A leave of absence is time during which your employer authorized you to be absent from some or all of your duties. Leave of absence types include:
- Educational
- Maternity/Paternity
- Sabbatical
- Serious illness
- Service
- Temporary disability
Each leave of absence period must be requested separately.
Eligibility
You may be able to purchase service credit for a leave of absence if you're an active or inactive CalPERS member. Eligibility depends on the type of leave and employer contract. You must have been a CalPERS member at the time you took the leave of absence.
You can't purchase service credit for a leave of absence if:
- The leave was not approved by your employer.
- Your leave of absence was not for one of the types listed above.
- You're retired.
Requirements
An educational leave is time off to pursue higher education.
- You can purchase a maximum of two years of service credit even if the combined total of your educational leaves exceeds two years.
- You must be a state or California State University (CSU) employee both before and on your return from the leave.
Maternity/Paternity leave is time off after the birth or adoption of a child.
- You can purchase up to one year of service credit per leave of absence period.
- You can't purchase service if you've already earned a full year of credit (10 full-time months) during that fiscal year (July 1 through June 30).
- You must return to active CalPERS-covered employment at the end of the approved leave and remain in CalPERS-covered employment at least the same amount of time as the leave of absence.
A sabbatical leave is time off to pursue personal academic career goals.
- There is no maximum amount of service credit you can purchase.
- You must have been partially compensated during the leave of absence.
- You must return to active CalPERS-covered employment at the end of your approved leave of absence.
A serious illness leave is time off because of your own serious illness or injury.
- There is no maximum amount of service credit you can purchase.
- You must return to active CalPERS-covered employment at the end of the approved leave.
- Your employer must certify you were approved for a leave because of your own serious illness or injury.
Service leave is time off to serve with a college or university; local, state, federal, or foreign government agency; or certain nonprofit organizations.
- You can purchase a maximum of two years of service credit for each service leave.
- You must return to active CalPERS-covered employment with the employer from which the leave was granted, or immediately retire after your leave of absence. If the leave was from a CSU, the employer you return to could include any campus within the CSU system.
Temporary disability leave is time off while receiving temporary disability payments from a workers' compensation carrier because of a job-related injury or illness.
- There's no limit to the amount of service credit you can purchase.
- Forward the Worker’s Compensation Certification (PDF) to the appropriate carrier that provided the temporary disability benefits and upload the completed form to myCalPERS within 45 days of submitting your request electronically.
Cost
Non-Temporary Disability
The cost for all non-temporary disability leave of absence types is calculated using the present value method, which is based on:
- Your highest monthly full-time pay rate
- Estimated future final compensation
- Projected retirement benefit increase
Determining the increase to your future benefits involves a number of actuarial assumptions, including the projected age at retirement, life expectancy, salary inflation, and the assumed rate of return on investments. These assumptions are the same as those used to ensure all our benefits are adequately funded.
Temporary Disability
The cost for temporary disability leave of absence is calculated using the pay and contribution rate method, which is based on your pay rate and contribution rate on the date you return to employment (after the leave), or the date prior to your leave if you immediately retired. Interest will be compounded annually until you elect to make the purchase.
