Trends in time off with pay can vary from public (i.e. not for profit) and private (i.e. for profit) sector organizations. Usually public sector employees are governed by benefits that separate vacation, sick, personal days, jury duty, funeral leave etcetera. Private sector employers primarily utilize Paid Time Off (PTO) that lump all of the instances of needing time off in a time bank that each employee is responsible for maintaining. Time off with pay is a topic that is regularly evaluated throughout organizations today. In this paper I will be discussing the paid time off benefits that are offered to public employees. Generally in the public sector and in some instances in the private sector as well, time off with pay methods separate the different types of time off in categories such as vacation leave, sick leave and personal days off. There are a variety of leave types that apply to these methods as well. Organizations also allow time off for jury duty, bereavement, sick time, holidays and off site training to name a few. These types of leave groups require managers and supervisors to manage the usage of each time category and often times a log is used to track why the time was extended. This can prove to be very time consuming depending on the type of organization you work for. In terms of paid time off, public sector employees are awarded substantial amounts of paid time off, including approximately 13 days of sick leave per year, 10 paid federal holidays and up to 26 days of paid vacation per year, contingent upon the number of years of service. Other trends in paid benefits are the option to work flexible schedules, otherwise known as Alternative Work Schedules (AWS). AWS options include compressed work schedules, Flext... ... middle of paper ... ... without the constraints of commuting far distances, thus saving money as well. Other benefits aligned with paid time off is sick leave awarded in 4 hour increments per pay period with no limit on accruals. Employees may use this time to attend medical appointments for themselves and dependents. The sick leave bank is also used for bereavement (up to 5 days) and funeral (up to 3 days) time off when unfortunate deaths occur. Jury duty is another benefit where public employees are allotted time to attend court related services without charge to any of the leave banks. This time off is consider Authorized Absence (AA) and the organization absorbs the employees pay for the time off. Other ancillary benefits include time off for voting when schedules conflict with voting hours. Inclement weather allows for delays in start time with no charge to any of the leave banks.
The Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993 (FMLA) provides certain employees with up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave and job protection for childbirth, adoption or foster care; to care for a seriously ill child, spouse, or parent; or for an employee’s own serious illness (Cañas & Sondak, 2011). It also requires that their group health benefits remain intact during the unpaid leave of absence. The employee must have worked for the employer for at least a year and must have earned 1,250 hours of service during the previous 12 months ((Cañas & Sondak, 2011, pg. 70).
Arizona employers who do not currently offer paid sick time will be required to start accruing as of July 1, 2017. There has been an enormous amount of debate over whether there is a need to offer sick time, especially to employees who have paid time off which can be used for anything, including sick days. On the other hand, there is a significant need for employees who are not offered any paid sick time or paid time off. You will find a mix of employees and employers on either side and sometimes on both sides of this debate. Few will change their opinion when they think of themselves as the employee versus the employer and vice versa. Employers and employees have raised concerns alike regarding whether providing days specifically denoted as sick will encourage more unplanned days off, will negatively impact those that do not get sick, and whether it is fair to require sick time versus paid time off in which we can all agree everyone should have paid sick time when the
The FMLA was passed to help families in the time of a crisis so that the individuals would not have to choose between work and personal responsibilities. The eligible employees are permitted to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons. The leave can last up to twelve workweeks in any twelve-month period. Reasons for leave include: pregnancy, prenatal complications, adoption/ fostering of a child, hospitalization, care of an immediate family member, or a health condition that makes the employee unable to do his or her job (Solis). This law applies to any employer “engaging in commerce” ...
FMLA/DPL leave is available on a consecutive, reduced schedule or intermittent basis for up to twelve workweeks only for specific trigger events:
at some point all employees will eventually need time off from work to deal with either a serious personal illness or other family obligations. “Many European nations took to the idea of making balancing family and work easier for employees but the movement did not gain momentum in the United States until the late 60s and 70s when working women were no longer the minority” (AAUW). There was a general shift in the nature of the common everyday american household and a two income household was slowly but surely becoming the new reality of american life.
