Understanding Federal Employee Annual and Sick Leave
Introduction: federal leave is deferred compensation, not just time off
Federal civilian employees earn annual leave and sick leave every biweekly pay period under rules set by statute (5 U.S.C. chapter 63) and OPM regulation (5 CFR part 630). Annual leave carries a real cash value: when you separate or retire, every unused hour is paid out in a lump sum at the hourly rate you would have earned had you stayed on the rolls. Sick leave never pays out in cash, but it is converted into extra service credit that permanently raises your FERS or CSRS annuity. A long-tenured GS-13 earning $100,000 who retires at the end of the leave year with the maximum realistic annual leave balance of 448 hours receives roughly $21,500 before taxes, and every 2,087 hours of banked sick leave adds a full year of service to the pension computation. This calculator models the real accrual tiers, the use-or-lose carryover ceilings, the statutory 2,087-hour divisor, and the sick leave annuity credit, then projects your balances year by year to retirement.
Federal annual leave accrual tiers: the 4/6/8-hour schedule
Under 3 years of service: full-time employees accrue 4 hours of annual leave per biweekly pay period, which works out to 104 hours (13 days) per year.
3 to 15 years of service: the rate rises to 6 hours per pay period, plus an extra bump to 10 hours in the last full pay period of the calendar year, for a total of 160 hours (20 days) per year.
15 or more years of service: the rate rises to 8 hours per pay period, or 208 hours (26 days) per year. Members of the Senior Executive Service and Senior Level or Scientific/Professional positions accrue 8 hours per pay period regardless of tenure.
Sick leave: everyone accrues 4 hours per pay period (104 hours per year) at every tenure, and there is no ceiling: sick leave accumulates without limit for an entire career. Part-time employees accrue both kinds of leave in proportion to hours in a pay status: 1 hour of annual leave per 20, 13, or 10 hours worked (matching the three tiers) and 1 hour of sick leave per 20 hours worked.
The tier clock runs on your leave service computation date (SCD), not your time in your current job. Prior federal service and most honorable active-duty military service count toward it, so a veteran can start a federal career already in the 6-hour tier.
Full-time federal leave accrual by years of service
| Years of Service |
Annual Leave per Pay Period |
Annual Leave per Year |
Sick Leave per Year |
| Under 3 |
4 hours |
104 hours (13 days) |
104 hours |
| 3 to 15 |
6 hours (10 in the last full pay period of the year) |
160 hours (20 days) |
104 hours |
| 15 or more |
8 hours |
208 hours (26 days) |
104 hours |
| SES / SL / ST (any tenure) |
8 hours |
208 hours (26 days) |
104 hours |
The use-or-lose ceiling and the leave year
Annual leave is capped, not per year but at carryover. At the end of each leave year (the day before the first day of the first full biweekly pay period of the next calendar year, so late December or early January, not December 31), any balance above your ceiling is forfeited. The ceiling is 240 hours (30 days) for most employees, 360 hours (45 days) for employees stationed overseas, and 720 hours (90 days) for SES, SL, and ST members. Forfeited hours can be restored only in narrow circumstances, such as leave that was scheduled in writing and then cancelled for an exigency of the public business, sickness, or administrative error. Sick leave has no ceiling of any kind.
Formula: hourly rate, lump-sum payout, and sick leave credit
Plain-text formula: hourlyRate = annualBasicPay ÷ 2087 (5 U.S.C. 5504); lumpSumPayout = annualLeaveHours × hourlyRate, projected forward as if you stayed on the rolls (5 U.S.C. 5551); sickLeaveCreditYears = sickLeaveHours ÷ 2087, added to service in the FERS/CSRS annuity computation. Mid-tier accrual: 6 hours × 25 pay periods + 10 hours in the last full pay period = 160 hours per year.
Worked example: a GS-13 retiring at the end of the leave year
Take an employee with 18 years of service earning $100,000 including locality pay. She accrues 208 hours of annual leave and 104 hours of sick leave a year. She carries the maximum 240 hours into her final leave year, accrues another 208, uses 80 for a long trip, and retires on the last day of the leave year with 368 hours. Her hourly rate is $100,000 ÷ 2,087 = $47.92, so her lump-sum payout is 368 × $47.92 ≈ $17,633 before taxes. She also banked 1,800 hours of sick leave over her career: 1,800 ÷ 2,087 = 0.86 years of extra service credit. Retiring at 62 with more than 20 years, her FERS multiplier is 1.1%, so the sick leave alone adds about 0.86 × 1.1% × $100,000 ≈ $949 to her annuity every year for life. Had she instead let 100 use-or-lose hours expire the previous December, she would have left roughly $4,800 on the table.
Strategic timing: why so many federal retirements cluster around the new year
Because the use-or-lose ceiling only bites at the end of the leave year, an employee who retires on the leave year's final day can cash out the full 240-hour carryover plus everything accrued during that year, up to 448 hours for a 15-plus-year employee, without forfeiting anything. Two further effects sweeten the timing: the lump sum is projected forward as if you remained employed, so a January pay raise that takes effect during the projected period raises the rate paid on the later hours, and the payout lands in the new tax year for many retirees. One caution: if you return to federal employment before the projected lump-sum period ends, you must refund the unexpired portion. Tools that pair well with this one: the annual leave carryover planner for scheduling use-or-lose hours, the FERS high-3 gap planner and federal retirement optimizer for the annuity side, and the comp time vs. overtime calculator for premium-pay tradeoffs.
