USC Basic and Supplemental Disability

Disability insurance is designed to replace income when an employee is medically certified as unable to work due to an injury or medical condition.

At USC, there are three types of disability insurance:

  1. Short-term disability, which is required by California state law. Every faculty or staff member is enrolled at the time of hire and can make changes on a quarterly basis.
  2. Supplemental disability, which provides a larger percentage of base wages for up to 52 weeks.  This is only applicable to Short Term Disability. 
  3. Long-term disability, which is automatically provided at no cost to all eligible faculty and staff. It begins after 52 weeks of short-term disability insurance.  For more details, visit www.metlife.com/info/USC/.  

Faculty and staff may only enroll into the Supplemental insurance plan during the first 30 days of hire or during Open Enrollment.  

The cost for Supplemental Disability, provided as follows, is deducted through payroll reduction.

Cost per pay period (pre-tax): 0.3% of base pay
Pays/duration:  100% of weekly base pay – one week for each year completed of employment, up to a maximum of 10 weeks

80% of weekly base pay for the remainder of 52 weeks

For contribution and benefit rates  on USC’s short- and long-term disability  benefits, please, visit the Disability page on the Employee Gateway. All disability rates are subject to change per the state of California and are updated annually by December on the Employee Gateway.