Overview
Rhode Island Temporary Disability Insurance (RI-STD) provides partial wage replacement to eligible Rhode Island workers who are unable to work due to their own non-work-related illness, injury, or a pregnancy-related condition. The program is funded through employee payroll contributions and is administered by the state. RI-STD does not provide job-protected leave.
For detailed legislative requirements, see our Legislative Guidance.
Policy Status Decisions
This policy is administered by the state.
💡 Best Practice: Follow the state's decision so the policy status matches the state's determination for benefits.
How to Use
Throughout this guidance, look for these labels to quickly identify what actions may be needed:
✅ Automatic: System handles this automatically, no action needed
📝 Configuration Note: How the policy is set up in the platform
💡 Best Practice: AbsenceSoft recommendation for optimal management
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: User must complete this action or track elsewhere
How AbsenceSoft Manages the Law
AbsenceSoft manages this law through 1 policy.
-
Policy Name - Rhode Island Temporary Disability Insurance
-
Policy Code - RI-STD
-
Benefit Type - Paid Leave
Administration Options
Rhode Island Temporary Disability Insurance is administered through:
-
State Plan -administered by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (RIDLT)
Rhode Island does not authorize a private plan alternative for this benefit — coverage is provided exclusively through the state program. See Legislative Guidance for details.
Employer Coverage Requirements
Excluded Employers
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Excluded employers are not covered under the law and may need to disable the policy in the platform to keep it from rendering. Discuss decisions with legal counsel for best approach.
Employee Eligibility
This policy is a state paid leave program that may have eligibility criteria tied to wages/earnings that are not available in the platform. Employers should follow the state's determination for the wage replacement policy.
💡 Best Practice: Follow the state's decision so the policy status matches the state's determination for eligibility.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Overrides in eligibility may be required if the state determines the employee has not met the eligibility requirements necessary for paid benefits.
Eligibility Exceptions
Excluded Employees
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Manually override eligibility from pass to fail for excluded employees.
Leave Entitlements and Duration
Entitlement Overview
All RI-STD absence reasons share a single combined entitlement of 30 work weeks per 52-week Sunday Forward period.
-
Employee Health Condition
-
Pregnancy/Maternity
Entitlement Rules
✅ Automatic: AbsenceSoft automatically tracks leave against the shared 30-week pool across both absence reasons within a 52-week Sunday Forward period.
📝 Configuration Note: RI-STD is configured to run Not Concurrent With RI-CAREGIVER (Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance Leave).
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: If both policies are eligible on a case, leave managers must adjudicate so there are no overlapping approved date ranges, or deny one or both policies.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Under Rhode Island law, an employee may not be paid RI-STD and RI-CAREGIVER (Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance Leave) benefits that together exceed 30 times the employee's weekly benefit rate in a benefit year. AbsenceSoft cannot enforce this combined cap across the two separate policies; leave managers should track combined usage manually and follow the state's determination.
How Leave Can Be Taken
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Intermittent and reduced-schedule leave are only available in limited situations, where the employee has been out of work for at least 7 consecutive days and needs to return to a partial-week schedule. If the employee does not meet this stipulation, intermittent or reduced-schedule leave does not apply. Follow the state's determination.
Pay and Benefits
Benefit Coordination
📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft's policy is not configured to exclude work-related disabilities, as this is not always automatic and instead situational. Configuring an exclusion on this policy would prevent proper handling of these cases until the workers' compensation claim is resolved.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Case managers should review any workers' compensation situations individually and determine how to proceed based on the state's recommendation.
💡 Best Practice: Employers may be required to provide information to the state if the employee is receiving workers' compensation benefits to ensure wage replacement is correctly being administered.
Elimination Period
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
📝 Configuration Note: The elimination period is configured as an inclusive 7-calendar-day waiting period, meaning shorter claims are not automatically denied outright.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Elimination periods should be recorded and confirmed in the platform based on the state's determination; follow the state's recommendation for claims that do not meet the payable limitation.
Interaction with other Policies
Refer to Legislative guidance for details.
📝 Configuration Note: RI-STD is not concurrent with RI-CAREGIVER (Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance Leave).
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: If both policies are eligible on a case, leave managers must adjudicate so there are no overlapping approved date ranges, or deny one or both policies.
❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Under Rhode Island law, an employee may not be paid RI-STD and RI-CAREGIVER (Rhode Island Temporary Caregiver Insurance Leave) benefits that together exceed 30 times the employee's weekly benefit rate in a benefit year. AbsenceSoft cannot enforce this combined cap across the two separate policies; leave managers should track combined usage manually and follow the state's determination.
Required Paperwork/Communication
📝 Configuration Note: AbsenceSoft provides core paperwork for RI-STD through the RI Temporary Disability Insurance and Temporary Caregiver Insurance Programs (RITDIANDTCI) paperwork/attachment. Paperwork is configured to be sent as part of the Employee Eligibility packet.
RI-STD certification forms are not available in the platform and are made available to the employee through the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (RIDLT) online portal.❌ Manual Action or Tracking Required: Updates to existing paperwork items can occur. When updates happen, they are automatically applied to paperwork unless the client has customized. Clients with customizations on the relevant paperwork will need to review to determine how to adopt the new paperwork and apply any new customizations to the updated paperwork manually.
Payroll Calculations
This policy uses a Base Wage Calculation Method developed from information published by the state of Rhode Island. It aims to closely replicate the calculations performed by the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training.
📝 Configuration Note: Payroll Calculations are available based on the client package. If you want to learn more about Payroll Calculations, reach out to your CSM representative.
Pay History
Uses the 5 most-recent quarterly totals prior to the Leave Start Date.
📝 Configuration Note: Gross quarterly totals include all wages reported to the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training (DLT) on Form TX-17, including base wages, overtime, bonuses, commissions, tips, and vacation pay. Annual bonuses are reported in the quarter paid. Rhode Island uses the single highest of the oldest four quarters; a large bonus in that quarter may significantly increase the estimate.
Policy Configuration
A State Weekly Max is configured in the policy's Benefit Settings.
📝 Configuration Note: The State Weekly Max is $1,150.00, effective 07/01/2026 (up from $1,103.00, effective 07/01/2025 through 06/30/2026).
📝 Configuration Note: RI-STD is now available as a core (v2) policy for Payroll Calculations customers, so a custom policy is no longer needed to support this calculation.
💡 Best Practice: Confirm any policy customizations have the correct rates before relying on them.
Rhode Island Base Wage Calculation Method Logic
-
Retrieve Pay History:
-
Retrieve the last five full quarters of pay history prior to the Leave Start Date. Remove the most recent quarter, leaving the oldest four.
-
-
Calculate the employee's Average Weekly Wage (AWW):
-
Sum the four quarters and verify the total is more than $1,000.
-
If more than $1,000, identify the quarter with the highest total earnings among the four.
-
If less than $1,000, return $0 as the Base Weekly Wage.
-
-
-
Calculate the Base Weekly Wage:
-
Apply the state benefit percent (4.62%) to the highest quarterly earnings, then divide by 13 to determine the AWW.
-
Retrieve the state max from Benefit Settings within the Policy Configuration.
-
If the AWW is less than the state min ($130), use $130 as the Base Weekly Wage.
-
If the AWW exceeds the state max, cap the result at the state max.
-
Return this as the Base Weekly Wage.
-
📝 Configuration Note: The value returned is an AbsenceSoft estimate based on the state's published formula. This estimate should be used for planning purposes only and confirmed against the official state determination before being treated as final.
Need Help?
For questions about policy configuration or case management, contact your AbsenceSoft support team or consult the Legislative Guidance for compliance details.