Unused Sick Leave Extends Service

Conserving sick leave can extend service time for employees getting ready to retire.

Civil Service Retirement System (CSRS) and Federal Employees Retirement Systems (FERS) employees will receive credit on their basic retirement annuities for all accrued and unused sick leave.
Once employees reach the age and service requirements for retirement or accept an early retirement offer, they receive credit for every year and full month of actual service, including service for which the employees completed a deposit or redeposit.
Unused sick leave hours will be added to actual service. The total is then converted by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) into additional years and months and used in the computation of their annuity.
Unused sick leave is not used to compute a high-three average salary, which is the highest average basic pay an employee earned during any 36 consecutive months of service (usually during the final three years of work).
Postal employees who are within five years of optional retirement can view their annuity estimates on LiteBlue. For additional information, visit the Blue retirement page.