Iowa Code § 70A.1 - Salaries — payment — vacations — sick leave — educational leave

1. Salaries specifically provided for in an appropriation Act of the general assembly shall be in lieu of existing statutory salaries, for the positions provided for in the Act, and all salaries, including longevity where applicable by express provision in the Code, shall be paid according to the provisions of chapter 91A and shall be in full compensation of all services, including any service on committees, boards, commissions or similar duty for Iowa government, except for members of the general assembly. A state employee on an annual salary shall not be paid for a pay period an amount which exceeds the employee’s annual salary transposed into a rate applicable to the pay period by dividing the annual salary by the number of pay periods in the fiscal year. Salaries for state employees covered by the overtime payment provisions of the federal Fair Labor Standards Act shall be established on an hourly basis. 2. a. All employees of the state earn two weeks’ vacation per year during the first year of employment and through the fourth year of employment, and three weeks’ vacation per year during the fifth and through the eleventh year of employment, and four weeks’ vacation per year during the twelfth year through the nineteenth year of employment, and four and four-tenths weeks’ vacation per year during the twentieth year through the twenty-fourth year of employment, and five weeks’ vacation per year during the twenty-fifth year and all subsequent years of employment, with pay. One week of vacation is equal to the number of hours in the employee’s normal workweek. Vacation allowances accrue according to chapter 91A as provided by the rules of the department of administrative services. b. The vacations shall be granted at the discretion and convenience of the head of the department, agency, or commission, except that an employee shall not be granted vacation in excess of the amount earned by the employee. Vacation leave earned under this subsection shall not be cumulated to an amount in excess of twice the employee’s annual rate of accrual. The head of the department, agency, or commission shall make every reasonable effort to schedule vacation leave sufficient to prevent any loss of entitlements. c. (1) If the employment of an employee of the state is terminated, the provisions of chapter 91A relating to the termination apply. (2) If the termination of employment is by reason of the death of the employee, the vacation allowance shall be paid to the estate of the deceased employee if the estate is opened for probate. If an estate is not opened, the allowance shall be paid to the surviving spouse, if any, or to the legal heirs if no spouse survives. 3. Payments authorized by this section shall be approved by the department subject to rules of the department of administrative services and paid from the appropriation or fund of original certification of the claim. 4. Effective July 1, 2006, permanent full-time and permanent part-time employees of state departments, boards, agencies, and commissions shall accrue sick leave as provided in this subsection which shall be credited to the employee’s sick leave account. The sick leave accrual rate for part-time employees shall be prorated to the accrual rate for full-time employees. The sick leave accrual rate for each complete month of full-time employment, excluding employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement which provides for a different rate of accrual, shall be as follows: a. For employees of the state board of regents, one and one-half days. b. For employees who are peace officers employed within the department of public safety or department of natural resources and who are not covered under a collective bargaining agreement, the rate shall be the same as the rate provided under the state police officers council collective bargaining agreement. c. For all other employees, the rate shall be as follows: (1) If the employee’s accrued sick leave balance is seven hundred fifty hours or less, one and one-half days. (2) If the employee’s accrued sick leave balance is one thousand five hundred hours or less but more than seven hundred fifty hours, one day. (3) If the employee’s accrued sick leave balance is more than one thousand five hundred hours, one-half day. 5. Sick leave shall not accrue during any period of absence without pay. Employees may use accrued sick leave for physical or mental personal illness, bodily injury, medically related disabilities, including disabilities resulting from pregnancy and childbirth, or contagious disease, which result in any of the following: a. The employee’s confinement is required. b. The employee is rendered unable to perform assigned duties. c. The performance of assigned duties would jeopardize the employee’s health or recovery. 6. Except as provided in section 70A.23, all unused accrued sick leave in an employee’s sick leave account is canceled upon the employee’s separation from state employment. However, if an employee is laid off and the employee is reemployed by any state department, board, agency, or commission within one year of the date of the layoff, accrued sick leave of the employee shall be restored. 7. a. During the first four years of employment, state employees, excluding state board of regents’ faculty members with nine-month appointments, and employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement negotiated with the public safety bargaining unit who are eligible for accrued vacation benefits and accrued sick leave benefits, who have accumulated ten days of sick leave, and who do not use sick leave during a full month of employment, may elect to have up to one-half day of additional vacation added to the employee’s accrued vacation account. b. After the fourth year of employment, state employees, excluding state board of regents’ faculty members with nine-month appointments, and employees covered under a collective bargaining agreement negotiated with the public safety bargaining unit who are eligible for accrued vacation benefits and accrued sick leave benefits, who have accumulated thirty days of sick leave, and who do not use sick leave during a full month of employment, may elect to have up to one-half day of additional vacation added to the employee’s accrued vacation account. c. The additional vacation time added to an employee’s accrued vacation account for not using sick leave during a month is in lieu of the accrual of sick leave for that month. The amount of additional vacation for part-time employees shall be prorated to the amount of additional vacation authorized for full-time employees. The director of the department of administrative services may adopt the necessary rules and procedures for the implementation of this program for all state employees except employees of the state board of regents. The state board of regents may adopt necessary rules for the implementation of this program for its employees. 8. The head of any department, agency, or commission, subject to rules of the department of administrative services, may grant an educational leave to employees for whom the head of the department, agency, or commission is responsible pursuant to section 70A.25 and funds appropriated by the general assembly may be used for this purpose. The head of the department, agency, or commission shall notify the legislative council and the director of the department of administrative services of all educational leaves granted within fifteen days of the granting of the educational leave. If the head of a department, agency, or commission fails to notify the legislative council and the director of the department of administrative services of an educational leave, the expenditure of funds appropriated by the general assembly for the educational leave shall not be allowed. 9. A specific annual salary rate or annual salary adjustment commencing with a fiscal year shall commence on July 1 except that if a pay period overlaps two fiscal years, a specific annual salary rate or annual salary adjustment shall commence with the first day of a pay period as specified by the general assembly. [C73, §3780; C97, §1289; C24, 27, 31, 35, 39, §1218; C46, 50, 54, 58, 62, 66, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79, 81, §79.1; 81 Acts, ch 20, §2] 85 Acts, ch 215, §1; 86 Acts, ch 1244, §13; 86 Acts, ch 1245, §231, 232; 87 Acts, ch 227, §16; 89 Acts, ch 303, §17 C93, §70A.1 97 Acts, ch 28, §7; 2003 Acts, ch 145, §286; 2006 Acts, ch 1020, §1; 2008 Acts, ch 1032, §201; 2025 Acts, ch 115, §1 Referred to in §1C.2, 8A.413, 218.17, 602.1401, 602.11102 Paid holidays; §1C.2 Subsection 7 amended