Purpose
To provide SUNY agencies with instructions on how to update a Tier 6 employee’s Retirement Plan page due to the two-year look back
Affected Employees
Tier 6 SUNY employees with a Retirement Plan type of 7Z (TIAA)
Background
On March 16, 2012, the Governor signed legislation creating Tier 6. This tier applies to employees joining a retirement system after March 31, 2012. Effective with the first checks in April 2013 legislation required the employee contribution rate to be based on the employee’s annual wage.
Once a Tier 6 member has reached three years of membership, his or her contribution rate is based on total pensionable earnings from two years prior*.
*Total earnings should include pensionable earnings from all PayServ job records, as well as agencies that are not in PayServ.
The employee contribution rates are:
| Wages | Contribution Rate |
| $45,000 or less | 3% |
| $45,000.01 to $55,000 | 3.5% |
| $55,000.01 to $75,000 | 4.5% |
| $75,000.01 to $100,000 | 5.75% |
| More than $100,000 | 6% |
The Benefit Plans and the narrative descriptions are found below.
Note: The variable contribution rates are identified within the description.
SUNY and State Education Department
Benefit Plan Description
| T6S030 | TIAA SUNY TIER 6 3PCT |
| T6S035 | TIAA SUNY TIER 6 3.5PCT |
| T6S045 | TIAA SUNY TIER 6 4.5PCT |
| T6S575 | TIAA SUNY TIER 6 5.75PCT |
| T6S060 | TIAA SUNY TIER 6 6PCT |
Effective Date(s)
Effective December 15, 2016 for paychecks dated January 11, 2017
Eligibility Criteria
Tier 6 TIAA members who enrolled in the ORP between April 1, 2012 and December 31, 2013
Agency Actions
Each SUNY campus is required to update the Retirement Plans page to change the Benefit Plan based on the agency’s review of the “two-year look back” salary. If updates are needed they should be entered in PayServ between December 23, 2016 and December 30, 2016 to affect the check of January 11, 2017.
The public query, SUNY_TIER6_TWOYR_LOOKBACK_AGY will provide employee’s earnings based on a calendar year. The query will prompt for calendar year, enter 2015. The second prompt will ask for your agency code.
The charts found in the “Background” section of this bulletin should be used to determine if the contribution rate has changed and an update to their Benefit Plan is needed.
The steps to update the Benefit Plan are as follows:
- Open the Retirement Plans page. (Home>Benefits>Enroll In Benefits>Retirement Plans).
- Enter employee's Empl ID in search box.
- Click Search.
- Select the correct Empl Rcd #for the corresponding Job Record (if multiple records exist).
- Insert a row in the “Coverage” section and enter the payroll period begin date in the Deduction Begin Date field.
- Enter the employee’s Date of Membership in the “Election Date” field. The same election date should be carried forward from the previous page.
- Select the appropriate Benefit Plan dependent upon the employees’ total annual earnings. (Use the charts provided in the “Background” section to determine the new Benefit Plan)
- Save the transaction.
Questions
Questions regarding the two-year look back should be addressed to Dave Morrell at SUNY (518) 320-1430 or [email protected].
Questions regarding the PayServ entry can be directed to the Payroll Retirement Mailbox.