance in Missouri?

A forfeiture has to come from a policy that applied while the time was being earned. A policy introduced at separation, or applied only to departing employees, is the weakest version of the argument and is worth challenging in writing.

Other situations in Missouri

being fired · resigning · a layoff · unpaid commissions · all Missouri rules

Reviewed 2026-11-03 against the sources listed on the Missouri page. This is a self-help document tool, not legal advice, and no outcome is guaranteed.