5 U.S.C. § 6303 — Annual leave; accrual

(a) An employee^* earns paid annual leave as follows: (1) one-half day for each complete two-week pay period if the employee has less than 3 years of service; (2) three-fourths of a day for each complete two-week pay period if the employee has at least 3 but less than 15 years of service, except that the last complete two-week pay period of the year earns 1¼ days; and (3) one day for each complete two-week pay period if the employee has 15 or more years of service.

When years of service are counted, the employee receives credit for all service that would count under section 8332, whether or not the employee is covered by chapter 83, subchapter III, and for all service made creditable by subsection (e). But a retired uniformed-service member, as defined in section 3501, receives credit for active military service only if: (A) the retirement was based on a disability resulting from an injury or disease received in the line of duty directly because of armed conflict, or caused by an instrumentality of war and received in the line of duty during a period of war as defined in sections 101 and 1101 of title 38; (B) the service was in the armed forces during a war or in a campaign or expedition for which a campaign badge was authorized; or (C) on November 30, 1964, the person was employed in a position covered by this subchapter and continued in that employment without a break of more than 30 days. The employee may establish years of service by affidavit. An employee who is not paid in two-week pay periods earns leave on the same basis as if paid in two-week pay periods.

(b) An employee whose current employment is for less than 90 days earns annual leave under this subchapter only after being employed continuously for 90 days under successive appointments without a break in service. After that period, the employee receives the leave that would have been earned under subsection (a) without this subsection.

(c) A change in an employee’s earning rate begins at the start of the pay period after the pay period—or corresponding period for an employee not paid biweekly—in which the employee completes the required service period.

(d) For an employee covered by section 6304(b), whose duty post is outside the United States, and who takes leave to the United States or to a residence outside the employment area in the United States, its territories or possessions, or the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the leave does not include time necessarily spent traveling to or from the duty post or waiting for transportation. This rule applies to no more than one leave period during a required tour at a post outside the United States.

(e)(1) Within 180 days after this subsection was enacted, the Office of Personnel Management must issue regulations allowing a newly appointed employee’s prior service to count toward years of service even if it would not otherwise count, if: (A) the service was in a position whose duties directly relate to the duties of the new position and meets other requirements set by the Office; and (B) the head of the appointing agency decides that using this subsection is necessary to achieve an important agency mission or performance goal. (2) This service counts starting on the effective date of the appointment and continues to count unless the employee does not complete one full year of continuous service with the agency. (3) An employee is not eligible based on an appointment if, during the 90 days before the appointment took effect, the employee held a civil-service position.

(f) Despite the other rules in this section, an employee in a position subject to section 5376 or 5383, or to a pay system the Office of Personnel Management determines is equivalent to either, earns one day for each complete two-week pay period.