Unused sick leave under FERS converts to extra service credit in your pension using a 2,087-hour federal work year, which works out to roughly 174 hours per month. Only full months count, and any leftover hours below the next threshold are dropped. The FERS sick leave conversion chart below shows exactly where each monthly breakpoint sits, so you can see what your current balance is worth and whether a few more pay periods on the job would push you into the next month of credit.1U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Credit for Unused Sick Leave
Sick Leave Hours to Months of Service Credit
OPM publishes the full conversion chart in Chapter 50 of the CSRS/FERS Handbook.2U.S. Office of Personnel Management. CSRS and FERS Handbook Chapter 50 The monthly thresholds are what most people need:
- 174 hours: 1 month
- 348 hours: 2 months
- 522 hours: 3 months
- 696 hours: 4 months
- 870 hours: 5 months
- 1,044 hours: 6 months
- 1,218 hours: 7 months
- 1,392 hours: 8 months
- 1,566 hours: 9 months
- 1,740 hours: 10 months
- 1,914 hours: 11 months
- 2,087 hours: 12 months (1 full year)
If your balance falls between two rows, you receive credit only at the lower threshold. An employee with 1,100 hours of sick leave, for example, gets 6 months of credit, not 6-and-change. The 1,100 clears the 1,044 line for 6 months but falls short of the 1,218 needed for 7. Those extra 56 hours produce a few days on paper, but because partial months are dropped they add nothing to the annuity.
How OPM Applies the Chart
The authority for this benefit is 5 U.S.C. § 8415(m), which directs OPM to add unused sick leave to your total creditable service when computing the FERS annuity.3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8415 Computation of Basic Annuity The conversion divides the standard 2,087-hour work year by 12, producing about 174 hours per month, and OPM rounds down.1U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Credit for Unused Sick Leave
Full-time FERS employees earn 4 hours of sick leave per biweekly pay period under 5 U.S.C. § 6307, which comes to 104 hours a year.4U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Fact Sheet: Sick Leave (General Information)5Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 6307 Your Leave and Earnings Statement shows the current balance in hours, which is the number you compare to the chart.
Projecting Your Balance to the Next Threshold
To estimate what your balance will look like on your last day, count the pay periods between now and your planned retirement date, multiply by 4, add the result to your current balance, and then subtract any sick leave you realistically expect to use.
Say you have 900 hours today and 15 pay periods left. That projects to 900 + (15 × 4) = 960 hours before any use. On the chart, 960 sits between 870 (5 months) and 1,044 (6 months). Delaying retirement long enough to cross 1,044 would buy a full extra month of credit. Falling six hours short of a threshold, on the other hand, buys nothing. When you are within striking distance of the next row, the timing of your retirement date is worth planning around.
What Each Month of Credit Is Worth
The FERS basic annuity formula multiplies your high-3 average salary by a per-year percentage. For most retirees the multiplier is 1% per year. If you retire at age 62 or later with at least 20 years of service, it rises to 1.1% per year.6U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Computation Sick leave credit is added to actual service time before the formula runs.
Consider a retiree at 60 with exactly 25 years of service and a high-3 of $95,000. Without sick leave, the annuity is 25 × 1% × $95,000 = $23,750 per year. Add 6 months (1,044 hours) of sick leave and service becomes 25.5 years: 25.5 × 1% × $95,000 = $24,225. The $475 annual difference compounds over the length of retirement and rides on top of every cost-of-living adjustment.
At the 1% multiplier, one month of sick leave credit is worth roughly 0.083% of your high-3 per year. On a $90,000 high-3, that is about $75 a year, or several thousand dollars over 25 years of retirement once COLAs are layered in.
Sick Leave and the 1.1% Multiplier at Age 62
Sick leave cannot get you across the retirement eligibility line, but it can get you across the 20-year line that unlocks the higher 1.1% multiplier at age 62. OPM confirmed this in a 2018 Benefits Administration Letter: a retiree who is at least 62, whose actual service falls short of 20 years, but whose total service reaches 20 years or more after unused sick leave is added, qualifies for the 1.1% formula.7U.S. Office of Personnel Management. FERS Unused Sick Leave and the 1.1 Percent Annuity Formula
Take an employee retiring at 62 with 19 years of actual service, a high-3 of $100,000, and a full year (2,087 hours) of sick leave. Actual service is 19 years, but total service after conversion is 20 years. That flips the calculation from 19 × 1% × $100,000 = $19,000 to 20 × 1.1% × $100,000 = $22,000. Same sick leave balance, $3,000 more per year for life. If you are near the 20-year mark at 62, the balance on your LES deserves close attention.
What Sick Leave Credit Cannot Do
The statute is explicit that unused sick leave “shall not be counted in determining average pay or annuity eligibility.”3Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 5 USC 8415 Computation of Basic Annuity Two limits follow.
First, sick leave does not raise your high-3 average salary. It only increases the service multiplier side of the formula.8U.S. Office of Personnel Management. Creditable Service
Second, sick leave does not establish retirement eligibility. You have to independently qualify for an immediate annuity based on your actual age and service before OPM adds the credit. FERS eligibility runs off specific age-and-service combinations: MRA with 30 years, age 60 with 20, age 62 with 5. An employee with 29 years of actual service and 2,087 hours of sick leave still has 29 years for eligibility purposes, and would need to work another year or reach age 60 to retire with an unreduced annuity. Only after clearing that gate does the sick leave credit apply.
Do Not Burn Sick Leave Before You Retire
Annual leave and sick leave get very different treatment at separation. Unused annual leave pays out as a lump sum, taxed as ordinary income the year you receive it. Unused sick leave is never cashed out; it only converts to service credit. You do not get to choose between the two treatments.
Every 174 hours of sick leave you spend in your final months is one fewer month of pension credit for the rest of your life, and that credit compounds through every COLA. Using annual leave down before you retire generally makes sense, since it would otherwise be taxable income. Using sick leave casually to avoid “losing it” gives up a tax-advantaged, lifetime increase in retirement income.