The employee annuity savings fund shall be the account in which shall be recorded the contributions deducted from the earnable compensation of members to provide for their employee annuities. Each employer shall cause to be deducted from the compensation of each member on each and every payroll of such employer for each and every payroll period four percent of his earnable compensation. With respect to each member who is eligible for coverage under the Social Security Act in accordance with the agreement entered into during 1955 in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 7 of this Title; however, such deduction shall, commencing with the first day of the period of service with respect to which such agreement is effective, be at the rate of three percent of the part of his earnable compensation not in excess of four thousand eight hundred dollars, plus five percent of the part of his earnable compensation in excess of four thousand eight hundred dollars. In the case of any member so eligible and receiving compensation from two or more employers, such deductions may be adjusted under such rules as the board may establish so as to be as nearly equivalent as practicable to the deductions which would have been made had the member received all of such compensation from one employer. In determining the amount earnable by a member in a payroll period, the board may consider the rate of annual earnable compensation of such member on the first day of the payroll period as continuing throughout such payroll period and it may omit deduction from earnable compensation for any period less than a full payroll period if a teacher or employee was not a member on the first day of the payroll period.

Each employer shall certify to the board on each and every payroll or in such other manner as the board may prescribe the amounts to be deducted and such amounts shall be deducted and, when deducted, shall be credited to said employee annuity savings fund, to the individual accounts of the members from whose compensation the deductions were made.

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Terms Used In South Carolina Code 9-1-1020

  • Annuity: A periodic (usually annual) payment of a fixed sum of money for either the life of the recipient or for a fixed number of years. A series of payments under a contract from an insurance company, a trust company, or an individual. Annuity payments are made at regular intervals over a period of more than one full year.
  • Board: means the Board of Directors of the South Carolina Public Employee Benefit Authority which shall act under the provisions of this chapter through its Division of Retirement Systems. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
  • Earnable compensation: means the full rate of the compensation that would be payable to a member if the member worked the member's full normal working time; when compensation includes maintenance, fees, and other things of value the board shall fix the value of that part of the compensation not paid in money directly by the employer. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
  • Employee: means :

    (a) to the extent compensated by this State, an employee, agent, or officer of the State or any of its departments, bureaus, and institutions, other than the public schools, whether the employee is elected, appointed, or employed;

    (b) the president, dean, professor, or teacher or any other person employed in any college, university, or educational institution of higher learning supported by and under the control of the State;

    (c) an employee, agent, or officer of a county, municipality, or school district, or an agency or department of any of these, which has been admitted to the system under the provisions of § 9-1-470, to the extent the employee, agent, or officer is compensated for services from public funds;

    (d) an employee of the extension service and any other employee a part of whose salary or wage is paid by the federal government if the federal funds from which the salary or wage is paid before disbursement become state funds;

    (e) an employee of a service organization, the membership of which is composed solely of persons eligible to be teachers or employees as defined by this section, if the compensation received by the employees of the service organization is provided from monies paid by the members as dues or otherwise, or from funds derived from public sources and if the employee contributions prescribed by this title are paid from the funds of the service organization;

    (f) an employee of an alcohol and drug abuse planning agency authorized to receive funds pursuant to § 61-12-20;

    (g) an employee of a local council on aging or other governmental agency providing aging services funded by the Department on Aging. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
  • Employee annuity: means annual payments for life derived from the accumulated contributions of a member. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
  • Employer: means this State, a county board of education, a district board of trustees, the board of trustees or other managing board of a state-supported college or educational institution, or any other agency of this State by which a teacher or employee is paid; the term "employer" also includes a county, municipality, or other political subdivision of the State, or an agency or department of any of these, which has been admitted to the system under the provisions of § 9-1-470, a service organization referred to in item (11)(e) of this section, an alcohol and drug abuse planning agency authorized to receive funds pursuant to § 61-12-20, and a local council on aging or other governmental agency providing aging services funded by the Department on Aging. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
  • Member: means a teacher or employee included in the membership of the system as provided in Article 5 of this chapter. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
  • Retirement: means the withdrawal from active service with a retirement allowance granted under the system. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
  • system: means the South Carolina Retirement System established under § 9-1-20. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10
  • Teacher: means a classroom teacher employed in the public schools supported by this State as determined by the board. See South Carolina Code 9-1-10

The rates of the deductions, without regard to a member’s coverage under the Social Security Act, must be the percentage of earnable compensation as provided pursuant to § 9-1-1085.

Each department and political subdivision shall pick up the employee contributions required by this section for all compensation paid on or after July 1, 1982, and the contributions so picked up shall be treated as employer contributions in determining federal tax treatment under the United States Internal Revenue Code. For this purpose, each department and political subdivision is deemed to have taken formal action on or before January 1, 2009, to provide that the contributions on behalf of its employees, although designated as employer contributions, shall be paid by the employer in lieu of employee contributions. The department and political subdivision shall pay these employee contributions from the same source of funds which is used in paying earnings to the employee. The department and political subdivision may pick up these contributions by a reduction in the cash salary of the employee.

The employee, however, must not be given the option of choosing to receive the contributed amount of the pick ups directly instead of having them paid by the employer to the retirement system. Employee contributions picked up shall be treated for all purposes of this section in the same manner and to the extent as employee contributions made before the date picked up.

Payments for unused sick leave, single special payments at retirement, bonus and incentive-type payments, or any other payments not considered a part of the regular salary base are not compensation for which contributions are deductible. Not including Class Three employees, contributions are deductible on up to and including forty-five days’ termination pay for unused annual leave. If a member has received termination pay for unused annual leave on more than one occasion, contributions are deductible on up to and including forty-five days’ termination pay for unused annual leave for each termination payment for unused annual leave received by the member. However, only an amount up to and including forty-five days’ pay for unused annual leave from the member’s last termination payment shall be included in a member’s average final compensation calculation for other than Class Three employees.

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