Sick leave at retirement: annuity credit, not cash
Unused sick leave is added to your length of service when the annuity is computed: 2,087 hours equal one year, and OPM converts the remainder into whole months (leftover days are dropped). It cannot be used to reach retirement eligibility, only to enlarge the computation. For FERS that means roughly 1% of your high-3 average salary per credited year (1.1% if you retire at 62 or later with at least 20 years); CSRS uses its own graduated formula that reaches 2% per year. Since 2014, FERS retirees receive 100% credit. Because sick leave is uncapped and fully credited, burning it casually is expensive; because it never pays cash, hoarding it at the cost of your health is pointless. Use it when you are sick; bank the rest.
Limitations and assumptions of this projection
- Annual granularity: accrual is modeled year by year with proportional blending when you cross the 3-year or 15-year tier boundary, rather than pay period by pay period, and the carryover cap is applied at each projected year end rather than on the exact leave-year calendar.
- Lump-sum simplification: the payout is computed as final balance × final projected hourly rate. The statutory method projects the leave day by day, so a raise or paid holiday falling inside the lump-sum period can add slightly more.
- High-3 approximation: the high-3 used for the sick leave annuity estimate is the average of your last three projected annual salaries, not your actual highest 36 consecutive months of basic pay.
- Uniform assumptions: steady leave usage and a constant pay growth rate stand in for promotions, within-grade increases, locality changes, and furloughs or extended LWOP (which reduce accrual once nonpay hours exceed a pay period's worth).
- Not modeled: restored leave accounts, credit hours, compensatory time, home leave, donated leave, and the occasional 27-pay-period year.
- Educational estimate: confirm figures with your HR office and OPM guidance (5 U.S.C. chapters 55 and 63, 5 CFR part 630) before making retirement decisions.
How to use this federal leave calculator
Select your employee category, then enter your years of federal service from the leave SCD on your SF-50, your current annual salary including locality pay, and your current annual and sick leave balances from your latest leave and earnings statement. Add how much of each leave type you typically use per year, your years until retirement, and an assumed pay growth rate. The calculator reports your current accrual rates, flags use-or-lose hours at risk this year, projects both balances to retirement with the carryover ceiling enforced, and estimates the lump-sum payout and the extra annuity from sick leave credit. A year-by-year table, a balance chart, and a CSV download show the full path.
Federal leave accrual and payout: frequently asked questions
How much annual leave do federal employees earn per pay period?
Full-time employees earn 4 hours per biweekly pay period during their first 3 years (104 hours per year), 6 hours per pay period from 3 to 15 years plus 10 hours in the last full pay period of the calendar year (160 hours per year), and 8 hours per pay period after 15 years (208 hours per year). SES, Senior Level, and Scientific or Professional employees earn 8 hours per pay period regardless of tenure, and part-time employees accrue a prorated amount based on hours in a pay status.
What is the 240-hour use-or-lose limit on federal annual leave?
Most federal employees may carry no more than 240 hours (30 days) of annual leave into the next leave year; hours above the ceiling are forfeited at the end of the leave year. The ceiling is 360 hours for employees stationed overseas and 720 hours for SES, Senior Level, and Scientific or Professional employees. Forfeited leave can be restored only in narrow cases, such as leave cancelled for an exigency of the public business, sickness, or administrative error.
How is the lump-sum annual leave payout calculated at retirement?
Your agency projects your unused annual leave forward as if you had stayed on the rolls, paying each hour at the rate you would have earned. The hourly rate is your annual rate of basic pay (including locality pay) divided by 2,087, and any pay raise that takes effect during the projected period, such as the January adjustment, applies to the hours that fall after it. The payment is taxable income, but no TSP contributions or retirement deductions are taken from it.
Does unused sick leave pay out in cash when a federal employee retires?
No. Unused sick leave is never paid in cash, but it is added to your length of service when your FERS or CSRS annuity is computed, with 2,087 hours equal to one year of credit. FERS retirees have received full credit for retirements beginning in 2014 (only 50 percent applied before that). Sick leave credit increases the annuity computation only; it cannot be used to meet the age or service requirements for retirement eligibility.
Why is federal salary divided by 2,087 hours instead of 2,080?
Federal law (5 U.S.C. 5504) sets the hourly conversion factor at 2,087 because, averaged over the full calendar cycle including leap years, a federal work year contains slightly more than 52 weeks of biweekly pay periods. Using 2,087 instead of the private-sector convention of 2,080 lowers the computed hourly rate by about a third of one percent, which slightly reduces lump-sum payouts.
When is the best time for a federal employee to retire to maximize the leave payout?
The end of the leave year, which falls in late December or early January, the day before the first full pay period of the new calendar year. Retiring then lets you cash out your full carryover ceiling (usually 240 hours) plus everything you accrued during the final year without hitting the use-or-lose cutoff, up to 448 hours for a 15-plus-year employee, and the projected payout period often crosses the January pay raise, which increases the rate paid on later hours.
Does military service count toward the federal leave accrual tiers?
Usually, yes. Honorable active-duty military service is generally creditable in the service computation date used for leave, which is what moves you from the 4-hour to the 6-hour and 8-hour accrual tiers. Military retirees are the main exception: their service counts only in limited cases, such as service-connected disability or campaign service. Check the leave SCD on your SF-50, since it can differ from your retirement SCD.