Leave Calculator

Federal vs. military leave accrual

Federal civilians and military members earn leave on different clocks. Worth knowing if you've worked both sides of the house.

Federal civilians accrue annual leave based on years of service, governed by 5 U.S.C. § 6303:

• Less than 3 years: 4 hours per pay period (13 days/year)
• 3 to 15 years: 6 hours per pay period, plus an extra 4 hours in the last pay period of the calendar year (20 days/year)
• 15+ years: 8 hours per pay period (26 days/year)

Sick leave is separate and runs flat — 4 hours per pay period regardless of service length, no cap.

Military members accrue at a flat rate: 2.5 days per month, every month, every grade. Thirty days a year. There's no longevity bump — an E-3 with two years and an O-6 with twenty years earn leave at the same rate. Rules live in DoD FMR Vol 7A, Ch 35.

For prior-service feds (or feds heading into uniform), this is the gap that surprises people most. A 16-year fed pulling 26 days/year doesn't get an equivalent bump on the uniformed side. The 2.5/month rate is flat for life.

Use-or-lose and carryover caps

Both systems cap how much you can stockpile, but the caps and consequences differ.

Federal civilians: 240-hour (30-day) carryover into the next leave year. Anything over 240 gets forfeited at the leave-year boundary, which typically falls in early January. SES, SL, and ST members get a higher 720-hour ceiling. Overseas employees get 360. No mid-career sell-back mechanism — excess just disappears.

Military: 60-day carryover into the next fiscal year (Oct 1). Anything over 60 becomes use-or-lose during the year it's accrued. The Special Leave Accrual (SLA) program lets members in combat zones or qualifying contingency operations carry up to 120 days for a limited window, but it has to be approved and tracked — not automatic.

This matters most when you're staring at retirement. Timing your separation date relative to the leave-year boundary, the pay-period calendar, and any pending step or promotion can swing the lump-sum payout by thousands. Don't separate mid-November if you can separate the first week of January.

Lump-sum payout at retirement

Federal civilians who separate get unused annual leave paid out as a lump sum at their final hourly rate, locality included. The calculation actually projects forward — any within-grade step, locality bump, or January pay raise that would have occurred during the period your leave covers gets baked into the payout. Pin a step or grade in your last pay period and the entire payout reflects that higher number — which is why people work the calendar.

Military is different. You can sell back unused leave at your basic pay rate only (no BAH, no BAS) at 1/30th of monthly basic per day. The lifetime career cap is 60 days. Most retirees split the difference: take some as terminal leave to collect full pay plus allowances, sell back the rest.

Tax treatment: Both are supplemental wages. Federal lump-sum annual leave is subject to federal income tax, state tax (where applicable), and FICA (Social Security + Medicare). Military leave sell-back gets the same treatment — federal income tax plus FICA — because basic pay is FICA-eligible compensation. Common misconception worth correcting: military retirement pension is FICA-exempt, but sell-back paid at the basic pay rate is not. The one real exception is Combat Zone Tax Exclusion leave — if you accrued it in a CZTE zone, that portion is federal-tax-free when sold back.

Model the payout against your bracket before you separate. The tax calculator handles the supplemental-wage math.