Rice University grants staff members an amount of paid benefit time during which an employee may be absent for any reason, including vacation, personal business, illness, or religious holidays.
Benefit time must be scheduled in advance with supervisors, who approve requests according to departmental workload and staffing levels.
Basis of Benefits Time Accumulation and Schedules
The rate at which an employee accumulates benefit time depends on whether the employee's position is classified by the FLSA overtime provisions as exempt "professional, executive, or administrative staff", non-exempt "technical or support staff", or classified by Rice University as "a postdoctoral research associate." The rate of accumulation also depends on the seniority date.
On a professional, executive, administrative, technical, or support staff member's anniversary of employment, he or she may carry forward a maximum of one year's accumulated benefit time. He or she then begins accumulating additional days or hours of benefit time.
Postdoctoral research associates (postdocs) regardless of their length of service, accumulate benefit time at the same rate as exempt staff members with less than 10 years of service.
Part-time employees accumulate benefit time according to the percentage of a full year they regularly work.
In order to accumulate paid time off for any given pay cycle, the employee must work or be on paid time off (other than short-term disability leave or Worker's Compensation) at some point during that pay cycle (semi-monthly for exempt staff, bi-weekly for non-exempt staff).
New employees have no entitlement to their accumulated benefit time until they have completed 6 months of continuous benefits-eligible employment. New employees may, with the supervisor's permission, use benefit time in the first six months of employment.
Benefit Time Accumulation Schedules:
Full-Time, Non-Exempt Technical, and Support Staff
| Length of Continous Benefits-Eligible Service | Number of Days Per Employment Year |
|---|---|
| 0-5 anniversary | 128 hours |
| 5-10 anniversary | 168 hours |
| 10 + years | 208 hours |
Technical and support staff may take benefit time in half-hour increments.
Full-Time, Exempt Professional, Executive, and Administrative Staff
| Length of Continous Benefits-Eligible Service | Number of Days Per Employment Year |
|---|---|
| 0-10 anniversary | 21 days/ 168 hours |
| 10 + years | 26 days/ 208 hours |
Professional, executive, and administrative staff should generally take time in full-day increments and may be required to do so.
Paid Time Off FAQs
- How do I view my PTO?
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To check your available PTO, log into iO > Me Tab > Time and Absence > Absence Balance.
- Does Rice still offer sick pay/leave?
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Rice no longer offers sick leave. In case you need to take sick leave, benefits-eligible employees can take PTO if they have available hours. Please contact your supervisor or a benefits team member at benefits@rice.edu if you have more questions.
- Can I take more PTO that I have accrued?
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iO does not allow employees to take more PTO than they have accrued. While the old system (Banner) allowed this to occur, the practice was discouraged.
If you need to take more time off than what you have accrued, you will be unpaid for the time in excess of your accrued PTO balance.