Ohio Code 145.47 – Per cent of compensation required as contribution – deductions
(A) Each public employee who is a contributor to the public employees retirement system shall contribute eight per cent of the contributor’s earnable salary to the employees’ savings fund, except that the public employees retirement board may raise the contribution rate to a rate not greater than ten per cent of the employee’s earnable salary.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 145.47
- contributor: includes any person participating in a PERS defined contribution plan. See Ohio Code 145.01
- Earnable salary: includes the following:
(a) Payments made by the employer in lieu of salary, wages, or other earnings for sick leave, personal leave, or vacation used by the contributor;
(b) Payments made by the employer for the conversion of sick leave, personal leave, and vacation leave accrued, but not used if the payment is made during the year in which the leave is accrued, except that payments made pursuant to section 124. See Ohio Code 145.01
- employer: means the employer of any public employee. See Ohio Code 145.01
- Member: includes a PERS retirant who becomes a member under division (C) of section 145. See Ohio Code 145.01
- Public employee: means :
(1) Any person holding an office, not elective, under the state or any county, township, municipal corporation, park district, conservancy district, sanitary district, health district, metropolitan housing authority, state retirement board, Ohio history connection, public library, county law library, union cemetery, joint hospital, institutional commissary, state university, or board, bureau, commission, council, committee, authority, or administrative body as the same are, or have been, created by action of the general assembly or by the legislative authority of any of the units of local government named in division (A)(1) of this section, or employed and paid in whole or in part by the state or any of the authorities named in division (A)(1) of this section in any capacity not covered by section 742. See Ohio Code 145.01
- Rule: includes regulation. See Ohio Code 1.59
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
(B) The head of each state department, institution, board, and commission, and the fiscal officer of each local authority subject to this chapter, shall transmit to the system for each contributor subsequent to the date of coverage an amount equal to the applicable per cent of each contributor’s earnable salary at such intervals and in such form as the system shall require. The head of each state department and the fiscal officer of each local authority subject to this chapter shall transmit promptly to the system a report of contributions at such intervals and in such form as the system shall require, showing thereon all the contributions and earnable salary of each contributor employed, together with warrants, checks, or electronic payments covering the total of such deductions. A penalty shall be added when such report, together with warrants, checks, or electronic payments to cover the total amount due from the earnable salary of all amenable employees of such employer, is filed thirty or more days after the last day of such reporting period. The system, after making a record of all receipts under this division, shall deposit the receipts with the treasurer of state for use as provided by this chapter.
(C) Unless the board adopts a rule under division (D) of this section, the penalty described in division (B) of this section for failing to timely transmit a report, pay the total amount due, or both is as follows:
(1) At least one but not more than ten days past due, an amount equal to one per cent of the total amount due;
(2) At least eleven but not more than thirty days past due, an amount equal to two and one-half per cent of the total amount due;
(3) Thirty-one or more days past due, an amount equal to five per cent of the total amount due.
The penalty described in this division shall be added to and collected on the next succeeding regular employer billing. Interest at a rate set by the retirement board shall be charged on the amount of the penalty in case such penalty is not paid within thirty days after it is added to the regular employer billing.
(D) The board may adopt rules to establish penalties in amounts that do not exceed the amounts specified in divisions (C)(1) to (3) of this section.
(E) In addition to the periodical reports of deduction required by this section, the fiscal officer of each local authority subject to this chapter shall submit to the system at least once each year a complete listing of all noncontributing appointive employees. Where an employer fails to transmit contributions to the system, the system may make a determination of the employees’ liability for contributions and certify to the employer the amounts due for collection in the same manner as payments due the employers’ accumulation fund. Any amounts so collected shall be held in trust pending receipt of a report of contributions for such public employees for the period involved as provided by law and, thereafter, the amount in trust shall be transferred to the employees’ savings fund to the credit of the employees. Any amount remaining after the transfer to the employees’ savings fund shall be transferred to the employers’ accumulation fund as a credit of such employer.
(F) The fiscal officer of each local authority subject to this chapter shall require each new contributor to submit to the system a detailed report of all the contributor’s previous service as a public employee along with such other facts as the board requires for the proper operation of the system.
(G) Any member who, because of the member’s own illness, injury, or other reason which may be approved by the member’s employer is prevented from making the member’s contribution to the system for any payroll period, may purchase service credit for the period of absence within one year. Credit shall be purchased under this division in accordance with section 145.29 of the Revised Code.