Q. Can you please comment on any pros and cons to retiring Nov. 29, 2014? I will have a prior balance of 208 hours of annual leave and 192 hours in 2014 accumulated as of that date and do not want to forfeit the use-or-lose balance.
A. Nov. 29, 2014, is the end of a pay period, so you would get credit for any annual and sick leave earned during the preceding two weeks. You would also be on the annuity roll in December. At the end of November 2015, you would have been retired for an entire year and, therefore, entitled to a full cost-of-living adjustment to your annuity, which would be included in your January 2016 annuity payment. Finally, retiring before the end of the 2014 fiscal year would mean that you’d receive a lump-sum payment for all of your unused annual leave. That leave would be projected forward as if you were still on the payroll. Therefore, any of those hours that fell after the 2015 pay increase went into effect would be paid at the new hourly rate.
