• Employee Handbook: Leaves from Work
• Request for Leave of Absence Form (PDF)
• Certification of Health Care Provider (PDF)

As part of our continuing effort to advance the wellbeing of employees, we are making a change to the vacation accrual for nonexempt staff who are eligible for benefits. This change will bring vacation accrual into alignment with exempt staff, effective January 1, 2025. We are making this change recognizing the importance for all staff members to have regular time away from work to maintain health and wellbeing. This need exists regardless of nonexempt or exempt status. 

Employees with an assigned FTE of 0.50 or greater, with appointments of greater than six months, are eligible for vacation, pro-rated based on FTE. Vacation accrual rates for non-exempt staff vary based on years of service at Macalester.

Vacation time is accrued at the rate of .0924 per compensated hour. For non-exempt staff, the accrual rate will cap at 77.50 hours worked in a pay period. You are able to carry over up to 24 months of accruals and cannot exceed 372 hours in any given month (prorated by FTE).

Important Note: Members of Macalester’s collective bargaining units (CBU) should refer to collective bargaining contract in force for paid leaves of absences polices.

Table below is reflective of a 1.00 FTE

Vacation Time Accumulation

• When claiming vacation, non-exempt staff should record time utilized in ¼ hour increments (i.e. .25, .50, and .75) and exempt staff may utilize time in two hour increments.
• Cash payment may not be made in lieu of paid time benefits. In addition, time off benefits will not be paid in excess of authorized hours.

Calculations

For employees who are below a 1.00 FTE, we have provided two calculations to help you understand your annualized vacation accruals. When you are doing the calculations, they will not return an even number and will want to round to the nearest quarter.

• Annual hours accrued: 186 x FTE
• Annual days accrued: (186 x FTE) / 7.75

Example 1: Mary’s FTE is 0.83 and they want to understand how many days of vacation time they will earn. Mary would use the following equation: 186 x 0.83 = 154.38 -> 154.50 hours accrued. Then to find the number of days those hours are equivalent to, they would take 154.50 / 7.75  = 19.93 -> 20 days. Mary will receive approximately 20 days of vacation a year.

Example 2: Blake’s FTE is 0.75. How many hours and equivalent days of vacation will he receive? Blake would use the following equation to figure out the total hours he will accrue: 186 x 0.75 = 139.50 hours accrued. Then to find the number of days those hours are equivalent to, he would take 139.50 / 7.75 = 18 days. Blake will receive 18 days of vacation a year.

Note: For non-exempt employees, accruals are based on actual hours worked. If you work fewer hours, the accrual will be calculated based on those hours and will result in a lower per pay period accrual amount which will impact your annualized hours. The calculations above are to give you an estimate of the annual accruals based on your positions assigned FTE.

Recording Hours

Employees record hours in their timesheet or leave report and will record the total hours used for that day. If you are recording a full day that will be equaled to the number of hours the employee is normally scheduled to work on the day they select to use vacation.

Example 1: Quinn’s work schedule is not the same each day. They work 9 hours on Mondays and Tuesdays, 5 hours on Wednesdays and Fridays, and 4 hours on Thursdays. Quinn is going to take Thursday and Friday off. Quinn would record 4 hours for Thursday and 5 hours for Friday as that is their normally scheduled shifts.

Example 2: Andy is a 1.00 FTE and works a consistent schedule throughout the entire year. Andy is going to take 5 days off, Wednesday – Tuesday. When Andy reports his vacation hours, he will report 7.75 hours per day for a total of 38.75 hours.

All staff employees are eligible for sick time.  Employees with a 0.50 FTE or greater accrue sick time at approximately 12 days per calendar year (prorated per FTE), and may carry an unlimited balance from year to year.  Employees with an FTE below 0.50 accrue 1 hour for every 30 hours worked, may accrue up to 48 hours per year, and may roll over a balance of up to 80 hours from year to year.  Employees earn sick time each pay period and can use sick time as it is accrued.

Sick time is to be taken when you are unable to perform your job duties due to illness, injury, health condition, or for physical or mental distress. Sick time should also be used if you may expose fellow employee(s) or the public to a contagious or infectious disease. Sick time can also be used if an employee experiences a physical disability, which includes pregnancy and any pregnancy-related disability.

