State teachers' retirement.

(1) Existing law, the Teachers' Retirement Law, establishes the State Teachers' Retirement System (STRS) and creates the Defined Benefit Program of the State Teachers' Retirement Plan, which provides a defined benefit to members of the program, based on final compensation, credited service, and age at retirement, subject to certain variations. STRS is administered by the Teachers' Retirement Board. Existing law also creates the Cash Balance Benefit Program, which is administered by the board, to provide a retirement plan for the benefit of participating employees who provide creditable service for less than 50% of full time. Existing law requires a person who is hired by a STRS employer to perform creditable service on a full-time basis to become a member of the Defined Benefit Program on the first day of employment, except as specified. Existing law prohibits aggregating creditable service in more than one position for the purpose of determining mandatory membership as a full-time employee in this context. This bill would prohibit aggregating creditable service in more than one position for the purpose of determining mandatory membership on a part-time basis for 50% or more of the time the employer requires for a full-time position, as specified. (2) Existing law prescribes the employment characteristics of people for whom membership in the Defined Benefit Program or the Cash Balance Benefit Program may be required, excluded, or elective. In this regard, existing law mandates membership in the Defined Benefit Program for a person employed by a school district or county office of education to perform creditable service for 50% or more of a full-time position on the first day of the pay period following employment to provide creditable service, as specified. Existing law establishes similar requirements for a person employed by a community college district for creditable service on a part-time basis whose employment is not subject to specified provisions relating to temporary positions. Existing law mandates membership in the Defined Benefit Program for a person employed to perform creditable service as a substitute employee by a school district or county office of education on the first day of the pay period following the pay period in which the person performed 100 or more complete days of creditable service, as specified. Existing law also mandates membership in the Defined Benefit Program for a person employed by a school district or county office of education to perform creditable service on a part-time basis as of the first day of the pay period following the pay period in which the person performed at least 60 hours of creditable service, if employed on an hourly basis, or 10 days of creditable service, if employed on a daily basis, as specified. This bill would recast these provisions to provide for membership start dates as of the first day of employment or the date of the employer's governing board's action to provide the program or the effective date of the employer's governing board's action to provide the program, whichever occurs later. The bill would also prescribe requirements for those serving on a part-time daily basis for a school district or county. The bill would make other clarifying, clean-up, and conforming changes. (3) Under existing law, a person employed by a school district or county office of education to perform part-time service of less than 50%, as specified, is excluded from the Defined Benefit Program, as is a person employed by a community college district pursuant to specified provisions relating to temporary employment. Existing law also excludes a person employed by a school district, community college district, or county superintendent's office as a substitute teacher who performs less than 100 complete days of creditable service, as specified. Existing law provides a similar exclusion for people who are employed to provide creditable service on a part-time hourly basis of less than 60 hours in a pay period, as specified. The Cash Balance Benefit Program generally provides for membership for people with these employment characteristics. This bill would recast and clarify these provisions, including to provide more specificity with regard to how the Cash Balance Benefit Program applies to employees. The bill would make similar, conforming changes in provisions of the Cash Balance Benefit Program. (4) Existing law authorizes certain employees participating in the Cash Balance Benefit Program to elect coverage under the federal Social Security Act or an alternative retirement plan. Existing law requires members of the Cash Balance Benefit Program to terminate coverage under that program when they become subject to mandatory membership in the Defined Benefit Program in various instances. This bill would specify that an employee's election for coverage under the federal Social Security Act or an alternative retirement plan does not preclude that employee from electing to participate in the Cash Balance Benefit Program for creditable service performed for that employer at a later date, if the program is still offered and the employee is still eligible.