Sick Leave Benefits

Sick leave is one type of paid leave benefit that the University grants to eligible employee groups. In addition to sick leave, employees may earn vacation, personal holidays, and nine legal holidays. See vacation and holidays for a summary of those benefits.

Paid leave is authorized by §. 230.35(4)(a) of theWisconsin Statutes, ch. ER 18 and UWS 19 of the Wisconsin Administrative Code, the University of Wisconsin System Unclassified Personnel Guidelines (UPG #9 and #10.)

In most cases you must report leave usage on a bi-weekly or monthly basis. UWEX Payroll and Benefits Office can provide details.

Benefits vary according to your employee group. If you aren't sure where you fit in, follow the link for a description of the group.

Unclassified Leave Reporting Fact Sheet

An Overview of Unclassified Leave Reporting from UW System
PowerPoint — PDF

Sick Leave ~ A Valuable Benefit
Faculty and Unclassified Staff: PowerPoint — PDF

For faculty, academic staff, limited appointees, and senior executives, the leave year is on a fiscal basis, July 1 through June 30.

Full-time staff receive the following allotment of sick leave. If you are employed on a part-time basis, your leave time is pro-rated consistent with your percentage of employment.

Sick Leave

• Regent policy is set out in UPG #10
• Eligibility is contingent upon the following conditions:
  • You are expected to work at least one-third of what is considered full time employment (440 hours per year) and
  • Your expected duration of employment is at least one year.
• New full-time employees with an appointment of nine months or more are initially granted 22 working days of sick leave entitlement.
• After 18 months of service, sick leave is earned at the rate of one day per month or six days per semester.
• Except for the initial entitlement, sick leave may be taken only after it has been earned.
• Under s. UWS 19.01, Wisconsin Administrative Code, sick leave may be used for absences due to personal illness, injury, disability or pregnancy as well as attendance on a member of the immediate family of the employee whose condition or death requires the employee's direct care.
• The federal or Wisconsin Family and Medical Leave Act may allow use of sick leave for additional purposes.
• If you report conpletely, accurately, and in a timely manner, your unused sick leave accumulates from year to year without limit.
• Your unused sick leave balance is lost if you are laid off or terminate employment before retirement unless you have at least 20 years of WRS creditable service. However, it is restored if you return to a position that earns sick leave within three years.
• If you are laid off, you may use your sick leave credits to pay for State Group Health Insurance for up to five years.
• You may accumulate sick leave credits and at retirement convert their value to pay for the cost of your State of Wisconsin Group Health Insurance. For more information see "SICK LEAVE A Valuable Benefit for Faculty and Academic Staff", a slide presentation on the web.

Some of this information was taken from the University of Wisconsin System - Human Resources and Workforce Diversity Office and UW-Extension Payroll and Benefits.