MD usually set vacation benefits which normally varies according to the number of years of service. For example, many WDs allow one week or five days of vacation for one year of "continuous service". Accordingly, if an employee has less than one year they would not be eligible for vacation. If that employee quits after six months the contractor would have no obligation to pay for accrued vacation under the SCA (though they may be required to under certain state laws).

The contractor must provide vacation rights when the employee was with the present contractor or a predecessor contractor at the same federal facility. The contractor must provide the benefit either in vacation time or payment before the employee's next anniversary date, before the contract is completed or before the employee leaves. DOL's interpretation prevents employees from accruing unused vacation, holding time in a leave bank and carrying it forward into subsequent years of service.

There is some confusion over what constitutes "continuous service" when there is a break in the continuity of service. No fixed time has been set for determining whether there is a break in service but rather the DOL calls for a determination of the reasons why an employee’s absence occurs. Regulations and court decisions have provide that a "break in service" does not occur in the following cases: an employee was granted a leave; an interim period occurs between contracts during which government employees perform the work; a facility closes for three months for renovations. In another case, it was decided that a break in service had not occurred despite a facility's being closed for renovations for 11 months.

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