Bank of America Vacation Settlement: $4.28 Million for Former Employees in California, Illinois and New York Whose Unused Vacation Was Never Paid Out — No Claim Form, a $200 Minimum, and a November 27, 2026 Deadline to Opt Out, Object or Dispute Your Numbers

If you left Bank of America after working in California, Illinois or New York, had vacation time left on the books when you went, and never got paid for it, you are probably in this class — and you will be paid automatically if the court approves the deal. The official notice puts it plainly: “You don’t have to do anything to participate in the proposed Settlement and be eligible for an Individual Settlement Payment.” There is no claim form and nothing to upload.

The one thing worth doing now is reading the Adjustment Form that came with the notice. It shows Bank of America’s records for you — vacation accrued, carried over, used, your hourly rate — and the estimated payment those numbers produce. If the data is wrong, you can send a completed Adjustment Form with supporting documentation by November 27, 2026. The notice warns that forms without documents “will be rejected” and that the administrator has “sole and final, non-reviewable, discretion” over disputes, so pay stubs, offer letters, Workday screenshots or separation paperwork matter.

As of October 20, 2026, the settlement is preliminarily approved, not final. Judge P. Casey Pitts signed the preliminary approval order on September 1, 2026 (Dkt. 95). The final approval hearing is set for December 17, 2026, at 10:00 AM PT in Courtroom 8 of the San Jose courthouse, 280 South 1st Street. Nobody gets a check before that, and if the judge says no, the notice says the settlement is void and “Bank of America will not pay any money.”

The court conditionally certified this class: all individuals formerly employed by Bank of America during the Covered Period who “(1) worked in California, New York, and/or Illinois; (2) had a positive vacation balance at the time of separation from employment” and “(3) who did not receive any payout for accrued but unused vacation at separation of employment.” A positive balance means vacation accrued in your last year plus any carryover was more than the vacation Workday recorded you as using that year. The Covered Period differs by state, reflecting each state’s look-back window: California September 28, 2019 to September 1, 2026; Illinois September 28, 2013 to September 1, 2026; New York September 28, 2017 to September 1, 2026. Current employees are not in the class.

The money is divided by a formula in the Plan of Allocation. First, “each Settlement Class Member will be allocated a minimum per capita amount of $200.00.” The rest is split by each person’s “Total Losses”: unpaid vacation hours (annual accrual plus carryover, minus vacation used) times the hourly rate of pay. For people who worked in California, that figure is multiplied by 1.4 — the plan does not explain the factor, but the notice says the formula “takes into account additional remedies and penalties available under the state laws of California, Illinois, and New York.” Someone who left with a large balance at a high hourly rate gets far more than someone with a few hours.

The $4.28 million is the gross figure. At the final hearing, class counsel will ask for up to one-third in attorneys’ fees plus about $250,000 in expenses; the three named plaintiffs for up to $10,000 each as a class representative award; the administrator for about $75,000; and employer payroll taxes also come out of the fund. If the court granted every maximum, that is our arithmetic, deductions would total about $1.78 million, leaving roughly $2.50 million for class members before payroll taxes. The number of class members is not in the notice or the plan, so we cannot compute an average; your own estimate is on your Adjustment Form. Taxes: “Fifty percent (50%) of each Individual Settlement Payment is subject to deductions for applicable taxes and withholdings like any other paycheck, and for which you will receive a W-2; and the remaining fifty percent (50%) will be reported on an IRS Form 1099.”

Bank of America was to fund the full amount within 15 business days of preliminary approval. Payment to class members waits for the “Effective Date” of the judgment. The settlement agreement says that “within twenty (20) calendar days after the Effective Date of Judgment, but no earlier,” the administrator mails all payments by first-class mail, and the Plan of Allocation adds that nothing is paid until “all objections, collateral challenges or appeals relating to the Settlement have been fully and finally resolved.” With a December 17, 2026 hearing, checks are therefore possible in early 2027 at the soonest if there is no appeal; an objection or appeal would push that back. That timing is our reading of the documents, not an announced date.

Everyone gets a paper check, sent to “the same address as the Notice.” If you move, tell the administrator. You have 120 days from the date printed on the check to cash it; after that the money goes to “the unclaimed property fund of the state in which that individual worked for Bank of America.” The administrator sends reminder postcards 60 days after the checks go out. A lost check is replaced only if you ask before the void date. Money left over after the unclaimed-property step does not go back to the bank: class counsel says they expect to redistribute it pro rata to people who cashed their checks, and “in no event shall any of the remaining funds be returned to Bank of America.”

