Federal Leave Calculator

• 2026 leave year: January 11, 2026 through January 9, 2027, 26 pay periods. A leave year begins on the first day of the first complete pay period of the calendar year and ends the day before the first complete pay period of the next one (5 CFR 630.201).
• Forfeiture date: annual leave above your ceiling that you have not used by January 9, 2027 is lost (5 U.S.C. 6304(a)). Your 2026 ceiling is 240 hours for most employees.
• Scheduling deadline: November 28, 2026. Forfeited leave can be restored for an exigency of the public business or the employee's sickness only if it was scheduled in writing before the start of the third biweekly pay period before the end of the leave year (5 U.S.C. 6304(d); 5 CFR 630.308). That is NFC pay period 24, which starts November 29, 2026. OPM's leave year table lists November 28, 2026 for 2026.
• The next year: the 2027 leave year runs January 10, 2027 through January 8, 2028 and its scheduling deadline is November 27, 2027.

Restoration is not automatic. An agency can restore leave lost to administrative error, an exigency or sickness. Leave lost because the office closed or an executive order gave time off is not restored (OPM, Annual Leave fact sheet). Restored leave goes into a separate account and must be used by the end of the leave year that ends 2 years after the date of restoration, the date the exigency ended, or the date you were determined to be recovered and able to return to duty (5 CFR 630.306).

Agency calendars: the leave year is defined by regulation for everyone, but its dates depend on your payroll provider's pay period schedule. OPM says some agency payroll systems use a different schedule and tells employees to check with their agency. The NFC, GSA and Interior Business Center calendars used here share the same biweekly periods. See the 2026 pay period calendar for the periods.

Choose 360 hours (overseas, 5 U.S.C. 6304(b)) or 720 hours (SES, SL and ST, 6304(f)) in the calculator. If you have a personal ceiling, which 6304(c) lets you keep for leave accumulated under an earlier or higher ceiling and which shrinks as you use more than you earn, choose the personal ceiling option and enter the figure from your agency.

Sources: 5 U.S.C. 6303(a), 5 CFR 630.303 and OPM's Annual Leave fact sheet.

• Full pay periods only. Leave accrues for each full biweekly pay period you are in a pay status, or a mix of pay and nonpay status (5 CFR 630.202). Part-time hours above the 80 hours of a pay period are ignored.
• Years of service count all creditable civilian service, military service for most non-retired members, and any credit your agency grants for prior work (5 U.S.C. 6303(a), (e); 5 CFR 630.205). Use your service computation date for leave from your SF-50.
• Rate changes: a change at 3 or 15 years takes effect at the beginning of the pay period after the pay period in which you complete the service (5 U.S.C. 6303(c)). The calculator counts you as having completed 3 years on the day before your third anniversary, so the pay period containing that day is still at the old rate.
• The 10-hour period (the sources disagree): with 3 to under 15 years you earn 10 hours instead of 6 in "the last full biweekly pay period in the year" (5 U.S.C. 6303(a)(2)). OPM's Annual Leave fact sheet footnote and NFC TIME 181 say the last full pay period of the calendar year, which is NFC pay period 25 in 2026 (December 13 to 26, since pay period 26 ends January 9, 2027). OPM CPM 2012-08 says the last pay period of the leave year, which is pay period 26. The calculator assumes the calendar-year reading, which two sources including the NFC calendar support, and lets you switch. Either way the leave year earns 160 hours; only the period that pays 10 hours moves. Confirm with your Leave and Earnings Statement.
• SES, senior-level and scientific or professional: 8 hours a pay period regardless of service (5 U.S.C. 6303(f)); OPM can extend this to equivalent pay systems.

Sick leave accrues at 4 hours for each full biweekly pay period (104 hours in a 26-period leave year), or 1 hour for each 20 hours in a pay status for part-time employees (5 U.S.C. 6307(a); OPM Sick Leave fact sheet). It carries over with no limit.

For an immediate CSRS or FERS annuity, or a survivor annuity based on a death in service, unused sick leave is added to your service (OPM Sick Leave fact sheet). FERS credit is 100% for a separation on or after January 1, 2014 (5 U.S.C. 8415(m)); it was 50% from October 28, 2009 through December 31, 2013. A deferred annuity gets no sick leave credit. OPM's chart 2 converts hours to time using a 2,087-hour year: 2,087 hours is 1 year and 1,571 hours is 9 months and 1 day. The calculator uses the same conversion as the FERS retirement calculator, where you can see what the added time does to your annuity.

The credit only increases the annuity. It does not help you meet the age and service requirements, it is not in your high-3, and it is not paid in cash. Sick leave is not part of the lump-sum payment.

When you separate from federal service, your agency pays you for unused annual leave (5 U.S.C. 5551(a)). The payment equals the pay you would have received had you stayed in service until the leave ran out. Your agency projects the leave over your tour-of-duty hours starting the first workday after separation, counts holidays as workdays and does not extend the period for them (5 CFR 550.1204). The calculator assumes a standard schedule of five 8-hour weekdays, which OPM allows for flexible schedules; part-time and compressed schedules are projected by their own tour-of-duty hours, so the period and the split around a pay adjustment can differ.

The rate is your rate of basic pay, including locality pay or a special rate, divided by 2,087 and rounded to the cent (5 CFR 550.1205(a)). Pay adjustments that take effect during the lump-sum period apply from their effective date. OPM's example: an employee who separated Friday, January 3, 2025 with 240 hours was paid 40 hours at the old rate and 200 hours at the new rate because the January 2025 raise took effect on January 12. Enter an expected adjustment in the calculator to see the same split. The GS tables here are 2026 rates: for a last day on or after January 10, 2027 the calculator raises the 2026 rate once by the percentage you enter. Other included pay, such as availability pay, is not estimated here. The payment is not subject to retirement, FEHB, FEGLI or TSP deductions but is taxable (5 CFR 550.1205(f); 5 U.S.C. 5551(a)). See the GS pay calculator for your rate.

Leave above your ceiling is only paid if you separate before the leave year ends. OPM's example: 288 hours with a 240-hour ceiling is paid in full for a January 6, 2026 separation, but only 240 hours after the 2025 leave year ended on January 10, 2026. If you return to federal service before the period ends you repay part of the payment and the hours are recredited.

Checked: date rules checked against OPM's 2012 through 2030 leave year table (start, end and scheduling deadline), the accrual and ceiling tables in OPM's Annual Leave fact sheet, the Sick Leave accrual table, and OPM's lump-sum examples A and C.

Out of scope, not approximated:

• Firefighters and other uncommon tours of duty, which use different accrual rules (5 CFR 630.210)
• Part-time accrual is shown to the hundredth of an hour; some agencies credit whole hours and carry the remainder, so your statement can differ by a fraction of an hour
• Leave without pay and nonpay status over 80 hours in a leave year, which reduce accrual (5 CFR 630.208), and fractional pay periods for new hires (5 CFR 630.204)
• Restored annual leave, its separate account and time limits (5 U.S.C. 6304(d); 5 CFR 630.306 to 630.310)
• Advanced leave, leave transfer and donation, and FMLA leave
• Military leave and annual leave while on active duty
• Employees outside 5 U.S.C. chapter 63, such as Postal Service employees
• Lump-sum premium pay, within-grade increases and foreign or nonforeign area allowances; the lump-sum refund on reemployment