Employee Benefits

Paid Leave - Vacation and Holiday Benefits

The University grants paid leave benefits to eligible employee groups. Employees may earn vacation, sick leave and personal holidays in addition to nine legal holidays.

Eligibility for Paid Leave

The following UW employees are eligible for paid leave benefits:

  • Classified permanent and project employees
  • Unclassified faculty, academic staff and limited appointees who are expected to work at least 21% (annual basis/12-month appointment) or 28% (academic year/9-month appointment) for at least one year. Academic year employees are eligible for sick leave and legal holidays only (not eligible for vacation or personal holiday hours)
  • Once an employee becomes eligible to earn leave, the employee will continue to earn leave in all subsequent UW employment unless the employment is terminated for 12 or more consecutive months or the employee receives a distribution from the Wisconsin Retirement System.

Limited Term Employees (LTEs) are not eligible for any type of paid leave.

Legal Holidays

State and university offices are closed on the following LEGAL HOLIDAYS:

  • New Year's Day (January 1st)
  • Martin Luther King Jr Day (Third Monday of January)
  • Memorial Day (Last Monday in May)
  • July 4th
  • Labor Day (First Monday in September)
  • Thanksgiving (Fourth Thursday in November)
  • Christmas Eve (December 24th)
  • Christmas Day (December 25th)
  • New Year's Eve (December 31st)

Full-time employees earn eight hours of leave for each legal holiday. Part-time employees earn a prorated amount. To be eligible to be paid for a legal holiday, you must be in a leave-earning position, be an active employee on the holiday and do at least one of the following:

  • Work or use paid leave on the last scheduled work day immediately before the holiday; or
  • Work or use paid leave on the first scheduled work day immediately following the holiday; or
  • Work on the holiday.

If a legal holiday falls on a Sunday, the legal holiday is observed and the UW is closed on the following Monday. If a legal holiday falls on a Saturday or you are required to work on a legal holiday, you will be given floating legal holiday hours that can be used at any time prior to the end of the calendar (classified employees) or fiscal (unclassified employees) year in which the floating legal holiday hours were earned.

Note: Academic year (nine-month) employees are only eligible for legal holidays that fall within the academic year.

Personal Holidays

Most employees* in a leave-earning position earn 36 hours of personal holiday per year (prorated if part-time). Personal holiday hours are available for immediate use (can be used during a probationary period).

  • Classified employees - earned on a calendar year basis; must be used by the end of the calendar year in which earned or hours will be lost. If you terminate employment prior to the completion of your original probationary period, personal holiday hours will be prorated for the calendar year in which the termination occurs.
  • Unclassified employees - earned on a fiscal year basis; must be used by the end of the fiscal year in which earned or hours will be lost.

*Employees who have an unclassified academic year/nine-month position or who hold a Crafts worker position in schedule 04 do not earn personal holiday hours.

Vacation, Sabbatical and Cash-Payouts - Classified Employees

Vacation (Annual Leave)

    • Vacation is allocated on a calendar-year basis. If vacation is not used within the year it is earned, it can be carried over until December 31st of the following year.
    • The annual number of vacation hours received is based on years of continuous state/UW service, whether or not you are exempt from the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and your appointment percentage.
    • You may begin using vacation leave after you complete your original six-month probationary period.
    • Employees who previously worked for the UW or State of Wisconsin who return to a leave-eligible position within five years, may use vacation immediately and will earn leave based on years of continuous state/UW service (adjusted for the break in service).
    • You may use vacation before it is earned; however, at the termination of employment, the University will recover the value of vacation used but not yet earned.
    • All classified permanent and project employees (except Crafts Workers) earn leave per the schedule below (prorated if part-time). Crafts workers should refer to the compensation plan for vacation information (referred to as "annual leave" in the compensation plan)
Classified Vacation Schedule
Years of Service
 FLSA Non-Exempt FLSA Exempt
First 5 Years
104 Hours
120 Hours
5+ to 10 Years
144 Hours
160 Hours
10+ to 15 Years
160 Hours
176 Hours
15+ to 20 Years
184 Hours
200 Hours
20+ to 25 Years
200 Hours
216 Hours
25+ Years
216 Hours
216 Hours

