Q. I will have 15 years of federal service on Dec. 7, and have been looking forward to accruing eight hours of leave per pay period. Because my service computation date falls in the middle of a pay period, I am expecting to have to wait to start accruing my eight hours during the next full pay period starting Dec. 16. Because my SCD is so late in the calendar year, I am starting to feel like I won’t really benefit from my accrual “upgrade” until two full pay periods later. Here’s my logic:
If I remained (hypothetically) at six hours per pay period for the rest of the calendar year, I’d get six hours for pay period 26 and then 10 for pay period 27 for a total of 16 hours. In contrast, after my accrual change to eight hours per pay period, I’ll get eight hours for both pay periods 26 and 27 for a total of 16 hours. It seems that it wouldn’t be until the first pay period of next year that I’d actually start to benefit. Do I understand this correctly?
A. By law, the waiting periods for advancing to steps 2, 3, and 4 is 53 calendar weeks, to steps, 5, 6, and 7, 104 calendar weeks, and to steps 8, 9, and 10 156 calendar weeks. Check with your payroll office to find out when the change in your leave accrual rate will be effective.
