Your Compliance Edge

Paid Leave Terms

- C -

Consolidated leave plans: Plans that provide a single amount of time off for workers to use for any of a number of purposes, such as vacation, illness, or personal business.

- F -

Family leave: Family leave is granted to an employee to care for a family member and includes paid maternity and paternity leave. The leave may be available to care for a newborn child, an adopted child, a sick child, or a sick adult relative. Paid family leave is given in addition to any sick leave, vacation, personal leave, or short-term disability leave that is available to the employee.

Funeral leave: Time off from work due to a death in the family. The period of absence is usually limited to a few days (for example, 3 paid days for immediate family and 1 paid day for other relatives).

- H -

Holidays: Holidays are days off from work on days of special religious, cultural, social, or patriotic significance on which work and business ordinarily cease. Employees may receive either full or partial pay for holidays.

- J -

Jury duty leave: Jury duty leave provides a paid absence from work when one is summoned to serve as a juror. Employer payments commonly make up the difference between the employee's regular pay and the court's jury allowance.

- L -

Leisure leave: Paid vacation, paid holidays, and paid personal leave.

- M -

Military leave: Military leave is paid absence from work to fulfill military commitments. Pay may be either regular pay or the difference between employees' regular earnings and the amount they receive from the military.

- P -

Personal leave: Personal leave is a general purpose leave benefit, used for reasons important to the individual employee, but not otherwise provided for by other forms of leave. Some employers place restrictions on the purposes for which personal leave may be used.

- S -

Sick leave: Sick leave provides all or part of an employee's earnings if he or she is unable to work because of a non-work-related illness or injury. Employees commonly receive their regular pay for a specified number of days off per year. Sick leave is provided on a per-year basis, usually expressed in days, and is never insured.

- U -

Unpaid family leave: This leave is granted to an employee to care for a family member. The leave may be used to care for a newborn child, an adopted child, a sick child, or a sick adult relative. A typical family leave plan extends leave without pay to an employee for a period of several months while the employee cares for the family member. The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) of 1993 is a Federal law providing unpaid job-protected leave to eligible workers for the care of their families or themselves for specified family and medical conditions. The FMLA provides eligible workers with up to 12 workweeks of unpaid leave per year for the birth, adoption, or foster care placement of a child; care of a spouse, son, daughter, or parent with a serious health condition; or the employee's own serious health condition resulting in an inability to work. Employers with fewer than 50 employees at a worksite (and within 75 miles of that worksite) are excluded from FMLA.

- V -

Vacation: Vacations are leave from work (or pay in lieu of time off) provided on an annual basis and normally taken in blocks of days or weeks. Paid vacations commonly are granted to employees only after they meet specified service requirements. The amount of vacation leave received each year usually varies with length of service. Vacation time off normally is paid at full pay or partial pay, or it may be a percentage of employee earnings.