1.22.2015 Conserving sick leave can extend service time for employees getting ready to retire.
Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement Systems (FERS) employees will receive credit on their basic retirement annuities for all accrued and unused sick leave.
Once employees reach the age and service requirements for retirement or accept an early retirement offer, they receive credit for every year and full month of actual service, including service for which the employees completed a deposit or redeposit.
Unused sick leave hours will be added to actual service. The total is then converted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) into additional years and months and used in the computation of their annuity.
Unused sick leave is not used to compute a high-three average salary, which is the highest average basic pay an employee earned during any 36 consecutive months of service (usually during the final three years of work).
Postal employees who are within five years of optional retirement can view their annuity estimates on LiteBlue. For additional information, visit the Blue retirement page
USPS News Link
I Retired back in 2013 from the ISC/JFK Mail Facility…My Leave Administrator was Bennett Roth and he was very good to all the people that was leaving. I had about 1500 hours of S/L that I started using back in 2012…I left them with 8 hours of S/L and I bang out my 440 Annual Leave with the 10,000 Bonus money…
Just because everyone does something doesn’t make it right. Sick Leave= Sick Leave not earlier Retirement. This way of thinking is just one of the problems that cause trouble for USPS, And no I’m not from management & yes I did give some SL back . [Recently retired MH] Just did what I thought was right & we all do have our own opinions .
Also, remember that a full year’s service iequals 2080 hours and a month’s service equals 160 hours. If you have just 159 hours of sick leave, you are SOL!! So agree with the above posters! Use it or lose it!
I have over 2200 hours sick time, I was told it only will make a difference of $40. per month in my retirement I f I use it now it is $28. per hour, do the math Where do I come out ahead?
Posty is right on the money! No pun intended but let’s say you have a
year’s S/L on the books if you retire with it it’s only 2% additional for
CSRS and 1% for FERS . Example The Terrier makes $60,000 YR at
60% of his pay ( $36,000 yr) and is considering retirement. Now, we
add in his 2% for the years S/L giving him 62% ( $37,200) YR. This is
an increase of $1,200.00 a year or an additional $100.00 a month. Who
in their right mind would not burn that S/L to receive a years salary at
$60,000.00!! It would take you 50 years to catch up to that $60,000.00
if you decide to take the added 2% to your retirement. I can think of
only one song in my head….. Burn Baby Burn! Burn! Burn!
How about I use my sick leave, get the extra service time because I am still on the books. Get full payment and the time, everybody uses it up before they retire-everybody. Fix your broken down body before you retire.