• Full-time workers aren't legally entitled to benefits in Kansas.stone workers image by jimcox40 from Fotolia.com
  
  Employment laws and requirements enacted on a federal level and by the State of Kansas address payment, working conditions and overtime hours. Neither group of legislation addresses benefits or benefit requirements for full-time workers in Kansas, which leaves fringe benefit management and accountability largely up to the discretion of employers. In certain situations, benefits are negotiated in an employment contract, but executing them is a case-by-case matter of contract law rather than blanket employment-law legislation.
  
  

Sick and Vacation Days

• Neither federal nor Kansas law specify that an employer must grant paid days off for sickness or vacations for full-time employees, regardless of their length of tenure at their jobs. Because of this, employers are allowed to structure their sick and vacation time policies as they see fit, and may create policies that allow employees to carry unused days into the next fiscal year or lose unused days. Unless sick days and vacation pay are contractually defined, an employer may change its policy regarding paid time off at any time.
  
  

Holiday Pay

• Although some employers pay full-time hourly workers a differential to compensate for working on holidays, there are no Kansas labor laws that mandate holiday pay practices. Because of this, employers may choose not to pay holiday-time wages at all or calculate holiday-time differential wages in any method deemed necessary and appropriate to manage their labor forces.
  
  

Severance Packages

• No laws govern severance pay in the State of Kansas. If a company has a policy of granting severance packages to departing workers, it is generally required to grant them to all leaving employees, although these cases may need the guidance of an attorney to pursue compensation through legal action. An employer may end a severance package policy at any time, as long as the policy is uniformly enforced.
  
  

Medical Benefits

• Until Jan. 1, 2014, Kansas employers are under no legal obligation to extend medical benefits to workers in any way. After that date, health care reform legislation passed by Congress in March 2010 puts heavy pressure on employers to provide medical benefits, mandating any company with 50 or more employees provide health care benefits to workers or face a fine. Kansas employers may still choose not to provide benefits to full-time employees, opting to pay the yearly fine instead.