On and on the false facts parade goes, picking up nuts the squirrels have left behind. This time I won’t be writing about mischievously spread rumors, but about a misunderstanding of the value of sick leave.
Let’s start with the basics. Unlike annual leave, the amount you earn doesn’t increase with your length of service. It stays the same throughout your career: 4 hours per pay period. When I first entered government, you could only take sick leave for personal medical purposes. Since then the range of potential uses has increased (almost ludicrously) to include family care or bereavement, care of a family member with a serious health condition, and adoption-related purposes.
What it hasn’t included are two benefits that a surprising number of those nearing retirement believe – or want to believe – is true. First is that just like unused annual leave, you can receive a lump-sum payment for any unused sick leave. Second is that sick leave can be added to actual service to meet the length of service requirement to be eligible to retire.
Now hear this! Unused sick leave has no cash value. Therefore, you can’t receive a lump-sum payment for any sick leave you haven’t used when you retire. Nor can sick leave be used to increase your length of service. However, that doesn’t mean that it has no value. Because it does.
At retirement, unused sick leave hours will be added to any days of actual service that weren’t included in the computation of your annuity. Weren’t included? Yep! Only years and full months of service are used in the computation of an annuity. But don’t fret. Those leftover days will be converted to hours and combined with any unused hours of sick leave. If there are enough of them to produce additional months, they’ll be added to your actual service time and used to increase your annuity. Note: Until January 1, 2014, retiring FERS employees will get only half credit for their unused sick leave.
To avoid any confusion, I’ll end by telling you that those additional months are around 174 hours long. That figure is derived by dividing 2,087 – the number of hours in a work year – by 360. Why 360? Because annuities are divided into 12 30-day months. That’s so you’ll get a retirement check on the first of every month, whether it’s 28, 29, 30 or 31 days long.
