Important Changes to the Paid Family Medical Leave and Sick Leave Benefits for Regular Staff Members

Boston University provides two paid leave options when you need to take time away from work for your own health or family needs:

  • The Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) plan, available to all eligible full-time and part-time employees, is intended for longer-duration leaves of up to 26 weeks per year. The PFML plan currently provides 80% of pay during longer-duration leaves approved for family and medical needs.
  • Sick Leave benefits, available to all eligible full-time employees, is intended for short-term or intermittent leave needs. You accrue days of Sick Leave for every month you work at BU; Accrued Sick Leave that is available to you provides 100% of pay when medical or family needs prevent you from working. You can currently use a portion of your accrued Sick Leave to supplement PFML benefits. With this supplement you can receive 100% of pay during an approved PFML, or Family Medical Leave.

What’s Changing as of January 1, 2025

To improve benefits offered for Paid Family and Medical Leaves and to align the benefits that staff receive more closely with those offered to faculty, the following changes will be implemented effective January 1, 2025. These changes will reinforce the intended purpose of all leave benefits.

Please note, these changes apply only to regular staff members and do not apply to faculty members.

Plan Who’s Eligible What’s Changing Why
PFML Eligible full-time and part-time employees

Exempt and non-exempt

 Increase PFML benefit to 100% of base salary This enhancement:

• Ensures that all BU full-time and part-time staff receive 100% of pay for Personal and Family Medical needs (as well as for Parental Leave), regardless of Sick Leave eligibility or accruals.
Sick Leave Regular full-time and part-time employees working at least 50% of a full-time schedule

Exempt and non-exempt

 Limit accruals to 30 days per year

You receive a bank of 30 days of Sick Leave on January 1 of every year

Note: If you currently have more than 30 days of accrued Sick Leave, you will not lose any accrued days. However, you will not accrue additional days in 2025 or later until your Sick Leave balance drops below the 30-day maximum.

 This lower accrual limit enables the Sick Leave plan to function as intended—for short-term and intermittent health needs. Sick Leave is no longer needed to supplement PFML.

With these changes, BU’s PFML and Sick Leave benefits continue to exceeds those required by the state law.

What’s Not Changing

When the PFML and Sick Leave changes take effect for staff on January 1, 2025, the following features will remain the same:

  • Duration of PFML benefit (up to 26 weeks for Personal Medical Leave and up to 12 weeks for Family Leave/Bonding Leave)
  • Maximum PFML entitlement (26 weeks within any 12-month period for any combination of Personal Medical and Family Leave/Bonding Leave)
  • Military Leave (exigency and care for military family member)

PFML benefits are not changing for full-time and part-time faculty, temporary employees or adjunct faculty represented by L509, and BU medical group providers.

For More Information

For the remainder of 2024, the current Paid Family and Medical Leave Plan and Sick Leave policy will continue to operate according to current provisions. For more information about your leave benefits, including how to apply for benefits, visit the Human Resources website.

For more information about the 2025 changes, please refer to these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs). 

If you have any questions, you can email the Human Resources Service Center at hr@bu.edu or call 617-353-2380.