Selected Factors Affecting Employees' Sick Leave Use

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to investigate sick leave use in the West Virginia Department of Education. Salary, gender, number of supervisors, job autonomy, job classification and stress were the factors chosen to relate to sick leave use. Salary, gender, number of supervisors and job autonomy were found to be related statistically to sick leave use. This study has implications for policy development pertaining to sick leave. Several explanations are offered for the findings.

Voluntary Shared Leave: An Exploratory Analysis

“…Despite constituting only a slight majority of the workforce, 72% of requests for leave donation were initiated by women. Although the circumstances that led to these requests are unknown, this finding is consistent with prevailing observations as to the caregiving responsibilities and disproportionate use of sick leave by women (Kroesser et al, 1991; Rogers & Herting, 1993; U.S. Merit Systems Protection Board, 2011).…”

“…Indeed, the donor’s pay rate was higher than the recipient’s wage in 72.5% of donations. Consistent with Kroesser et al (1991, p. 173), this pattern reveals that, relatively speaking, higher paid employees are more likely to have accumulated earned leave balances, whereas lower paid employees use their leave and are more likely to be a position of requesting donations from others.…”

“…Length of service, however, could be a variable of interest among the leave-earning staff if it is not correlated highly with hourly pay rate. Earlier research is inconclusive on this question as Kroesser et al (1991) suggest that the use of sick leave decreases as one’s salary increases, though results for length of service were statistically insignificant, but Rogers and Herting (1993) found that older and more senior employees used sick leave at higher rates than colleagues.…”

“…Interestingly, SHRM does not address the reverse scenario, which could have positive fiscal implications for the employer: lower paid employers receiving donated leave from higher-paid coworkers. In light of Kroesser et al’s (1991) finding that the use of sick leave decreases as an employee’s salary increases, this scenario seems to be worthy of exploration. Under this dynamic, 5 hours of leave donated by an employer earning US$25 an hour would otherwise be worth US$125, but the 5 hours would be revalued at US$100 if received by an employee earning US$20 an hour.…”

“…In their early study of sick leave use at the West Virginia Department of Education, Kroesser et al (1991) found that males used 60% fewer leave days than females each year (p. 174). Although the authors were unable to explain empirically this higher rate of leave use by women, they speculated that it may be the result of pregnancies and/or childcare responsibilities.…”