Winter Webinar Q&A

February 15, 2024

Topics

Membership withdrawal

Inactive Employment Report

Average overtime hours

Contract Number of Months

EDX “flagged” error message

Qualification status changes

Seasonal employees

Afterschool employees

Voluntary contributions

PERS account reconciliation

PERS invoicing

Membership withdrawal

Q1: I have an employee whose records have been suspended for four months. The message is “withdrawal pending.” How long does that usually take?

When a PERS member requests to withdraw from PERS, it can take about 120 days to process. Any errors in the member’s account must be corrected before the withdrawal can be completed. We recommend you contact your ESC representative to ask about the status of the withdrawal.

Inactive Employment Report

Q2: I ran an Inactive Employment Report and got a list of a lot of people. What do I do?

You need to submit termination records for those employees , as explained in employer reporting guide 15, Reporting a Termination or Death . If it is a lot of employees, reach out to your ESC representative for assistance.

Be aware that employees on an extended leave of absence will appear on the list. Do not terminate them unless they are leaving your employment. If they are, you must end their leave before submitting a termination record for them. EDX will not allow you to submit a termination record for an employee who is on a leave status.

Best practice is to submit a Detail 1 – 02 Termination record for any employee who has not worked in the past 90 days and is not on leave. Termination status date will be last date paid or last date worked, whichever is later. This does not include school employees on summer break who will be returning in the fall.

If you do not terminate inactive employees, their online records will not be accurate. Their Online Member Services (OMS) account can show incorrect service-credit accrual. Also, status checks done by or for other employers can be incorrect. Therefore, it’s important to report terminations in a timely manner.

About the Inactive Employment report: This report lists employees who are no longer actively working for you but haven’t been terminated in EDX. Employees who have had no wages reported in the last 90 days will appear on this list with the exception of working PERS retirees. Learn more in employer reporting guide 24, Running Reports.

Average overtime hours

Q3: I work in the fire service, and I’m wondering about the average overtime number we have to enter when reporting a new employee. What is the purpose of that? What amount should I enter?

When you report a new employee to PERS on a Detail 1 record, you must choose a number between 0 and 2,000 in the Average Overtime Hours field. The number is an estimate of the number of overtime hours the position might be expected to work in a calendar year. It is determined at the class or position level, not on an individual employee level.

The purpose of the average overtime number is to put a cap on the amount of overtime hours that PERS will include when calculating an employee’s final average salary, which is used to determine the employee’s pension. The number prevents employees from trying to increase their pension by working an inordinate amount of overtime in the last few years before retirement, which is called “pension spiking.”

To choose the number, determine how much overtime a particular position, not an individual, may require in a calendar year. Employees can work more overtime than that, but the salary they earn for overtime over the limit will not be included when PERS calculates the employee’s pension.

The limit only affects Oregon Public Service Retirement Plan (OPSRP) employees. However, Average Overtime Hours is a required field, so you must choose a number when hiring a Tier One or Tier Two employee, even though the number has no effect.

To change an employee’s or a group of employees’ average overtime number, submit a Demographic Correction Request (DCR). Only PERS can change average overtime.

Learn more about average overtime in employer reporting guide 18, Reporting or Changing ‘Average Overtime.’ Learn how to submit a DCR in employer reporting guide 20, Creating a Demographic Correction Request.

Q4: Do you only report average overtime when hiring someone?

Yes.

If you need to change an employee’s average overtime number because you entered it wrong, submit a DCR. If you need to change the average overtime for a small group of employees because of a change in overtime requirements, submit a DCR for each employee. If you need to change the average overtime number for a large group of employees, contact your ESC representative for help. For instructions on creating a DCR, read employer reporting guide 20, Creating a Demographic Correction Request .

Contract Number of Months

Q5: I report for a school district, and I have a question about the Contract No. of Months on a new-hire record. What about people who don’t work regular contracts with us, like substitutes and coaches?

The Contract No. of Months field on a Detail 1 record tells PERS how many months out of a school year a school employee is expected to work. This helps determine the employee’s educational service credit at retirement.

To choose the right number of months, understand that the employee does not have to be under contract. The number should match the number of months the school is open for business and/or the number of months an employee is expected to work during the school year.

For example, choose 09 for employees of schools that close for three months in the summer. Choose 10 for schools that close for two months in the summer or for employees who don’t work in the summer. Choose 11 for schools that close for one month a year or for employees who don’t work one month of the year. And choose 12 for schools that are open year-round or for employees who are expected to work 12 months of the calendar year, such as office staff or custodians.

The Contract No. of Months field is only used by schools. Every other type of employer should leave the default 00 in that field. If a school employer leaves the 00 default on an employee’s record, PERS will default the number to 12 at retirement, which may not be accurate for that employee.

