State teachers' retirement: compensation.

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 governed by the Teachers' Retirement Board. Existing law defines compensation earnable for the purpose of benefit calculations as the creditable compensation a person could earn in a school year for creditable service performed on a full time basis, and defines creditable compensation as remuneration paid in cash by an employer to all persons in the same class of employees for performing creditable service in that position. Existing law also requires employers to make contributions to the system based on the member's creditable compensation. This bill would revise the definition of compensation earnable for the purposes of STRS to be the sum of the average annualized pay rate, as defined, paid in a school year divided by the service credited for that school year and the remuneration paid in addition to salary or wages. The bill would make various conforming changes in accordance with the revised definition of compensation earnable. Existing law requires an employer to certify that the member's employment has been terminated, unless the member's termination of employment occurred 12 consecutive months or more prior to the date the application for a termination of benefits is received by the system. This bill would require the employer certification to be in a format prescribed by the system and would specify that the application for a termination benefit must be received at the system's headquarters office. Existing law authorizes specified members who, on January 1, 1976, are in state service positions or are employees of the Trustees of the California State University, to elect to not continue as members of STRS and to transfer to the Public Employees' Retirement System. This bill would repeal these provisions. This bill would make additional nonsubstantive, technical corrections.