Human Resource Blog

STD Extension or Reinstatement

	Benefits
Total Compensation Summary Performance Improvement Plan Performance Appraisal and Review Employee Payroll Status/Change Form Employee Change Form

	Compensation
Employee Payroll Action Form W-4 Employee Withholding Allowance Cert. Employee Payroll Status/Change Form Direct Deposit Form Total Compensation Summary

Our company will pay a max of 14 weeks STD benefits at 100% salary, plus an additional 12 weeks at 75% salary if needed. An employee is back to work on trial basis as recommended by her doctor after about 54 days of STD. Question - if after sometime, her condition persists or worsens and requires her to be on STD again, will there be a reset of that benefit to provide 100% salary for an additional 14 weeks?

Congratulations on working for a company with such a generous short term disability plan! Many employees would envy this coverage. In fact, the majority of U.S. workers have no short-term disability benefits at all. Even in states where it is required, employees do not receive 100% of salary for any portion of the leave. Benefits average 50% to 67%.

This question concerns the benefits offered by one specific employer, so it’s almost impossible to research. However, here’s a general answer that will apply to many companies.

In general, short term disability plans set a limit on the amount of time that an employee can collect benefits in one year. Usually, that’s defined as “any 12 month period.” Some even limit benefits to any 2 or 3 year period.

In this case, it sounds like an employee can take up to 14 weeks of short term disability at 100% of salary, plus an additional 12 weeks of short term disability at 75% of salary. Generally, those benefits do not “reset” simply because the employee returns to work for a few weeks. In fact, they don’t “reset” until the employee has returned to work for 12 months or more.

Suppose Suzie breaks her leg in a snowboarding accident, requires traction, and is out of work for 8 weeks. She returns to work for 4 weeks, and then breaks her arm in a jet-skiing accident, again requiring traction, this time for 10 weeks. Because Suzie has already used 8 weeks of leave at 100% salary, she is entitled to only 6 additional weeks of leave at full salary. She will then be entitled to 4 weeks at 75% salary.

Suppose Suzie returns to work for 2 weeks and then has a heart attack, from too many extreme sports. She has used a total of 18 weeks of short term disability, and is entitled to a total of 8 additional weeks, at 75% of salary.

If the short term disability benefit “reset” each time an employee returned to work for one week, then it would be easy to abuse. Theoretically, an employee could take 26 weeks of leave, work one week and take 26 more weeks of leave – every year. Employees could work only 2 weeks out of each year, and collect an average of 88% of their salary. It’s almost guaranteed that if this was the company policy, the majority of employees would be out on short term disability at any given time.

The best way to get a definitive answer to this question, if you are the employee, is to contact the HR department or benefits coordinator of the company. There might also be more detailed information in the employee handbook. An HR person might need to contact the insurance carrier for a definitive answer.