Sick Time Tracking

Effective January 1, 2021, MIT began tracking sick time for all employees to comply with the Massachusetts Paid Family and Medical Leave Act (PFMLA).

Sick time is accrued on a monthly basis for all staff, including salaried staff.

Crediting sick time for current salaried staff

Salaried staff employed on December 31, 2020 received a bank of sick days on January 1, 2021. The balances are available to view and use in the Atlas tool Sick Time Reporting (Salaried Staff).

The bank is calculated based on the employee's hire date (or adjusted hire date—the same date used for monthly vacation accruals), using a formula of 12 days of sick leave per year of service as of December 31, 2020 and percent effort in effect as of December 31, 2020.

  • The maximum amount of sick time credited is 132 days (6 months)
  • The minimum amount of sick time credited is 20 days
  • Crediting is pro-rated for part-time employees
  • For partial years, credit will be given for full months of service since the last anniversary date.
  • The sick leave bank is available for use as of January 1, 2021

Examples:

  • Salaried employees with an anniversary date of 4/1/20 were credited with 20 days of sick leave (the minimum).
  • Salaried employees with an anniversary date of 12/30/2015 (5 years of service) were credited with 60 days of sick leave.
  • Salaried employees with an anniversary date of 10/15/2013 (7 years + 2 full months of service) were credited with 86 days of sick leave.
  • Any salaried staff member with 11 or more years of service were credited with the maximum accrual of 132 days.

Transitional Salaried Serious Illness Pay for current salaried staff

For salaried staff who were employed on December 31, 2020, MIT provides Transitional Salaried Serious Illness Pay at 100% of pay if the employee has a serious health condition on or after January 1, 2021. This reflects the fact that before 2021, those salaried staff could be paid for up to 6 months of sick leave at 100% pay.

Those staff can choose to:

  • Use their sick time (100% pay) down to 20 days (that is, the sick leave balance does not drop below 20 days), and then be paid Transitional Salaried Serious Illness Pay, paid at 100% pay
    • If an employee’s balance is less than 20 days as of the beginning of the leave, they will be paid Transitional Salaried Serious Illness Pay (at 100% of pay) from the beginning of the serious health condition
  • Use less or none of their sick leave, and be paid using regular Serious Illness Reduced Pay (SIRP) at 80% of pay
    • An employee who wishes to preserve more sick time might choose this option
    • For example, an employee with a balance of 60 sick days might chose to use 25 sick days (at 100% pay) then move to 80% SIRP, thus preserving 35 days as their sick leave balance

The Transitional Salaried Serious Illness Pay will expire in 5 years, on December 31, 2025.

Changes to how sick time is accrued and viewing of personal time balances

In 2021, support staff will continue be credited with 12 days of sick time per year, but the timing of the credit will move from annual to monthly. Additionally, personal leave balances are no longer listed separately from sick leave balances on employee pay statements (this change affects only how the balance is displayed; the policy has not changed). Learn more.

New absence type codes for support staff

See an explanation of the various absence type codes for approvers to use when completing timesheets for hourly employees.

Sick time tracking tool

Sick bank balances are available in Atlas. To track your sick time, use the link below and then select Sick Time Reporting (Semimonthly Paid Staff).

Sick Time Tracking

Have Questions?

Need help? Email leavepolicies@mit.edu.