Ohio Code 3309.474 – Purchase of service credits for leaves of absence
(A) As used in this section, “state retirement system” means the public employees retirement system, Ohio police and fire pension fund, state teachers retirement system, school employees retirement system, or state highway patrol retirement system.
Terms Used In Ohio Code 3309.474
- compensation: means all salary, wages, and other earnings paid to a contributor by reason of employment. See Ohio Code 3309.01
- contributor: includes any person participating in a plan established under section 3309. See Ohio Code 3309.01
- Employee: means all of the following:
(1) Any person employed by a public employer in a position for which the person is not required to have a registration, certificate, or license issued pursuant to section 3301. See Ohio Code 3309.01
- Employer contribution: means the amount paid by an employer as determined under section 3309. See Ohio Code 3309.01
- Member: includes a disability benefit recipient. See Ohio Code 3309.01
- Ohio service credit: means all contributing service of a member of the school employees retirement system, and all prior service, computed as provided in this chapter, and all service established pursuant to sections 3309. See Ohio Code 3309.01
- Pension: means annual payments for life derived from appropriations made by an employer and paid from the employers' trust fund or the annuity and pension reserve fund. See Ohio Code 3309.01
- state: means the state of Ohio. See Ohio Code 1.59
- Year: means the year beginning the first day of July and ending with the thirtieth day of June next following. See Ohio Code 3309.01
(B) A state retirement system member who while a member of the school employees retirement system was out of service due to a leave of absence approved by the member’s employer may purchase from the school employees retirement system service credit for any period during the leave for which contributions were not made under section 3309.47 of the Revised Code.
For purposes of this section, a period of leave commences on the first day for which employee and employer contributions were not made to the system and ends on the earlier of the termination of the leave or the member’s return to contributing service.
(C)(1) For each year of service purchased, the member shall pay to the school employees retirement system for credit to the member’s accumulated account with that system an amount equal to the sum of the following:
(a) An amount determined by multiplying the compensation the member would have received during the leave by the employee contribution rate in effect at that time;
(b) An amount determined by multiplying the compensation the member would have received during the leave by the employer contribution rate in effect at that time;
(c) Compound interest at a rate determined by the school employees retirement board from the first day of the year following the date the leave commenced to the date of payment.
(2) If the employee or employer contribution rate changed during the leave, contributions for each month of the leave shall be made at the rate in effect for that month.
(D) Service credit purchased under this section for any period of leave shall not exceed two years. Credit may be purchased for more than one period of leave, but the total number of years purchased shall not exceed the lesser of five years or the member’s total accumulated number of years of service as a contributor to the school employees retirement system. The member may choose to purchase only part of such credit in any one payment, subject to board rules.
(E) Service credit purchased under this section shall be considered the equivalent of Ohio service credit.
(F) The board may adopt rules under section 3309.04 of the Revised Code to implement this section.