Salary continuation - An employer plan that provides a payment to salaried employees during period of injury and/or illness ranging from several weeks to several months. The benefit amount may be controlled by length of service, job performance, and/or union contracts. This discretionary benefit can be coordinated with workers' compensation and other disability benefits so as not to exceed the base salary of the employee. Also often referred to as sick leave.

Second injury fund - In workers' compensation, a program administered by the state to pay for the covered disabilities of injured workers with preexisting conditions. The agency is generally funded by assessments on private underwriters of workers' compensation insurance.

Self-funding - See self insurance.

Self-insurance - A process whereby an employer covers risks by establishing reserves for future losses in lieu of purchasing insurance protection. Also known as self-funding.

Short-term disability (STD) plan - A plan that replaces a portion (usually 50%, 60%, or 66-2/3%) of income lost because of an injury or illness that prevents an employee from performing the duties of his or her job. Benefits are usually paid following a waiting period (e.g., seven days) and may continue for various periods: one week, 13 weeks, 26 weeks, 52 weeks, or until LTD benefits become payable.

Sick pay - An uninsured benefit often paid to hourly workers for a period of illness. The benefit period typically ranges from five to 20 days a year; any unused time at year-end can often be banked. The benefit amount is usually 100% of earnings.

Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) - Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) - A system of federally provided payments to eligible workers (and, in some cased, their families) when they are unable to continue working because of a disability. Benefits begin with the sixth full month of disability and continue until the individual is capable of substantial gainful activity. (See reimbursement agreement for SSDI)

Social Security normal retirement age (SSNRA) - The age at which unreduced Social Security benefits are payable. As defined by a 1983 amendment to the Social Security Act, that age is 65 for individuals born before 1938, 66 for those born from 1938 to 1954, and 67 for those born after 1954.

State-mandated disability plans - Required minimum STD plans for workers in the states of California, Hawaii, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico. Most plans provide modest coverage (e.g., 50% replacement up to a maximum of $145 a week), with benefit durations of at least 26 weeks.

Statute / Statutory - 1. An act of the legislature of a state or country, declaring, commanding, or prohibiting something; a positive law; the written will of the legislature expressed with all the requisite forms of legislation; used in distinction from common law. See Common law, under Common. Statute is commonly applied to the acts of a legislative body consisting of representatives. In monarchies, legislature laws of the sovereign are called edicts, decrees, ordinances, rescripts, etc. In works on international law and in the Roman law, the term is used as embracing all laws imposed by competent authority. Statutes in this sense are divided into statutes real, statutes personal, and statutes mixed; statutes real applying to immovables; statutes personal to movables; and statutes mixed to both classes of property.

statutory, reserve - An actuarially determined bookkeeping liability which represents the minimum amount of money an insurer must set aside to meet future claims and obligations, as calculated under the state insurance code.

Supplemental Security Income (SSI) - A program of the Social Security Administration that pays monthly benefits to eligible workers with disabilities who fall fellow a certain asset and income level.

Survivor benefit - Amount payable to an employee's eligible survivors following the employee's death due to disability. Payment may be in a lump sum (e.g., three times the employee's last monthly LTD benefit) or a number of monthly payments (e.g., six months).