Banking Sabbatical Leave and Cash Payouts of Leave

    • Eligible employees can transfer unused vacation hours into a sabbatical account to use at a future date (hours do not expire).
    • Unused sabbatical accumulates from year to year without limit.
    • With your supervisor's approval, sabbatical hours can be used at any time (can use in any circumstance where you are allowed to use paid leave).
    • Any unused sabbatical at the termination of employment will be paid to you at your current hourly rate as a lump sum payment.
    • Once you begin earning 200 hours of vacation per year, you are eligible to receive a portion of the amount of leave you can place into sabbatical as a cash payout. For example, if you are eligible to bank 80 hours of vacation, you could receive 40 hours as a cash payout and put 40 hours into sabbatical.
    • The option to bank vacation hours into sabbatical and/or receive a cash payout of up to 40 hours of vacation is offered to eligible employees in late fall of each year.
    • Employees may begin banking hours into sabbatical per the schedule below.
Classified Sabbatical Banking Schedule
Years of Service
FLSA Non-Exempt
FLSA Exempt
First 5 Years
0 hours
0 hours
5+ to 10 Years
0 hours
40 hours
10+ to 15 Years
40 hours
40 hours
15+ to 20 Years
40 hours
80 hours*
20+ to 25 Years
80 hours*
120 hours*
25+ Years
120 hours*
120 hours*
Earn < 160 hrs of vacation & have accrued at least 520 hrs of sick leave
40 hours
40 hours

*You may receive up to 40 hours of the amount of leave eligible for banking as a cash payout.

Note: If your anniversary falls in the middle of the year, you are allowed the banking and/or cash-out privilege in that calendar year

Vacation and Annual Leave Reserve Account (ALRA) - Unclassified Employees

Vacation (Annual Leave) (12-month pay basis personnel only)

    • Vacation is allocated on a fiscal-year basis. If vacation is not used within the fiscal year it is earned, it can be carried over until the end of the following fiscal year.
    • Full-time, twelve-month pay basis employees earn 22 days (176 hours) per year (pro-rated if part-time).
    • You may use vacation before it is earned; however, at the termination of employment, the University will recover the value of vacation used but not yet earned.

Annual Leave Reserve Account (ALRA)

Unclassified employees in an annual (twelve-month) appointment who have completed 10 or more years of continuous service to the State of Wisconsin in appointments earning vacation or as an unclassified UW employee covered by the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) have the option to bank unused vacation.

  • Eligible employees can transfer unused vacation hours into an ALRA account to use at a future date (hours do not expire).
  • Unused hours in ALRA accumulate from year to year without limit.
  • With your supervisor's approval, ALRA hours can be used at any time (can use in any circumstance where you are allowed to use paid leave).
  • Any unused ALRA at the termination of employment will be paid to you at your current wage rate as a lump sum payment.
  • If eligible, you are offered the banking option in July following the fiscal year in which you qualify.
  • Banking Schedule (amount of leave that can be banked is prorated if part-time)
    • You are allowed to bank up to 40 hours of vacation into ALRA per year at the beginning of your 11th fiscal year of employment.
    • You are allowed to bank up to 80 hours of vacation into ALRA per year at the beginning of your 26th fiscal year of employment.
  • There is no vacation cash payout provision for unclassified employees. This provision was suspended in 2003.

Leave Reporting

  • Classified employees - leave must be reported on a bi-weekly basis when time worked is reported.
  • Unclassified employees - leave reported on a monthly basis. See UPG 9.10 for details about how leave should be reported.

Leave Authority

 

This document was last revised on May 22, 2012

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