(a) Company A's vacation plan provides that on the anniversary of each employee's hiring date, that employee shall become eligible to receive a 2-week vacation with pay. Vacation entitlement must be used within 2 years or forfeited. An employee who leaves the company voluntarily will be paid for any remaining unused vacation entitlement which was earned through the employee's last anniversary date. An employee who is laid off for lack of work will also be paid a pro-rata vacation allowance for service since the employee's last anniversary date. Company A accrues vacation costs each month based on an estimate of the anniversary years which will be completed in that month. At the end of its cost accounting period, Company A adjusts its estimated liability to agree with its actual liability for completed years of service on an individual employee basis.

(1) In order to comply with 9904.408-50(c), Company A must increase its estimated liability for vacation pay at all times to include the estimated additional amount which would be payable to employees in the event of layoff. The additional liability may be calculated on an individual employee basis or it may be estimated for the employees as a group by the use of sample or historical data.

(2) The following illustrates one method of estimating Company A's liability at the end of its cost accounting period, December 31, with respect to individual employees, in accordance with 9904.408-50(c).

John Doe, Anniversary date July 10:

(b) Company B has a vacation plan similar to Company A's, but Company B does not pay pro-rata vacation pay on lay-off for service since the last anniversary date. Company B must include in its estimate of its liability at the end of its cost accounting period only that unused vacation entitlement which results from completed years of service, with allowance for forfeitures if material.

(c) Company C's sick leave plan provides that an employee will accumulate one-half day of sick leave entitlement for each full month of service. Sick leave entitlement may be accumulated without limit, but an employee is paid for sick leave only during actual illness; the Company does not pay for unused sick leave on lay-off. Despite the fact that Company C might be able to estimate the amount which will be paid for sick leave in a future cost accounting period with a high degree of accuracy, it has no liability for payment for unused sick leave entitlement in the event of lay-off. Therefore, in accordance with 9904.408-50(b)(3), it must assign to each cost accounting period only the costs of sick leave which it pays in that period.

(d) Company D's vacation plan provides that on July 1, each employee who has been employed by the Company for at least 1 year shall be entitled to 2 weeks of vacation. All vacation must be taken between July 1 and September 30. An employee who terminates after September 30 and before July 1 receives no vacation pay. Company D has a cost accounting period which ends on December 31; however Company D customarily accrues its anticipated liability for vacation pay at July 1 in 12 equal installments over the “vacation year” starting on July 1 of the previous year and ending on June 30 of the current year. Company D has no liability for vacation pay at January 1 or at December 31. In accordance with 9904.408-50(b)(3), the amount of vacation cost which Company D must assign to each cost accounting period is the amount of such costs paid in that period. Therefore, Company D may not use the “vacation year” ending June 30 to apportion these costs between cost accounting periods.

(e) Company E's cost accounting period ends on December 31. Its vacation plan provides that on January 1, each employee who has been employed for at least 1 year shall become entitled to 2 weeks of vacation. The Company does not recognize a liability for vacation pay at December 31 because an employee must be employed on January 1 to be eligible.

(1) Despite the requirement that the employee also be employed on January 1, the necessary service was completed in the preceding cost accounting period. If the other terms of the plan are such that in accordance with this Standard, Company E must recognize its vacation costs on the accrual basis, then in accordance with 9904.408-50(b)(2), Company E must estimate its vacation costs as if the liability arose on December 31 rather than on the following January 1.

(2) Assume that Company E must comply with this Standard beginning on January 1, 1976. Assume that the employees of Company E earned $90,000 in vacation pay in 1975, all of which will be taken in 1976. Assume, further, that because of reduced employment levels, the employees of Company E will earn only $80,000 in vacation pay in 1976, $5,000 of which will be paid in 1976 because of layoffs. The following example illustrates the computation of vacation pay costs for Company E in 1976:

(3) Assume, further, that all of the vacation entitlement which remained at December 31, 1976 ($75,000), is taken in 1977. Also, Company E hires a substantial number of additional employees in 1977, so that the amount of vacation entitlement earned in 1977 is $85,000. The following example illustrates the computation of vacation pay costs for Company E in 1977:

Note 1.

Because the 1977 ending liability exceeds the amount in suspense at the beginning of 1977, there is no reduction of suspense in 1977.

(4) Assume further, that Company E goes out of business in 1978. All employees are terminated and paid both for the $85,000 vacation liability at the end of 1977 and an additional $40,000 earned in 1978. The following example illustrates the computation of vacation pay costs for Company E in 1978:

(f) All of the salary costs of Company F's salaried employees are charged to service, administrative, or overhead functions. No accounting entries are made to segregate costs of compensated personal absence of these employees from their other salary costs, although other records are maintained to control the total amount of such absences.

(1) This policy does not violate the requirement of 9904.408-40(b) if such salaries are charged to overhead or indirect cost pools for subsequent allocation to final cost objectives over annually determined allocation bases which are appropriate for those pools.

(2) If the same policy were followed in the case of engineers whose salaries were directly allocated to two or more final cost objectives, or to both intermediate and final cost objectives, so that costs of compensated personal absence were charged directly to the jobs on which the individuals were working when paid, then this would violate the requirement of 9904.408-40(b) that these costs be allocated among cost objectives on the basis of the costs of the entire cost accounting period. Only if all salaries were directly allocated to a single final cost objective, as might be the case with personnel assigned to an overseas base for the performance of a single contract, would this practice be in accord with that requirement.

(g) Company G determines a “charging rate” for each employee. The charging rate includes an allowance for compensated personal absence based on average experience. As the employee performs services, the related cost objectives are charged for the services at the charging rate, the employee is paid at his base rate, and the excess is credited to the accrued liability for each benefit. As benefits are paid, the costs are charged against the accrued liabilities. The amount of each accrued liability is adjusted at the end of the cost accounting period, and any difference is adjusted through appropriate overhead accounts in accordance with company policy.

(1) This method is not a violation of 9904.408-40(b) if it results in allocating the estimated annual costs of compensated personal absence at a rate which reflects the anticipated costs of the entire cost accounting period.

(2) The computation itself must comply with the criteria of 9904.408-40(a). For example, if the terms of the Company's sick leave plan are such that in accordance with this Standard, the costs should be recognized in the cost accounting period when they are paid, then the computation should be intended to amortize the expected costs of sick leave over the activity of that cost accounting period, leaving no accrued liability for sick leave at the end of the cost accounting period.

[57 FR 14153, Apr. 17, 1992; 57 FR 34167, Aug. 3, 1992]