The Empire Plan is a unique health insurance plan designed especially for public employees in New York State. Empire Plan benefits include inpatient and outpatient hospital coverage, medical/surgical coverage, Centers of Excellence for transplants, infertility and cancer, home care services, equipment and supplies, mental health and substance abuse coverage and prescription drug coverage.
KATHY HOCHUL
Governor
TIMOTHY R. HOGUES
Commissioner
NY25-07
TO: New York State Health Benefits Administrators
FROM: Employee Benefits Division
SUBJECT: UPDATE: Retiree Sick Leave Adjustment – Additional Salary Factors
DATE: April 7, 2025
This memo replaces HBA memo NY21-24.
The Employee Benefits Division (EBD) periodically receives questions from New York State agency Health Benefit Administrators (HBA) regarding additional salary factors included as part of an employee’s salary when calculating retiree sick leave credit, such as longevity pay, hazard pay, and location pay.
Working with the Office of the State Comptroller (OSC), the State’s payroll administrator, EBD has updated the list of salary factors included as part of an employee's regular salary when calculating retiree sick leave credit. Enclosed with this memo is a list of salary factors or Earnings Codes that must be considered when entering an enrollee’s sick leave credit information into NYBEAS.
The column named “Already included in Pay Rate” contains salary factors already incorporated into an employee’s pay rate which you do not need to add to the enrollee’s annual salary when inputting in NYBEAS. Column “Not included in Pay Rate (must be added manually)” identifies the factors not included as part of the pay rate which you must add to the enrollee’s annual salary when inputting the sick leave credit information in NYBEAS. While most earnings codes are already included as part of the employee’s pay rate, you must add those not included in an employee’s salary when calculating their sick leave credit.
If you have questions regarding retiree sick leave credit, please call the HBA Helpline at (518) 474-2780.