PERSI
PERSI Overview
PERSI is governed by Title 59, Chapter 13, Idaho Statute. Employees become a PERSI member when they work for the District, a PERSI employer. Enrollment in the PERSI Base Plan is automatic. Both the employee and the employer make contributions to PERSI. The employee’s contributions are credited to a personal account, while employer contributions are pooled in a trust fund to cover future benefits for all members.
The PERSI Base Plan is designed to provide pension benefits to career public employees. The longer an employee works for PERSI employers, the greater the Base Plan retirement benefit will be. Although employees may not remain a public employee their entire career, if an employee works for a PERSI employer and earns 60 months of service credit they will be vested to receive a lifetime benefit at retirement. The 60-month vesting period does not have to be with the same PERSI employer. So unless an employee leaves public employment altogether, changing jobs should not affect PERSI membership. With over 800 employers across the state belonging to PERSI, an employee could very well work for a PERSI qualified employer at different points in their career.
For all information related to PERSI, please visit PERSI’s website, www.persi.idaho.gov.
Who is eligible?
By Idaho law, employees automatically become a member of PERSI and eligible for the Base Plan if:
The employer belongs to PERSI, and
Employment is for 5 consecutive months or more, and
Employees normally work 20 hours or more per week or are a teacher who works half-time contract or more (substitute teachers are exempt from PERSI membership).
PERSI Contribution Rate Information
School Employees
The School Employee PERSI group includes certificated instructional staff, certificated pupil service staff, professionally endorsed or certificated staff, school bus drivers, and school resource officers (employed by the school district).
Employer Contribution: 13.48%
School Employee Contribution: 8.08%
General Members
The General Member PERSI group includes members not otherwise classified as public safety or school employees, including employees of schools districts not specifically defined as school employees.
Employer Contribution: 11.96%
General Member Employee Contribution: 7.18%
Unused Sick Leave
As a PERSI member, any unused portion of your sick leave allowance shall accumulate from year to year. Per Idaho Code § 33-1228, your unused sick leave may be used to pay premiums upon retirement on certain employer-maintained insurance, including health, dental, vision, and life insurance. For more information on calculating this benefit, refer to the PERSI Member Handbook > Unused Sick Leave. For all information regarding this benefit, refer to Idaho Code § 33-1228.
Please be aware that you do need to have at least one (1) day of unused sick leave remaining in order to continue benefits through PERSI.
Unused Sick Leave Calculation
To calculate the value of your unused sick leave, you will need the following:
Days of unused sick leave
This number can be obtained by logging into Absence Management.
Refer to the Absence Reason Balances article for help in finding your sick leave balance.
Employees whose leave is tracked in hours will need to be converted to days by dividing the number of sick hours available by the number of hours per day you are scheduled to work.
Highest daily rate of pay during your PERSI employment
Please note, Human Resources can only provide this information for employees who have worked for the District their entire PERSI-career.
Access Employee Online to determine your current daily rate of pay.
Refer to the Employee Online | How to View District Job History document for help in finding your current and/or historical daily rate of pay with the District.
Once you have the above information, use the following calculation:
(Days of Unused Sick Leave ÷ 2) x (Highest Daily Rate of Pay During PERSI Employment)
Example:
(100 Days of Unused Sick Leave ÷ 2) x ($150 Highest Daily Rate of Pay During PERSI Employment) = $7,500
PERSI Member Workshops
Planning for retirement cannot start too early. We highly encourage all PERSI-eligible employees to register for and attend the following PERSI Member Workshops:
Ready workshops are for anyone just starting a career with a PERSI employer.
Set workshops are intended for those in mid-career with a PERSI employer.
Go workshops are designed for late-career PERSI members who may be approaching or contemplating retirement.
PERSI Member Retirement Planning Checklist
In addition to attending one of the PERSI Member Workshops (above), we highly encourage all PERSI-eligible employees to review the PERSI Member Retirement Planning Checklist throughout their careers.