I thought this was going to be an insurance question; with my employer's plan you can elect to get STD, LTD, both or neither. The idea is that if you have an emergency savings account, you can forego STD and most likely come out ahead (payments for STD usually exceed the payout, if any, that you get if you ever have to use it). If you live paycheck to paycheck, STD keeps an extended illness from wrecking your credit report and LTD keeps you from losing your house. The reason this is relevant to your question is that employer plan STD insurance would not even exist if employers had an obligation to pay you for more days than your sick days allotment. They have no such obligation.