Do employers offer benefits for living donors?

Many employers are willing to provide special benefits to living donors. Some employers offer paid leave without requiring employees to use sick or vacation time. Others allow employees to donate sick leave to co-workers who donate organs. Sometimes a donor qualifies for short-term disability through his or her work benefits. Some employers will extend governmentally-endorsed leave benefits to living donors, even though they may not be required to do so. (See Medical Leave.)

The Organ Donor Leave Act (HR 457), signed into law by President Clinton in 1999, entitles federal employees up to 30 days of paid leave for organ donation.  Twenty states (see note below) have passed legislation that makes it easier to become a living donor by providing paid time off for state employees and/or tax deductions of up to $10,000 for travel expenses and time away from work. Some states grant full-time state employees a month of paid leave and encourage, in writing, political subdivisions and private employers to grant similar paid leave to their full-time employees.

(Note that the list of twenty states has not been updated since 12/07. If your state is not listed, contact your state's government web page for more information.)

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