Q. I plan on retiring Jan. 11 or Feb. 22. With the 1 percent raise starting in January, wouldn’t it be better to wait until the February date to get the max from my 240 hours of use-or-lose leave, or would it not make a difference?
A. There wouldn’t be any difference in the lump-sum payment you’d receive. The pay increase would be effective on the first pay period beginning on or after Jan. 1 — that means Jan. 12. The big difference would be in the amount of salary you received by staying on the employment roll for 11 days versus 22 days when compared to the gap between when you retire and when your annuity begins. I’ll leave the arithmetic to you.
