Sick time off – Attendance Incentive Program
Table of Contents
Last updated: January 24, 2025
This page applies to all time off accruing staff and student employees.
The Attendance Incentive Program allows eligible employees whose sick time off balances exceed 480 as of January 1st to be compensated for any accrued and unused sick time off accrued during the previous calendar year. Cash-outs are allowed once a year during the month of January.
Eligibility
Sick time off accruing employees must meet the following requirements to participate in the program:
- Your sick time off 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 can choose to convert the sick time off hours earned in the previous calendar year, minus those hours used or donated as shared leave during the year, to monetary compensation.
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.
Cash-out request process
To request a cash-out, follow these steps:
- Confirm your sick time off balance is above 480 hours. You can find this information in by checking the Absence Module in Workday (Medical Centers staff should check Kronos for the most up-to-date balances). Contact us if you have questions.
- Compare your starting and ending sick time off balances for the year just ended. If your ending balance is higher than the starting balance, you may cash out all or part of the difference, as long as the remaining balance is 480 hours. Full-time employees may cash out up to 96 hours per year. Maximums for part-time employees are prorated based on the employees’ FTE.
- Submit your request on or before the last working day in January.
For campus staff:
- To determine your eligible cash-out amount, search for “My Sick Time Off Eligible for AAIP Cashout” in Workday. The “Maximum Time Eligible for Cashout” returns the maximum eligible hours you can submit.
- In the Workday Absence calendar, select a date in January, choose Sick Time Off – AAIP Cashout (hours) as the absence type, and enter the number of hours eligible for cash-out. The request will route to your costing allocations coordinator.
For medical centers staff:
- After verifying time off balances in Kronos (available on January 10), compete and submit the Attendance Incentive Request for Payment of Unused Sick Leave (UW Medicine) (PDF) to the appropriate HR office no later than 5:00 p.m. on January 31.
Payment will be processed based on when you submit your request: requests submitted between January 1-15 will appear on the January 25 paycheck, while those submitted between January 16-31 will appear on the February 10 paycheck. Medical centers will process all requests at the end of January. Once your cash-out is processed, your sick time off balance will be reduced by the number of hours you cashed out.
Budget and costing considerations
Department leadership should note that cash-out payments are charged to the department’s budget; they are not paid centrally. Costing allocations coordinators can assign different costing to this cashout under the earning “Sick Leave Payoff Annual (LPA).”
Retirement considerations
You may want to consider saving your unused sick time off instead of cashing it out each year. When you retire, you can create a medical expense account (called a VEBA) to pay post-retirement medical expenses for you and your eligible dependents. Your sick time off balance at retirement is cashed out at 25 percent and the funds are placed in a tax-free VEBA account. See VEBA for more information.
Members of the Inlandboatmen’s Union are not eligible for a VEBA and therefore receive a taxable cash payment for their unused sick time off at the same 25 percent rate.