Q6: When you’re looking at contracted months, do you include any months with a day worked?

Yes. Include any calendar months during which the school is open for even one day.

Q7: If I’m verifying that the data you have on an employee is correct, can I mark the employment information as verified?

Yes, if you have validated information to be correct and you want to mark it as verified, that’s fine. That will save time in the future if the employee asks for a data verification before retirement.

To understand more about data verification, read employer reporting guide 19, Completing Work List Requests, “Employer Data Verification Request” section, steps 5 and 6 on page 10.

Q8: We have Head Start teachers who take up to two months off during the summer, but they might come in as on-call employees during that time. Do we need to put them on LOA for the summer or change their status?

Do not put them on a leave of absence (LOA). An LOA is an official leave, which is different than not having work to perform.

You also don’t need to change their status; they just won’t have hours and wages to report for a period of time.

For their contract number of months, year-round employees like office staff and custodians should have 12 months if their position is expected to work year-round.

Q9: So, contract number of months doesn’t mean a binding contract? It’s just the time they could be working? Our substitutes and coaches don’t sign contracts.

Correct. It doesn’t mean that they have an actual contract. It just means the number of months in a school year that are available for them to work and that they are asked to work.

Q10: Some of our county employees, like counselors, work at schools. They take summer off because their schools are closed. Are counties allowed to use contract months? Or only school employers? Currently, I put them on LWOP.

Only school employers choose a contract number of months. As a county, you would use 00 default on a Detail 1 record to report the contract number of months.

Regarding putting the employees on LWOP, if they are active employees for you and aren’t going on official leave, do not report them as on leave. If they are taking summer off, those are just months that have no hours or wages to report. If their summer break lasts longer than three months, however, just be aware they may appear on your Inactive Employee list.

Q11: We have someone who works for our theater program. They are hourly, and some months they have no hours because there’s no show going on. Should I term them and rehire them?

No. If the employee–employer relationship remains, there is no need to report a termination. During a month with no work, you just won’t report any hours or wages.

However, if they do not work for you for at least three months, the best practice is to report a termination and rehire them if or when they return to employment. On the termination record, report their last day of service back to when they last worked or had paid time off.

Q12: How many hours do you have to have in a month to get service credit?

You must have worked the majority of a calendar month (presumed to be at least 50 hours) to earn service credit for that month. However, any month in which an employee takes LWOP of 11 working days or more will not earn service credit, no matter how many hours they work the rest of the month. Learn more about the effect of LWOP on service credit and other PERS benefits in employer reporting guide 11, Reporting a Leave.

EDX “flagged” error message

Q13: What is the significance of 200 hours for a Flagged message?

When you complete a report and release it, it goes through a validation process during Employer Data Exchange’s (EDX) overnight batch run. If EDX finds information in a record that is or may be incorrect, it flags the record with one of four error types, which are explained in employer reporting guide 6, Correcting Suspended Records.

If you report an employee’s hours as 200 or more for a pay period, EDX will flag the record with a Flagged error type and include the message “The Hours Worked (Regular) are greater than 200.” It wants you to double check your entry because 200 regular hours (not overtime hours) are a lot of hours for one pay period and might be a mistake.

Qualification status changes

Q14: I have multiple coaches in non-qualifying positions. Sometimes I get an error message that they have met 600 hours because of another position with another district. How do I correctly take deductions on payroll?

When an employee in a non-qualifying position reaches 600 hours of work in a calendar year, even if it’s with multiple employers, their position becomes qualifying. When this happens, you need to submit a DCR and ask that PERS change the position type from non-qualifying service to active service. Every employer for whom that person works will have to do the same. This does not change the reported hire intent for the individual.

To ensure the correct Individual Account Program (IAP) contribution type, include the contribution code type for your employees’ IAP (MPAT, MPPT, or EPPT) in the DCR Comments box. ESC will help determine their IAP contributions retroactively and how you should report them going forward.

Once PERS changes the position type to active service (qualifying), EDX will calculate and invoice you (and the employee’s other PERS-participating employers) for contributions on the employee’s pay thus far that year.

You will then start reporting that employee’s wages as 01 – Regular Wages instead of 02 – Regular/Non-Qualifying. The following year, run an Eligibility Report toward the end of the year to check if the employee is still qualifying. If they leave your employment the next year, they would qualify for that year as well because of partial-year rules, as explained in employer quick-reference guide “Determining Qualification for a Partial Year.”

Q19: Can you explain LOM and what it means?

LOM means “loss of membership.” When OPSRP members who are not vested do not perform 600 hours of service in each of five consecutive calendar years, they go into a loss of membership status. When this happens, they forfeit the retirement credit that they earned. They will receive their IAP account but will not receive a pension.