Here are some example of how employees may use their sick time for the following purposes:

• Illness, injury, health condition, and preventive care visits
• Mental health and personal well-being, including mental health days
• Diagnostic visits, care, or treatment
• Leave related to domestic violence, sexual assault, or stalking
• Business, school, or child/adult daycare facility closures 
• Quarantine/Isolation

Employees may use their sick time to care for:

• Themself
• Child, foster child, adult child, legal ward, child for whom the employee is legal guardian, or child to whom the employee stands or stood in loco parentis
• Spouse or registered domestic partner
• Sibling, stepsibling, or foster sibling
• Biological, adoptive, foster, or stepparent, or a person who stood in loco parentis when the employee was a minor child 
• Grandchild, foster grandchild, or step grandchild
• Grandparent or step grandparent
• Child of a sibling of the employee (nieces/nephews)
• Sibling of the parents of the employee (aunts/uncles)
• Child in law or sibling in law
• Any of the family members listed above of a spouse or registered domestic partner
• Any other individual related by blood or whose close association with the employee is the equivalent of a family relationship
• Up to one individual annually designated by the employee

Overall, employees can use sick time on any person you deem important in your life. Under certain circumstances, your manager or Human Resources may request a treating clinician’s statement, to include the nature of care being provided, the date the current illness or injury occurred, the date the treating clinician first saw the employee or family member, the date when the treating clinician expects the employee or family member to return to work, and any work restrictions, during any paid time away, or before allowing the employee to return to work. 

New Policy Effective March 1, 2024

Macalester College recognizes that employees may have a family medical emergency resulting in a need for additional time off in excess of their available time off benefits. To address this need, all eligible employees will be allowed to donate accrued paid sick time hours from their unused balance to a leave bank for their co-workers who are in need of additional time off.

Eligibility

• Donating employees must be employed with Macalester College for a minimum of one year to be eligible to donate.
• Receiving employees must be on an approved Family Medical Leave (FML) of absence through Human Resources and have exhausted their available time off benefits in order to receive time from the leave bank. 

Donating Sick Time

• The donation of sick time is strictly voluntary.
• Donated sick time will go into a leave bank for use by eligible recipients.
• The maximum number of sick hours that an eligible employee may donate per calendar year is 23.25 hours (24 hours for CBU and Public Safety), prorated by FTE.
• Donations must be made in whole day increments, accounting for the donating employees FTE (rounded to the nearest quarter hour). 
• The donating employee’s balance cannot fall below 77.50 hours (80 hours for CBU and Public Safety employees) due to the donation. 
• Employees may donate sick time anytime throughout the year. 
• To donate to the leave bank, an employee must fill out the Macalester College Sick Time Donation Form (Google Form). Once submitted, Human Resources will review the form and will deduct the donation amount from the eligible employee’s sick time balance.

Receiving Donated Sick Time

• HR is monitoring all Family Medical Leaves of Absences. If it is identified that an employee will exhaust their time off balances before the end of their leave, HR will connect with the employee about receiving donated sick hours. 
• If the recipient employee has available time off balances, that time will be used before any sick time will be applied to their available balances. 
• Donated sick time may only be used for time off for the approved FML.
• Employees who receive donated sick time may receive no more than three (3) weeks (116.25 hours for staff and 120.00 hours for CBU & Public Safety), prorated by FTE per FML occurrence.
• Nothing in this policy will be construed to limit or extend the maximum allowable absence under the Family and Medical Leave Act.

Macalester staff members with an FTE of 0.50 or greater who become parents through birth, adoption or foster care placement are eligible for a 12-week, fully-paid parental leave (prorated per FTE). The benefit is available immediately upon hire. The leave is available for birthing and non-birthing parents. The leave must occur within 12-months of the birth, adoption or placement, and may be used continuously or intermittently. The fact that a multiple birth, adoption or placement occurs (e.g., the birth of twins or adoption of siblings) does not increase the total amount of paid parental leave granted for that event. The adoption of a new spouse’s child is excluded from this policy. 

Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) and the Minnesota Parental Leave Act run concurrently with Paid Parental Leave. 

Staff members wishing to apply for parental leave should first notify their manager so that arrangements to cover the staff member’s assignment can be made in a timely fashion if necessary. The manager and applicable leaders within the business line are responsible for making these arrangements.

Forms for requesting a leave of absence are available on the HR website.

Parental Leave Information and Resources

• Bereavement leave
• Jury duty leave
• Voting and election judge leave
• Bone marrow donor leave
• FMLA Leave
• Minnesota Parenting Leave
• MN School Conference And Activity Leave
• Military Leave
• Educational Leave
• For full details regarding time away from work policies at Macalester, see the Employee Handbook.