Local government sick-leave practices: An exploratory study
Data/Methods: One hundred and forty of the largest cities and counties responded to a mail and on-line survey, for a response rate of 35%. The analysis of the items was accomplished by coding each survey question as a dichotomous variable (1 = yes, 0 = no) for each group, then running a logistic regression to predict the probability of “yes” as a function of type of employee (public safety/non-public safety), the independent variable, and the interaction of type and independent variable. The model Chi-square statistic was evaluated to determine whether the outcome was independent of the independent variable and the type of employee. If the Chi-square statistic was statistically significant (i.e., a p-value less than 0.05) then the differences were considered meaningful.
Results: The data suggest a large percentage (92%) of local governments offer sick leave to their employees and most employed generous policies including the ability to accrue 120 hours or more a year (53%); no limits on the number of hours that can be rolled over from year to year (77%); the cash-out for unused sick leave upon termination (54%); sick leave sharing/leave banks (42%), and the ability to convert unused sick leave balances for the purpose of calculating service credits for retirement annuities (40%). Despite the plethora of recent reforms efforts aimed at public pay and benefit programs such as pensions and retiree health care, few local governments (14%) have made any changes to sick leave policies since the great recession. Collective bargaining status, type of government, dominant party of the elected body and public hearings for the adoption of wage and benefits were all found to be significant factors in determining sick leave practices. Implications for practice and policy are advanced.