Details about this story

• Source: St. Louis Post-Dispatch
• Date: April 06, 2008
• URL: Read the story
• Bylines: Kevin Crowe , Jake Wagman
• Topics: Local Government
• Data Types: Local Data
• Description/Excerpt: Under a system virtually extinct in corporate America — and increasingly harder to find in government — St. Louis city employees can bank all sick days they don't take and exchange them for lump sum payments and a higher pension upon retirement. The result: Employees come to work even when they are ill, use only a handful of sick days over years or decades of employment, and walk out with five-figure payouts at a time when the city is strapped for cash. Over the past five years, the city has spent more than $4 million buying unused sick days from dozens of employees, a review of city records shows. Advocates of the system say it helps offset low worker salaries. Yet those who gain the most from the sick-day bank are actually managers who already are at the high-end of the pay scale.