About Incidental Absence

Furthermore, the number of available paid sick days varies by company and sometimes by type of employee. For EMPAQ^® purposes, IA days may be paid or unpaid.

If your organization offers a paid time off (PTO) policy that includes payment for sick days, the portion of PTO utilized for sick days should be included in this metric. Many employers track these PTO days as being unplanned or unscheduled if not discretely identified as sick days.

Typically, after a health related lost-time absence of a certain number of days, short-term disability coverage may be initiated. The IA metric captures only the incremental sick days either prior to the short-term benefit effective date (i.e., the short-term disability benefit elimination period) or the few days taken individually that never reach short-term disability status.

EMPAQ^® Metrics

When you submit data to EMPAQ^®, the secure online data submission tool will automatically calculate metrics for you. Simply enter your data (i.e. numerator and denominator values) into the tool and EMPAQ^® will calculate the metrics for analysis and reporting. The results will be delivered to you as a set of benchmarking and decision-support reports.

EMPAQ^® IA Metrics

Metric	Ratio	Explanation
Total Lost Workdays per Employee	Total Lost Workdays per Employee = Paid Sick Leave + Unpaid Sick Leave Days Number of Active Employees Covered for Incidental Absence	This metric calculates the overall amount of time lost due to IA (defined as sick leave days, either paid or unpaid) for a defined period of time.