I was out of luck from a couple of dc families as they left right before my vacation, it happened to me about 3 times and I got wise! Now my families pay me 1 extra days pay per month from Sept to June, this covers my 2 weeks off in the summer and they don't pay me then. If a family leaves me, for example in Feb I will have already banked the vacay pay owing. Also if a family starts in maybe November they then pay from Nov to June, so as to make it fair to all. Hope this is clear, sometimes it feels complicated even to me