Retirement Service Credit

Retirement Service Credit Includes:

• All periods of service for which you have paid retirement contributions
• Periods of creditable workers’ compensation
• Your service credit will be extended if you receive a payout for any unused vacation days upon your retirement/separation from state service
  • Your retirement benefit will be calculated as though you remained on the payroll for the balance of your unused vacation time
  • This adjustment will not alter your actual date of retirement/separation
• Properly documented voluntary leave taken after 6/9/94 counts as free retirement service credit.
• Any periods of purchased service credit will be included in your total retirement service credit.
  • Please refer to the Tier I summary plan description for further information regarding possible retirement service credit purchase opportunities.

Retirement Service Credit Excludes:

• Any periods for which you have not paid retirement contributions, this may include:
  • Un-purchased leaves of absence without pay;
  • Periods for which you exclusively received non-creditable workers’ compensation payments;
  • Periods of state service for which you did not participate in Tier I; or
  • Periods for which you participated in Tier I but later refunded your retirement contributions.

Part-Time Service:

• If you have had part-time service, you should know that:
  • your part-time service will be treated as full-time service when determining your eligibility to retire and your benefit percentage for each year of service.
  • your retirement income will be calculated to produce a benefit which reflects the portion of a full-time schedule you worked throughout your state employment.
• Example:
  • Lets assume a retiree worked part-time at 50% of a full-time schedule for 10 years
    • For eligibility purposes, this member would receive credit for a full ten years.
    • For determining the benefit rate from the chart, this member would receive.
    • credit for a full ten years.
    • However, when calculating this member’s benefit percentage, this worker.
    • would only receive credit for 5 years (the full-time equivalent of working 50% of full-time for 10 years).