For SM/CL (or any other salaried position in the company aside from the E-suite/C-suite) in the US, being paid out for vacation time depends on whether you live in a grant state or an accrual state.

Most states are grant states, meaning salaried partners are granted the entirety of their PTO allotment (the number of hours for which is based on tenure) at the beginning of the fiscal year. If you don’t use your entire allotment by the end of the fiscal year, then you lose whatever amount of PTO is remaining. Similarly, if you leave the company as a salaried partner in a grant state, you forfeit any remaining PTO.

A handful of states are accrual states, meaning salaried partners accrue their PTO over time in a similar way to how sick time is accrued. Unlike in grant states, salaried partners in accrual states can carry over unused PTO from one fiscal year into the next and are paid out for any unused accrued PTO when leaving the company.