Paid Leave Oregon and PERS reporting FAQ

Topics

Using accrued leave in addition to Paid Leave Oregon

Employees on 24-hour or weekend-day schedules

Reporting contributions paid to the Paid Leave Oregon program

Reporting a Paid Leave Oregon leave

Q1: Employees who work under 600 hours per year can qualify for Paid Leave Oregon. Do we need to report those non-qualifying employees as on unpaid leave?

Yes. If a non-qualifying employee is on leave and receiving no pay from the employer for 11 working days, report them as on leave.

Q2: Does Paid Leave Oregon include working retirees?

Yes. Anyone employed in Oregon who qualifies for Paid Leave Oregon can apply to take the leave. If a working retiree takes a Paid Leave Oregon leave, and they are receiving pay directly from the employer during the leave, report that pay to PERS and do not place the employee on leave. If a working retiree is not receiving pay directly from the employer and is away from work for at least 11 business days in a calendar month, do not change their status to 03 On Family Leave or 07 On Leave of Absence. EDX does not allow you to put a working retiree on leave. Instead, submit a DCR informing PERS of the retired employee’s leave, including the date range. That puts a note on the employee’s record explaining why they were not receiving pay during this period.

Q3: If employee is on leave and not receiving any pay, do we report the leave without pay (LWOP)?

Yes. If a person is on leave and receiving no pay from the employer for 11 working days, report the leave back to the first day.

Q4: Do we report an employee taking LWOP as soon as their leave starts?

Only if you know the LWOP will be at least 11 business days.

Q5: With Paid Leave Oregon, do we still use status code 03 - On Family Leave if they are on medical leave? If we are using a third party, and they aren’t getting any pay from us, we should use 03?

Status codes 03 and 07 work the same in the PERS system. You can use either one. But for consistency, you may want to use 03 for all Paid Leave Oregon, family, and medical leaves.

Using accrued leave in addition to Paid Leave Oregon

Q6: If the employee is receiving payments on top of their leave, are they NOT considered to be on leave? For instance, we have an employee who will be using a fourth of their hours per day of their contractual paid leave to supplement their third-party equivalent plan benefits to 100% wage replacement. Is this NOT considered to be on leave?

Correct. If the employee is using their contracted paid leave accruals and receiving pay directly from their employer to supplement their third-party equivalent plan benefits, they are not on an unpaid leave.

Q7: If I have an employee on Paid Leave Oregon leave, fully unpaid by the employer, then each business day counts toward the 11 days. If they have 11 business days/month, I report the leave and they don’t get service credit. If that same employee uses any leave accrual for any of the time, for each day they do that, that day doesn’t count toward the 11 days of LWOP?

Correct. A day that includes any leave hours paid by the employer is not an LWOP and does not count toward the 11 business days.

Q8: If we plan to supplement our employees for the portion of their pay that is not provided by the state plan, do we report only the employer-paid portion?

Yes. Only report the employer-paid portion. Report in the same way you report their regular wages: include the equivalent hours and, if they are in a qualifying position, their 6% IAP contribution.

Q9: Do we count a day as LWOP even if the employee uses a small portion of their sick leave?

No. Any day for which an employee is receiving pay from the employer, including sick leave or other paid leaves, is not counted as LWOP. Even if it’s only a couple of hours of pay a day.

Q10: So, if you are on the state-run plan, you report the leave of absence, but you do not have to report their salary while on leave?

Correct. If you have a state-run Paid Leave Oregon plan and are not paying the employee during the leave of absence, then there is no salary to report. Do not report payments the employee is receiving from the state-run plan as salary. The only circumstance in which you would report Paid Leave Oregon payments to PERS as salary is when you have an employer-run plan.

Q11: If the employee is supplementing their state-paid leave with a small portion of sick leave, do we report the state paid leave pay to PERS?

No, do not report the state-paid leave to PERS. Only report to PERS the sick leave hours and wages paid by an employer (and IAP contribution if employee is in a qualifying position).

Q12: Our employees are staying on payroll, using accruals, and receiving payments paid to our agency from a third-party insurance carrier. We currently report 100% of their wages. Do we keep reporting those wages?

In this scenario, you should contact your ESC representative so that they can verify the source of the employee payments. If, in fact, your agency is receiving funds for employees from a third party and you are paying it to employees through your payroll, and it’s included on their W-2s, then that pay would be considered pay from the employer. You would report the wages and equivalent hours to PERS, and you would not place the employee on leave.

Q13: We have a third-party Paid Leave Oregon plan. My employee has been receiving payments from them and has been out since mid-September. She has opted to use sick leave to pay the amount of her part of pay she’s losing. If she is using any accrued pay at all, we would not report her as on a leave?

That’s correct. But if she stops using sick leave and is out for another 11+ business days in a month, then you would put her on leave.

Employees on 24-hour or weekend-day schedules

Q14: My organization has shifts on all seven days of the week. If an employee is on LWOP but some days fall on weekends, is that not reportable if they have 11 days?

In this situation, PERS can use your “working days” instead of PERS business days to determine what counts as a day off work. If you are an employer whose working days include all days, including weekends, please provide PERS with your actual working days records or an official statement signed by an authorized representative such as a director or head of your organization that clarifies your working days. Once PERS reviews and approves your submission, PERS will rely on your working days instead of PERS business days. Then you would include all the employee’s unpaid working days in the LWOP count (including weekend days) to determine if the employee is on LWOP for at least 11 working days in a month. If they are, you should report the LWOP to PERS.

Reporting contributions paid to the Paid Leave Oregon program

Q15: Do we report to PERS the contributions that we pay to the program?

No, but if the employer pays an OPSRP employee’s portion of the contribution, that amount is reported to PERS as salary. The Paid Leave Oregon program is funded by contributions paid by each employer and employee that equal up to 1% of the employee’s salary. The 1% is funded 60% by the employee (as a deduction from their gross wages) and 40% by the employer (reported through the combined payroll report form).

Employee contributions to Paid Leave Oregon are not reported to PERS.
Employer payments to OPSRP members to cover the employee’s contribution (called employer “pick-up”) are reported to PERS.

Employer “pick-up” option

Employers have the option to pick up their employee’s portion of the Paid Leave Oregon contribution (i.e., the employee’s 60% of the 1% contribution).

For OPSRP members, the amount the employer is picking up and paying on behalf of the employee is subject salary because it results in a type of compensation to the employee. Report this amount to PERS on the employee’s wage record as an addition to the employee’s regular subject salary. Include a 6% IAP contribution on the subject salary if the employee is in a qualifying position.
For Tier One/Tier Two members, the amount the employer is picking up and paying on behalf of the employee is non-subject salary because it is specifically excluded by Oregon law. Do not report this amount to PERS.

For more information, read the “Paid Leave Oregon” section in employer reporting guide 13, Family and Medical Leave.