If you will continue to employ someone who enters LOM status, you will need to start a new job segment for them with a non-qualifying status. To learn more, read the January 2023 edition of Employer News, “Annual OPSRP loss-of-membership status applied in January.”

Seasonal employees

Q15: We have seasonal employees who get hired on grants and are PERS-eligible. When they work over the summer and I terminate their employment, do the hours they accumulated stay in their name when they come back next summer?

Yes, the hours will still be there. Keep in mind, however, that an employee must work six months in a row for the same employer with no break greater than 30 consecutive days to qualify for PERS membership. If they work only a few months a year, they may never qualify for membership. That means that when they retire or withdraw, they will not receive PERS benefits.

However, it’s possible that the employee achieved PERS membership before working for you. To check, run a Status Check before reporting their first wages. For instructions, read employer reporting guide 24, Running Reports , “Status Check Report” section.

Afterschool employees

Q18: Our charter school has afterschool employees. Since they aren’t school employees, should we still report their information to PERS?

If you are chartered under a school district, all your employees are school employees and should be reported to PERS.

Voluntary contributions

Q16: We have an employee who does voluntary contributions, and her last day was yesterday. I was issuing her final check, but PERS didn’t have the member redirect available , so my records didn’t match. Can I just figure out what the voluntary contribution would be by multiplying 0.75% by what she made last pay period?

Yes.

The exact invoice amount for the member redirect contribution of 0.75% or 2.5% is not available in the Unbilled Activity section of your statement until after the 6% IAP contributions are paid and the redirect portion is moved to the employee’s Employee Pension Stability Account (EPSA).

In this situation, you can calculate the voluntary contribution amount on your own. If the employee has met the member redirect salary threshold for that month, then the member redirect/voluntary contribution amount would be 0.75% of subject salary for an OPSRP member and 2.5% of subject salary for a Tier One/Tier Two member.

Q17: This employee was receiving Paid Leave Oregon benefits. Would the 6% be based on the amount the employee grossed plus their Paid Leave Oregon payments?

If your organization runs its own Paid Leave Oregon program and makes payments directly to employees, then yes, include the Paid Leave Oregon payments. If your organization has the state-run or third party–run program, then do not include the payments with their salary. Learn more in employer reporting guide 13, Family and Medical Leave , “Reporting Paid Leave Oregon payments employees receive” section.

PERS account reconciliation

Q20: Is there a report that will help you do monthly reconciliation?

Your statement is the best way to compare what PERS is invoicing you for versus your records of what you expect to be invoiced for. You can also run a Year-to-Date Wage and Contribution Summary Report to see wage and contribution data for one or all your employees for a particular year. For instructions, read employer reporting guide 24, Running Reports, “Year-to-Date Wage and Contribution Summary Report” section. For instructions on downloading your statement, read employer reporting guide 26, Understanding Your Statement.

PERS invoicing

Q21: On my billing, what PERS pulls doesn’t match what I was expecting. Why?

There are several factors that can make your PERS bill differ from your records. Here are steps you can take to ensure that your records match PERS’ records.

1. Make sure you’re using the right contribution rate. For instructions on how to find your current rates (you pay different rates for employees per PERS plan and job classification), go to the View Your Statement function in EDX, which will open to the first tab, Current Contribution Rates. For more information, read employer reporting guide 26, Understanding Your Statement, section “Tab 1: Current Contribution Rates.”
2. Double check which employees are doing voluntary contributions. Run an IAP Voluntary Contribution report, which will list employees who have started and stopped voluntary contributions. For instructions, read employer reporting guide 24, Running Reports, “IAP Voluntary Contribution Report” section.
3. Check the employee’s contribution status to find out if an employee’s qualifying or non-qualifying status has changed. Two reports will help you check this: the Status Check Report and the Year-to-Date Wage and Contribution Summary Report.
4. Ensure the salary you are using to calculate contributions matches the subject salary you have reported to PERS. To do this, use the Year-to-Date Wage and Contribution Summary to confirm wages and contributions (for instructions, read employer reporting guide 24, Running Reports). Another option is to view a statement to check against the IAP fund type and ensure that the salary we are using to calculate IAP matches what was actually paid. Remember that unposted records will not be included in your invoices until they post.
5. Ask your ESC representative for help. They can help you pinpoint areas that might be throwing it off.

Q22: On my Unbilled Activity screen in my statement, I have two invoices. One is an IAP voluntary contribution, and when I click the link, it gives me my IAP amount. Will there be a link so that I can print that out? Currently, I have to copy and paste it to a Word doc.