I am new to this site so forgive me if I missed a relative post. I didn't see one.

I was working for a company that gave its employees 2 weeks paid vacation, but one of those weeks had to taken between Christmas and New Years. It was during this shut down that I was let go, over the phone, on the 29th. My ex boss told me my check was in the mail. I have not received it, and he will not take my calls or return them. He also will not allow me to go collect my personal belongings. He mailed some of them but I am missing some things.

My question is, since this was a mandatory shut down, do I get paid for the days up until the 29th? Which would be the week of the 24th to 28th. I was Salary non-exempt, although he was illegally paying me exempt. All other hourly employees were paid.

Can anyone help me?

I think you should, but the law may not agree with me. Legally, you would only have to be paid for time actually worked.

However, any vacation you may have had left (whether in the closure week or not) MAY have to be paid out at termination, if the company vacation policy provides for such payment.

The key here is that we are talking about several very different laws. Paying employees for time worked is federal law (FLSA) and this is very black letter law. There is no chance that any jurisiction will support the employer for not paying a Non-Exempt employee for actual hours worked without a legally very good reason (which you have not mentioned).

Vacation however is a whole different issue. There are no federal laws that say that vacation pay must ever be paid. What FLSA related discussion on the subject are letters from federal DOL saying that it is none of their business. Vacation is a function of state law (if any) and company policy. NJ is not my state, and I have no idea what their law is. However Patty knows what she is doing and it is very likely that she is correctly citing NJ rules. Very few states have rules requiring vacation to be paid absent a company policy. Many more states require companies to follow their own vacation policy.

NJ is a follow-your-policy state.

Thanks to all of you for the information!! It's pretty much what I thought.