Federal Sick Leave Calculator for Retirement

Federal sick leave

How federal employees earn sick leave

Full-time federal employees earn 4 hours of sick leave for each biweekly pay period, which is the half day set by 5 U.S.C. 6307 and adds up to 104 hours in a 26-pay-period leave year. Part-time employees earn 1 hour for every 20 hours in a pay status. Employees on uncommon tours of duty use OPM's formula: 4 hours times the average hours in the tour per pay period, divided by 80. Unlike annual leave, sick leave has no carryover ceiling. OPM states that there is no limitation on the amount of sick leave that can be accumulated, and unused sick leave carries into later years.

How much you can use in a leave year depends on the reason. There is no limit for your own medical needs. General family care and bereavement are limited to 13 days, or 104 hours, each leave year, and care for a family member with a serious health condition to 12 weeks, or 480 hours. For part-time employees and uncommon tours, these limits are prorated to the hours in the scheduled tour. An agency may also advance up to 240 hours of sick leave when the situation requires it.

How unused sick leave counts toward retirement

When you retire, unused sick leave is added to your service for computing the annuity. Under 5 U.S.C. 8415(m), a FERS employee who retires on an immediate annuity, or who dies leaving a survivor entitled to an annuity, gets credit for 100 percent of unused sick leave when the separation happens after December 31, 2013. CSRS gives the same kind of credit under 5 U.S.C. 8339(m). In both systems the credit is not used to figure your high-3 average pay or the service you need to be eligible to retire.

OPM converts the hours into years, months and days with its 2,087-hour chart, where 2,087 hours equals one year of service. The chart has gaps, and OPM's rule is to use the next highest number when your hours fall between two entries. In OPM's own example, 1,500 hours is not on the chart, so the computation uses the entry for 1,501 hours, which is 8 months and 19 days. Each full 2,087 hours counts as a year and the rest goes through the chart, so 2,100 hours is 1 year and 3 days.

Conversions from the worked examples and chart 2 (sick leave chart, 2,087 hours) in chapter 50 of OPM's CSRS and FERS Handbook. The calculator uses the full chart.

Why the extra days matter

For retirement computation every month has 30 days. OPM adds your civilian service, military service and the sick leave credit together, then drops any fractional part of a month from the total. In the handbook example, 30 years 1 month 16 days of civilian service, 2 years and 10 days of military service and 1,571 hours of sick leave (9 months 1 day) add up to 32 years 10 months 27 days, and the annuity is computed on 32 years 10 months. The 27 days are dropped.

That is why the same sick leave can be worth one more month for one retiree than for another. With no odd days in the rest of your service, 1,644 hours (9 months 14 days) adds 9 months. If your other service already includes 20 odd days, the 14 days of sick leave credit push the total past 30 days and the credit adds 10 months. Enter your years, months and days of service in the calculator to see the exact effect on your total.

What the sick leave credit is worth

Once the credit is part of your service, it is valued like any other service in the annuity formula. OPM's FERS computation page sets the basic annuity at 1 percent of your high-3 average salary for each year of service, or 1.1 percent if you retire at 62 or older with at least 20 years of service. Under CSRS, each year of service over 10 is worth 2 percent of the high-3. Your high-3 is the highest average basic pay you earned during any 3 consecutive years of service, and basic pay does not include overtime or bonuses.

In the default example, 1,200 hours now plus 4 hours for each of the 111 pay periods before a December 31, 2030 retirement gives 1,644 hours. That converts to 9 months 14 days, which adds 9 months of service. At 1 percent of a $95,000 high-3, 9 months is worth $95,000 x 1% x 9 / 12 = $712.50 a year, about $59.38 a month, before reductions such as a survivor benefit election. Under CSRS, OPM's handbook shows that sick leave credit can raise an annuity above the 80 percent limit that applies to the rest of the service.

Our calculation with OPM's 2,087-hour chart at the FERS 1 percent rate, assuming no odd days in the rest of your service. Odd days in your other service can add one more month.

Projecting your balance to retirement

The calculator counts every full pay period from the one in progress through your retirement date and adds the sick leave you earn in each. It then subtracts any sick leave you expect to use before retiring. A pay period that is only partly worked before your retirement date is not counted. The result also shows how many more hours would add one more month of credit, which helps when you are weighing a retirement date a few pay periods later.

Because the value of the credit depends on your high-3, the GS pay calculator is a quick way to check the basic pay for your grade, step and locality. The FERS paycheck deductions guide explains the retirement contributions on your pay stub, and the TSP contribution guide covers Thrift Savings Plan deductions. For taxes on the annuity itself, see the retirement income tax calculator and the guide to pension and annuity withholding.