Retirement Benefits

Sick Leave Can Give Your Retirement a Healthy Boost

3 months ago
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Is retirement on the horizon? If so, check your sick-leave balance to see if converting it into service credit would be a better deal than running it out.

All CalPERS state and school members are eligible to convert sick leave into retirement service credit. Public agency members are eligible if your employer contracts for this benefit.

Accrued sick leave can be converted to service credit at the time of your retirement. While sick leave service credit doesn’t change your age at retirement or your effective retirement date, it does impact the amount of service credit used in determining your retirement benefit, or total monthly pension payment.

How Does It Count?

To have sick leave converted, you must retire within 120 days of separation from your CalPERS employer.

Two thousand (2,000) hours equals one year of service credit. To find out how much service credit your sick leave will provide, divide your sick leave hours by 2,000.

Vacation and other types of leave time — such as compensatory time off (CTO), personal or annual leave, and holiday credits — can’t be converted.

Find Out More

For more information on sick-leave conversion, check with your employer about how these types of leave credits will be dealt with.

For general retirement preparation, take advantage of key CalPERS resources including:

As you plan and prepare, be sure to contact CalPERS for any other retirement questions or needs, either by sending us a secure message through your myCalPERS account or by calling us at 888 CalPERS (or 888-225-7377) Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.