Incidental Sick Time and Extended Sick Time
Northwestern University provides paid time away from work as a form of income protection for a staff member who is unable to work because of illness or injury. The University’s sick time program has two main components:
Incidental Sick Time (IST)
- Used for absences due to personal illness or the illness of a qualifying family member who requires direct care by the staff member as described in the Using IST section on page 6.7 of the Staff Handbook.
- Qualifying family members are defined as a spouse, domestic partner/civil union partner, child, stepchild, child of a civil union or domestic partner, parent, stepparent, grandparent, grandchild or sibling and those bearing the same relationship to the staff member’s spouse or domestic partner/civil union partner.
- The Incidental Sick Time allocation is replenished at the start of each fiscal year (September 1) with no “carrying over” or banking of sick time from one year to the next.
Extended Sick Time (EST)
- Provides 100% of a staff member’s hourly rate or monthly salary for an approved extended illness or injury after a seven-calendar day elimination period, for up to six months.
- Any additional compensation such as overtime, bonus, on-call pay, incentive pay, or additional pay is excluded.
- Extended Sick Time is provided at no cost to employees and is available after a staff member has been employed in a benefits-eligible staff position for six months.