BC Illness or Injury Leave

This article walks you through the steps to take in Wave to opt into BC Illness or Injury Leave ensuring you meet provincial requirements. Learn more about BC Illness or Injury Leave in this BC government resource.

Opt into BC Illness or Injury Leave

Change annual renewal or balance cap

Record sick leave taken

Provide additional sick time

Opt out of BC Illness or Injury Leave

Opt into BC Illness or Injury Leave

Wave allows you to opt your employees into a BC Illness or Injury Leave policy with just one click.

1.  In the left-side menu click Payroll then select Employees.
2. Select an employee by clicking on their name.
3. Click Sick Leave from the left tab on the page.
4. Click the Set policy to province mandatory minimum button within the policy section of the page.

If you opt your employees into the policy before Jan. 1, 2022, the effective date will be Jan. 1. If you opt in after this date, or if the employee is only eligible after Jan. 1, the effective date becomes the first day of the next pay period that hasn’t been run yet.

Once an employee is opted into the BC Injury or Illness Leave policy, you can review the details on the Sick Leave page of each employee.

• The balance cap will reflect 40.0 hours.

  The balance cap of 40 hours is set as default in Wave based on the most common workweek being 40 hours = 5 days. However, if you have employees that work less than 40 hours a week, you can edit the balance to reflect hours that equal 5 days of work.

• The sick leave hours are not accrued, and will be available immediately for employees who are eligible for the policy.
• The effective date will show as immediate, which means the policy is available to the employee immediately.

  If you opted an employee (who has not yet completed 90 days of employment) into the policy, you have the option to change the effective date even though it defaults to immediate. To change the policy to be effective 90 days after their hire date, click on the edit icon beside the Effective Date row and select Policy effective after 90 days of consecutive employment.

• The wage calculation is based on the provincial formula of wages paid divided by days worked. You can learn more about how the calculations work here.

If you create a new employee in Wave, they are automatically opted into the policy 90 days after their hire date. You can optionally choose to make the policy available to them immediately by clicking Opt In on their Sick Leave page, and then clicking the Set policy to mandatory minimum button.

If you choose to make any changes, or create a custom policy for an employee, you will see a Reset policy to province mandatory minimum button on their Sick Leave page. You can click on this anytime, to revert to meet the minimum requirements set by the province.

Change annual renewal or balance cap

Unless you change the settings balances are automatically renewed on Jan. 1 of each year. You can change annual renewal settings or the balance cap by taking the following steps.

1. In the left-side menu click Payroll then Employees.
2. Select an employee by clicking on their name.
3. Click Sick Leave from the left tab on the page.
4. Click the pencil icon next to annual renewal
5. In the change annual renewal modal you can turn automatic renewal on or off. You can also edit the balance cap.

Record sick leave taken

When your employee takes a paid sick leave, you need to record this in Wave.

1. Click Payroll on the left-side menu, then select Timesheets.
2. Click on the small downward arrow to the right of each employee’s name.
3. On the Sick Time row, enter the sick leave taken, in hours.

In Wave, since the balance defaults to 40 hours for the BC Illness or Injury Leave policy, 8 hours is considered one day. If your employee works less than 40 hours a week, to record one day of sick leave on Timesheets, enter hours that equal one day of work.

If your employee has not yet been employed for 90 consecutive days, and they take unpaid leave, you can record this on Timesheets, on the Sick Time row. Since they will not have sick leave balance hours yet, the hours entered will be deducted from the employee pay.

Provide additional sick time

Employers can optionally choose to provide additional sick time, over the mandated minimum requirement of five days. Since the sick leave balance defaults to 40 hours in Wave, if you opt into the BC Injury or Illness policy, you will need to follow these steps to provide more than 40 hours of sick leave to your employees.

1. On the left-side menu, click Payroll > Employees, select an employee, and then click Sick Leave.
2. Click the edit icon to the right of the Balance cap, within the Policy section of the page.
3. Enter the total sick leave hours, and click Save Changes.
4. Click the pencil icon at the top right corner where the balance sick leave hours are shown.
5. Enter the total sick leave hours you want to provide, and click Save changes.

For the additional hours you choose to provide (over the default 40 hours), you can set an accrual rate, if you do not want to make them available to the employee immediately. To set this, click on the edit icon under Actions to the right of Accrual Rate, within the Policy section.

Opt out of BC Illness or Injury Leave 

You have the option to opt out of the BC Illness or Injury Leave policy in Wave.

Please note that you will not be meeting the provincially mandated requirements if you choose to opt out.

Click Payroll from the left navigation menu, select an employee, and then click Sick Leave.

• Click the Opt Out button if the BC Injury or Illness Leave policy is already in effect.
• If it’s an upcoming policy, under the Policies to date section at the bottom of the page, click on the trash icon beside the policy.