Q. I am scheduled to retire on December 18, 2015. I will have approximately 330 hours of unused annual leave. What are the advantages and/or disadvantages of retiring on this date instead of waiting until December 31, 2015?
A. If you retired on the 18th, you’d be retiring in the middle of a pay period and would get no credit for any annual or sick leave you would have earned if you’d stayed to the end of the pay period. That pay period ends on December 26. If you retired then, the gap between when you retire and the start of the new leave year (which begins on January 10) would be shorter. While any days of unused, annual leave falling before that date would be paid at the 2015 hourly rate, any days falling on or after that date would be paid at the higher 2016 hourly rate.
