What Are Limits to Carrying Over Your Annual Leave Hours? By Don Fletcher

Don Fletcher : Annual Leave Hours

Don Fletcher on The 2019 leave year ended last month on January 4, and the 2020 leave year started on January 5 and will end on January 2 of 2021. In this article, we will go over how many leave days you can carry over every year along with what lump-sum payment you can expect to receive in retirement.

To begin, we will talk about how you receive your annual leave. Those that have less than three years of time served at your federal post, you receive 4 hours for every 2-week pay period. This adds up to 13 days per year.

Those that have worked from 3 to 15 years will receive 6 hours for every 2-week pay period, which adds up to 20 days of annual leave per year.

If you have over 15 years of service, you accrue 8 hours for each 2-week pay period, which adds up to 26 days per year confirmed by Don Fletcher.

For part-time federal workers, these amounts are prorated. There are also some employees, such as senior scientific and technical workers and senior executive service members, that will accrue 8 hours per pay period no matter the length of time worked.

For those of you that are apart of the Reserves or Guard will receive credit for active duty service and active duty training while you are a federal employee. For those of you that are retired military service members, credit will only be added for active duty during a war or while in a campaign for which a campaign ribbon was awarded. Active duty service will be counted if a disability occurred due to armed conflict or caused by an instrumentality of war during a war on duty.

Don Fletcher said at the discretion of an agency, those that have been given a new position or those that are former military members that had a gap of a minimum of 90 days in their service can be given credit.

The number of annual leave hours you can take into the next year and so on depends on the employment category you are under by Don Fletcher.

Wage grade and GS workers can take up to 240 hours into the next year. This adds up to 30 days of annual leave. Those that have more than 240 hours will lose the time if they do not use it before the end of the year.

Those that are at the Senior Executive Service level will be able to carry over up to 720 hours, which adds up to 90 days. If you had more than this limit before October 23, 1994, your limit is that amount you had. If you have fewer hours than that amount you had at the end of any leave year, the limit will be lowered to 720 hours.

Those that work overseas can carry over 560 hours into the new years, which is equivalent to 45 days.

According to Don Fletcher, A Postal Service bargaining unit worker can carry up to 440 hours, which adds up to 55 days. Executive and Administrative Schedule workers of the Postal Service can carry up to 560 hours, which is equivalent to 70 days.

When you become a retiree after being a Postal Service bargaining unit worker, you will receive payment for any time you were able to carry over (with the limit in mind) into the new year along with any annual leave you accrued the year that you retire.

Any other type of federal employee that retires before the end of the leave year date will receive a payment in a lump-sum for any unused annual leave that they have. The hourly rate for which the lump-sum is calculated will be at the basic pay rate you would have gotten had you continued working until your annual leave hours had been all used up. This tends to be a big reason as to why a lot of federal workers leave just before the end of the leave year.

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