Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS)
Classified employees and some faculty members participate in Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS) of Βι¶ΉΣ³». Classified employees must be employed at 50% or greater FTE to participate in this plan.
PERS of Βι¶ΉΣ³» is a tax-qualified defined benefit plan created by the Legislature as an independent public agency to provide a reasonable base income to qualified employees who have been employed by a public employer and whose earning capacity has been removed or has been substantially reduced by age or disability. It was also created to make government employment attractive to qualified employees and to encourage them to remain in government service for such periods of time as to give employers and the people of the state the full benefit of the training and experience gained by the employees while employed in public service.
Membership Eligibility & Contribution Types
- If you are a classified employee of the State of Βι¶ΉΣ³» in a position considered to be half-time or more (according to the full-time work week of the employer), you must enroll in the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS). Faculty members who are active PERS participants when they start a faculty contract must enroll in the Public Employees’ Retirement System (PERS).
- If a benefits-eligible employee was enrolled in PERS previously and has not withdrawn his/her contributions, the employee must enroll in PERS. Faculty who are a member of PERS of Βι¶ΉΣ³» must continue to participate in PERS.
- The employee and the employer each make a contribution to PERS. The contribution made by you is on an after-tax basis. The employee contribution to PERS under this plan is 17.5% and the employer contribution is 17.5%.
- For Police/Fire Members, the employee/employer contribution is 25.75% each.
- If you terminate during the first five years of your employment and you take a refund of employee contributions, upon termination, it will close your account with PERS and result in no future entitlement to a PERS benefit.
- You may switch to Employer Paid Contribution (EPC) at any time, but you may only make this election once.
- Employee contributions remaining in your PERS account at your retirement will result in your part of your income being non-taxable.
- Employees may voluntarily choose to participate under the Employer Paid Contribution (EPC) plan at any time.
- Contributions made by the employer under Employer Paid Contribution (EPC) retirement are not available for refund to you should you terminate your employment.
- Once you select the Employer Paid Contribution (EPC) plan, you cannot switch back to the Employee/Employer Contribution (EEC) paid plan.
- The employer makes the contribution to PERS at a rate of 33.50% for Regular members and 50% for Police/Fire members.
- Your salary is multiplied by a factor to determine the pay rate and reflects the contributions made by the employer to PERS. The current EPC factor is 0.856530% for Regular members and .796000% for Police/Fire.
- The employer-paid option provides you with more take-home pay than the employee/employer option because of the tax treatment under each option.