State OKs retirement plan for part-timers

Wednesday, Oct. 29, 2003 | 9:38 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- A plan that will save the state an estimated $460,000 a year and switch new part-time state workers into a new retirement system was approved by the state Board of Examiners Tuesday.

Part-time state employees now are not enrolled in the state Public Employees Retirement System, but the state matches the 7 1/2 percent the employees pay to Social Security.

Under the new proposal, seasonal and half-time or less workers hired after Jan. 1, 2004, will be enrolled in a private plan similar to a 401(k). Existing part-time workers would have the option to stay with Social Security or join the new plan.

The state would not contribute any money to the private plan. There are about 481 state workers who would have the choice of remaining with the Social Security arrangement or switching to the private plan.

Mary Keating, representing the state's Deferred Compensation Committee, told the board these part-time workers, if they left their jobs, would be able to take their money and reinvest it. If they got a full-time state position, they could use it to buy additional retirement credits with their money from the private plan.

Keating said the state will not have to make matching contributions to Social Security for the new part-time employees or for those existing workers who want to switch.