The Attendance Incentive Program allows employees whose compensable sick leave balances exceed 480 as of January 1st to be compensated for any accrued and unused sick leave accrued during the previous calendar year. Cash-outs are allowed once a year during the month of January per Washington Administrative Code 357-31-150.

Eligibility

Employees who accrue compensable sick leave must meet the following requirements to participate in the program:

  • Your sick leave balance is greater than 480 hours as of January 1.
  • Your ending balance is greater than your starting balance for the year just ended. (You must have accrued more hours in that year than you used or donated.)
  • Your balance will be at least 480 hours after your cash-out.

Compensation

Employees may elect to convert the sick leave hours earned in the previous calendar year, minus those hours used or donated as shared leave during the year, to monetary compensation at 25% of their hourly rate.

For example, if your hourly rate is $20 and you want to cash out 10 hours, you will receive $50 ($20 x 10 x .25). Cash-outs are subject to taxes, so the amount you take home will be less than $50.

Full-time employees may cash out up to 96 hours per year. Maximums for part-time employees are prorated based on the employee’s FTE.

Rate of Pay

Faculty

  • For full-time faculty, the hourly rate is determined by dividing your annual salary for the full time position by the number of contracted days and then by eight.
  • For adjunct faculty, in 2019-20 there are two rates of pay for cash-out purposes: $81.27 for hours earned before July 2019 and $44.15 for hours earned beginning in July 2019. For more information, please refer to the Negotiated Agreement between the Pierce College Federation of Teachers and Pierce College District.

Classified

Monthly salary divided by 174 hours

Exempt

Monthly salary divided by 174 hours

Taxes

Cash-outs are subject to taxes.

Nearing Retirement?

If you are close to retiring, you may want to consider saving your unused accrued sick leave. When you retire, you can create a medical expense account (called “VEBA”) to pay post-retirement medical expenses for you and your eligible dependents. The cash-out rate is still 25 percent, but funds placed in VEBA are tax-free.