38. 1 Employee’s options for coverage by retirement plan are described by plan brochures which are available from the Retirement Office.
For employees hired on or after July 13, 1997, Plan 2 COLA is reduced to up to a two percent (2%) COLA and retirement is calculated on average salary of the three (3) highest twelve (12) consecutive months rather than single highest year.
38.2 Effective July 19, 2015, the County shall discontinue employer pick up the employee’s statutorily required retirement contribution.
38.3 The benefit enhancement under Government Code section 31676.14 (2% @55.5) shall be applicable only to those employees who retire after the County’s implementation of section 31676.14.
The enhancement applies to all future service and all service back to the date of employment pursuant to the Board of Supervisor’s authority under Government Code section 31678.2(a). Government Code section 31678.2(b) authorizes the collection, from employees, of all or part of the contributions by a member or employer or both, that would have been required if section 31676.14 had been in effect during the time period specified in the resolution adopting section 31676.14, and that the time period specified in the resolution will be all future and past general service back to the date of employment. Based upon this understanding and agreement, employees will share in the cost of the 31676.14 enhancements through increased retirement contributions by way of payroll deductions and shall contribute three percent (3%) of compensation earnable as defined in SamCERA regulations.
These contributions will not be reduced by the employer pick-ups described above in Section 38.2.
New Retirement Plans:
For new employees hired on or after July 10, 2011, upon the adoption of a resolution making Government Code section 31676.1 effective, the retirement benefit options shall be:
Current Plan 3: Non-contributory plan. Plan 3 is closed to all employees hired on or after December 23, 2012. If an employee is already in Plan 3 with the option to transfer to Plan 5 after providing the equivalent of five (5) years of service (10,400 hours) to the County that option is for future Plan 5 service only. After providing the equivalent of ten (10) years of service (20,800 hours) to the County, employees may elect to transfer to Plan 4 by entering into an agreement with the San Mateo County Employees’ Retirement Association (SamCERA) to pay all of the incremental employee and employer contributions that would have been required if the employee had been in Plan 4 since the date of employment, plus interest.
Plan 5: 1.725% @ 58 (pre-enhancement tier) with no 3% cost share
Current Plan 4: 2% @ 55.5 (as described in 38.3 above) is closed to new employees hired on or after the effective date of the commencement of Plan 5. However, employees may transfer into Plan 4 after providing the equivalent of ten years (20,800 hours) of service in Plan 5, and entering into an agreement with the San Mateo County Employees’ Retirement Association to pay all of the employee and employer contributions that would have been required if the employee had been in Plan 4 since the date of employment, plus interest.
38.4 Retirement COLA Cost:
Effective July 3, 2016, all employees will pay fifty percent (50%) of the Retirement COLA cost as determined by SamCERA. COLA costs are included in the Plan 7 statutory rate.
Effective June 21, 2015, employees received a one-half percent (.5%) salary increase to offset the additional employee payment toward retirement COLA.