Health Benefit and Pension Changes Phase 3

Health Benefit and Pension Changes – Phase 3

All participating active employees are now required to contribute toward their health benefit costs based on a percentage of the premium. The health and prescription insurance premiums will be set each January 1 and will be communicated to you the previous October during the Open Enrollment Period. For purposes of calculating contributions, the premium for employees will include the cost of medical and prescription benefits only. Dental Insurance is a separate option with its own premium. The employee contribution will depend on each employee's base salary and coverage tier (single, member and spouse or member with child(ren), or family). Contributions will continue to be made by payroll deduction on a pre-tax basis.

Under the percentage of premium contribution, all employees hired prior to June 28, 2011, will gradually increase their contribution rates over a four-year period. The phase in is 25 percent of contribution in year one, 50 percent of contribution in year two, 75 percent of contribution in year three and 100 percent of contribution in year four. In year four, participating employees will pay the full contribution rate, ranging from three percent of the premium for the lowest-paid employees to 35 percent for the highest-paid employees. No employee will pay less than 1.5 percent of their base salary.

Please note that although the benefit year runs from January through December, for purposes of the phase in of employee contributions, year one is from July 1, 2011 through June 30, 2012; year two is from July 1, 2012 through June 30, 2013; year three is from July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2014 and year four is from July 1, 2014 through June 30, 2015.

Effective July 1, 2013 or pay date July 5, 2013, the year 3 phase in will occur. The 75% of contribution will be compared with the 1.5 percent of base salary and employees will pay the higher amount as the premium for their health and prescription payroll deduction.

Employees hired after June 28, 2011

All employees who are hired after June 28, 2011 and elect to participate in the health benefit program will pay the 100 percent of the contribution rates for the level of coverage selected.

Additional information of these important changes to your health benefits can be found on the Human Resources Website or the Division of Pensions and Benefits website at

Employees covered under the PERS and TPAF retirement System

Effective July 1, 2013 or pay date July 5, 2013, the year 3 phase in for the PERS and TPAF pension increase will occur. The employee contribution will change from 6.64% to 6.78%.

Additional information of these important changes to your pension benefits can be found on the Human Resources Website or the Division of Pensions and Benefits website at