Your future benefits are funded by contributions made by you and your employer during your period of membership and the investment earnings from those contributions. These contributions are held in trust and invested by the Washington State Investment Board.
Your plan is a 401(a) defined benefit plan. This means that at retirement you will receive a benefit based on service credit and average final compensation. The amount of your contributions or your employers’ contributions will not be a factor in calculating your retirement benefit.
You are required to contribute a percentage of your “earnable compensation” to PERS. The member contribution rate is set by law and may be changed only by legislative amendment.
“Earnable compensation” means all salaries and wages paid by an employer to a member for service. This includes overtime, back pay, lump-sum payments for accrued leave and tax-deferred wages as defined by the Internal Revenue Code.
Cash payments for unused sick leave are excluded from earnable compensation for employees of the State, four-year universities, the Evergreen State College, community and technical colleges and school districts.
For questions regarding earnable compensation reported to PERS, contact your employer.
Employer contributions are based on a percentage of your salary and are not matching. Employer contributions go toward future retirement benefits, are not credited to your account and cannot be withdrawn.
Because the plan is designed to provide retirement income, you may not borrow from or against your contributions.