You have four options, and one deadline for the first three:

• Do nothing — you stay in, get paid if the deal is approved, and release your vacation-pay and related wage claims against Bank of America for the Covered Period.
• Dispute your data — send the completed Adjustment Form with documents, postmarked by November 27, 2026.
• Object — stay in but tell the court what you don’t like, for example the fee request. Send a signed letter to the administrator by November 27, 2026 naming the case, Case No. 5:23-cv-04999-PCP, with your name, address, phone number and approximate dates of employment. Class counsel’s fee and final-approval motions are due November 2, 2026 and will be posted on the settlement site.
• Opt out — send a written, signed letter with your name, address, phone number and the words “I opt out of the Bank of America vacation settlement” by November 27, 2026. You get nothing from the settlement but keep your right to sue on your own. “You must make the request yourself.”

Mail goes to Unused Vacation Settlement Administrator, P.O. Box 2004, Chanhassen, MN 55317-2004. The notice describes November 27 as “forty-five (45) days after the date this Notice was mailed” — by our count a mailing around October 13 — and says the deadline “may be extended if you received a re-mailed notice.” One wrinkle: the schedule in Judge Pitts’ September 1 order listed October 8, 2026 for the mailing and November 23, 2026 as the last day for objections, exclusions and disputes. The court-approved notice and the official deadlines page both say November 27, 2026, and we follow the official site. To be safe, put anything important in the mail before November 23.

Yes, if it matches these details. The real notice is titled “Court Approved Notice of Class Action Settlement and Hearing Date for Final Court Approval,” names Nguyen et al. v. Bank of America, N.A., Case No. 5:23-cv-04999-PCP, and arrives by U.S. mail with a personalized Adjustment Form. It says on its face: “It’s not junk mail, spam, an advertisement, or solicitation by a lawyer.” The court appointed Analytics Consulting LLC as administrator; its contacts are UnusedVacationSettlement.com, (866) 983-3173, and UnusedVacationSettlement@noticeadministrator.com. Class counsel is Stueve Siegel Hanson LLP in Kansas City, (816) 714-7100.

Red flags: anyone asking for a fee, your bank login or your full Social Security number to “release” a payment; a request to pick a payment app — this settlement pays only by mailed check; or a deadline other than November 27, 2026. The notice also says “DO NOT TELEPHONE THE COURT” for settlement information, and that “Bank of America will not retaliate against you” for anything you do in the settlement — relevant for former employees who might return. If you think you qualify but got no notice, contact the administrator directly with your dates of employment and state.

The lawsuit was filed on September 28, 2023, originally invoking the laws of 43 states; the settlement covers only California, Illinois and New York, the states named in the released claims — California Labor Code § 227.3 and §§ 201–203, New York Labor Law § 191 and 820 ILCS 115/5. The parties settled after an all-day mediation with a retired judge on January 20, 2026 and filed the agreement on July 22, 2026 (Dkt. 87-1). Bank of America “denies the allegations in the Litigation and maintains that it at all times properly compensated its employees,” and the court has made no ruling on the merits.

Is there paid vacation in the USA? Not by federal law. The U.S. Department of Labor says the Fair Labor Standards Act “does not require payment for time not worked, such as vacations,” and that these benefits “are matters of agreement between an employer and an employee.” What changes at the state level is what happens once an employer does promise vacation. California’s Labor Commissioner states that there is no requirement to offer vacation at all, but once it is earned it counts as wages, cannot be forfeited, and “upon termination of employment all earned and unused vacation must be paid to the employee at his or her final rate of pay.” That is the rule this case is built on.

What’s the difference between PTO and paid leave? For this settlement it matters little: California treats a combined “paid time off” plan as “subject to the same rules as other vacation policies,” so unused PTO must also be paid out when you leave. If your question is about vacation pay at a different employer, or in another state, this settlement does not help; contact your state labor department — in California, the Labor Commissioner’s office (DLSE) — about a wage claim. The other searches that turn up next to “America vacation settlement” — how much leave other countries guarantee, how long Americans can take off — are policy questions, not this case.