The Family and Medical Leave Act (FMLA) provides eligible team members with up to 12 weeks of unpaid, job-protected leave per year.  Select health benefits are also protected while you are on FMLA.

Who is eligible for FMLA?

• You are eligible for FMLA if you have worked for CLEAR for at least 12 continuous months, and have worked at least 1,250 hours over the past 12 months.

What type of leave is covered under FMLA?

• Your own serious medical condition or that of a family member

• Birth, adoption, or foster care placement

• Military family care or a family member’s military active duty

Other important details

• FMLA runs concurrently with all leaves, including but not limited to CLEAR Disability, CLEAR Parental, and any other statutory leaves you may be eligible for.

• FMLA can be taken continuously or intermittently

• Unum tracks FMLA hours and entitlements. Team members should report all absences to Unum.

This leave is unpaid unless you’re approved for CLEAR disability or state programs. CLEAR disability benefits will run concurrently with FMLA and any state/local leaves.

Short-term Disability (STD) provides eligible team members up to 26 weeks of paid, job-protected leave per year. Health benefits are also protected while you are on this leave.

STD Eligibility Waiting Period: 90 days

STD Pay:

• Week 0 (days 0-6): no benefit, elimination period. PTO can be used during this time.

• Weeks 1-8: 100% of your base earnings

• Weeks 9-26: 50% of your base earnings

• Your base earnings are defined as your weekly earnings, not including shift differential before your first date of disability, excluding overtime, commissions, bonuses, and any other extra compensation.

• STD will exhaust after 26 weeks, at which point you will need to apply for Long-Term Disability (LTD) through Unum.

STD Elimination Period: 7 days

Before STD benefits are payable, you must be continuously disabled for seven (7) days as determined by our administrator, Unum—this is called the elimination period. 

• Field Hourly Team Members:  You must use PTO or sick days to cover the elimination period, or this time will be unpaid.

• Field Salaried & Corporate Team Members:  After your STD claim is approved, CLEAR will continue to pay your salary during the elimination period, and using PTO is not permitted. 

CLEAR STD will run concurrently with FMLA and any state/local leaves. 

If you work in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, the District of Columbia, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island,  Washington, or any other state with paid statutory leave, you may be eligible for paid leave benefits through the state. You are strongly encouraged to apply for state benefits. Your CLEAR STD benefit will be offset by the state benefits you are eligible to receive, regardless of whether you apply or not. Additional information and instructions on how to apply for state benefits can be found here.

Long-Term Disability (LTD) begins after short-term disability (STD) ends. 

Healthcare benefit coverage and job protection end after 26 weeks of leave. See Termination of Benefits below for more information. 

LTD Eligibility Waiting Period: 90 days

LTD Pay:

• 60% of your total monthly earnings

• Total monthly earnings is defined as your average monthly earnings from the W-2 form (the box which reflects wages, tips and other compensation) received from CLEAR for the previous calendar year immediately before the first date your Total or Partial Disability begins, or your average monthly earnings for your period of employment if employed for less than a full calendar year.

• Maximum monthly benefit:

• Field hourly team members (employed by Alclear LLC): $1,000.

• Corporate team members (employed by Secure Identity LLC): $5,000.

LTD Elimination Period: 180 days

Termination of Benefits:

If you are out for 26 weeks or longer, your Medical, Dental, Vision coverage will end at the end of the month in which you reach the short-term disability maximum duration (26 weeks of being totally disabled). You may be eligible to continue coverage under COBRA and will receive a COBRA packet in the mail from our COBRA administrator, Optum Financial (formerly ConnectYourCare). This packet will contain instructions for enrolling in COBRA coverage and paying your premiums.

If you are approved for long-term disability, you may also qualify for waiver of premium for life insurance. If approved, your life insurance will continue while you are out on long-term disability. If your waiver of premium claim is denied by Unum, you will have the option to convert your life insurance coverage to an individual policy.

Anticipated/known leaves (i.e. elective surgery or parental): team members should contact Unum as soon as they know their anticipated date of disability (i.e. date of surgery or expected due date), even if it is several months out. 

• Team members are required to provide at least 3 months written notice via email to their manager and the People Team before the anticipated leave start date to ensure proper planning of benefits and work coverage. 

• Note: If a team member fails to contact Unum at least 30 days in advance of their desired leave date, CLEAR may need to delay the start of paid leave benefits or decline their request, resulting in time off being unpaid.

Unexpected illness or accident: team members should contact Unum to file a STD claim after missing 3 consecutive days of work or as soon as they anticipate they will miss more than a week of work (whichever is sooner). In the event the team member is unable to file their own claim, the People Team can do so on their behalf.

If you are paid hourly 

STD benefit payments minus any applicable offsets for other income benefits will be paid on the normal bi-weekly pay schedule and reported on paystubs in the earnings section, line item Disability/FML.  All payments after 8 weeks of leave will be reduced to 50% of your base weekly pay.  

If you are salaried:

If not receiving other income benefits, such as state disability benefits, you will continue to be paid as normal and will not see any changes to your regular paystub for the first 8 weeks of STD. After which, your STD benefit will be reduced in half.

If you are receiving or are eligible for other income benefits such as California state disability, your regular pay will be offset by the amount of your other income benefits. This offset will be shown as a negative earning on your pay stub next to line item Disability/FML 

LTD benefits are paid directly to you by Unum. Your first payment will be a physical check sent in the mail. After that, you will have the option to enroll in direct deposit.