The qualifications will be based on one’s performance, time with the company, and more importantly, need-based. According to Etizion (2003), vacations improve the quality of one’s personal life and an employee’s job performance. If the employee who believes they are in need more time away from work due to feeling burned out or overworked, permitting them to purchase additional vacation time can aid in their performance and involvement with their company. Paying for more vacation time will be based how much money is contributed to their employee spending account. This is different from regular vacation time where one is automatically paid for their 2-3 weeks of PTO time per year. Instead, my solution is to offer a need-based break at one’s will, and that is paid for by the employee. I believe this solution upholds ethical standards because it can allow the company to consider the worker’s well-being and
The FMLA benefits the employee by allowing an individual to take up to 12 workweeks off if their situation is one of the reasons covered under FMLA. Accumulated sick leave and vacation time can be used in conjunction with the FMLA period of absence, but once the pay benefits run out, the employer is not required to pay the employee for the rest of the time the employee is on the FMLA leave of absence.
Offering employee benefits is one way a company must competes in today’s marketplace to retain old employees and attracts new ones. These benefit packages may range from offering basic health insurance to additional discretionary and perk benefits such as vacation and retirement packages. Benefit packages are often a large portion of employee costs and Federal mandates require an employer to carry and offer certain benefits even if they offer nothing else. Federally required employee benefits make up approximately a quarter of the costs associated with employer offered benefit packages. Some of these mandated benefits include Social Security, Worker’s Compensation Insurance, and the Family Medical Leave Act.
One of the new and best benefits that Netflix HR now offers their employees is they have unlimited vacation days. They have this because HR helps keep track of how well they are doing and that their jobs are getting done. The feel like the workers will get more done in a faster amount of time because they will want more time off. So as long as your job is getting done to HR approval they will let you take off as much time as you
Reduces unscheduled absences––this benefit saves employers money. According to Lister, 78% of employees who take sick time, aren’t really sick, but do so due to family issues, stress or other personal problems. Unscheduled absences cost employers an average of $1,800/employee/year; that adds up to $300 billion/year for U.S. companies
However, it is up to each state to declare its own holidays. Just because there is a national holiday does not mean employers have to give their workers the day off.
Schliwen, A., Earle, A., Hayes, J. and Heymann, S., 2011. The administration and financing of paid sick leave. International Labour Review, 150 (1-2), pp. 43-62.
The article is structured with an introduction and conclusion and lists the five destructive policies with bullet points in the body of the article. The first policy is the time-off policy; the author feels that the company and employers should understand their employees’ personal requirements. If an employee needs time off then the organization should do their best to accommodate them. The author feels that this policy is unfair because, “…It broadcasts to employees that "your personal life has no value to us; invest your mental and emotional energy in us accordingly." (Ryan)
Benefits, such as paid time off (PTO), are financial rewards that organizations “offer in exchange for employee contributions” (Cascio, 2013, p. 422). Hourly employees of many organizations earn PTO based on the number of hours that they work. My previous employer utilized this type of PTO system. The employees of our department greatly depended on our administrative assistant, to not only complete routine tasks, but we also expected her to be readily available to assist with any immediate needs. The administrative assistant was an hourly employee that used her PTO on a weekly basis. From an HR perspective, according to the number of hours she worked every week, she earned that time off; however, the time she spent at work was not utilized
Nowadays, the numbers of students who are always looking for a part time job while they are attending college is increasing every day. According to an article was published in 1998 on The Futurist, the number of students who have a part-time job increased from 5% of students in the 1950s to almost 70% of the students in some communities (“Jobs hurt school performance” n. page). Because of a bunch of fee and cost that students have to handle, working during college seems to be a necessity than an option. The part-time jobs provide not only paychecks but also experience, skills for the students. It is very helpful for the students after they graduate college and look for a real job. Although there are some people who argue that having a job during