Legislative Changes Affecting Salary Administration, 87th Legislature

Overview

Applicable to

State agencies and institutions of higher education.

Summary

The 87th Legislature, Regular Session, made a number of changes to the salary administration laws:

Retirement rates for fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023
Changes to leave administration
Changes to salary/HR administration

The Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts (Comptroller’s office) is providing these general guidelines for the changes to be implemented in the Uniform Statewide Payroll/Personnel System (USPS), Human Resource Information System (HRIS), Standardized Payroll/Personnel Reporting System (SPRS) and the Centralized Accounting and Payroll/Personnel System (CAPPS–HR/Payroll).

ERS, TRS and ORP Retirement Rates for Fiscal 2022 and Fiscal 2023

ERS Retirement Rates for Fiscal 2022 and Fiscal 2023

The General Appropriations Act (GAA) provides that the rates for both the employee contribution and the state contribution for members of the Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS), Judicial Retirement Plan I and Judicial Retirement Plan II will not change for the September 2021 pay period.

The table below outlines the rates effective Sept. 1, 2021.

Retirement Plan	Employee Contribution Rate		State Contribution Rate¹
Retirement Plan	Fiscal 2022	Fiscal 2023	Fiscal 2022	Fiscal 2023
ERS²	9.5%	9.5%	9.5%	9.5%
Judicial Plan 1	9.5%	9.5%	0.0%	0.0%
Judicial Plan 2	9.5%	9.5%	15.663%	15.663%
¹ This rate is pursuant to Senate Bill 1, Article I, Employees Retirement System Riders 4 and 6. ² This includes members of the Legislature covered by ERS. These rates are not applicable to the new cash balance retirement program created by Senate Bill 321 for employees hired on or after Sept. 1, 2022.

The Law Enforcement Custodial Officer Supplemental (LECOS) rates will remain the same.

The payroll retirement contribution will continue to be paid by agencies at the rate of 0.5 percent of base salary for all employees who are members of the retirement system. It will be paid from the agencies’ budgets.

TRS Retirement Rates for Fiscal 2022 and Fiscal 2023

For employees covered by Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), the state contribution rate will increase to 7.75 percent for fiscal 2022 and will increase to 8 percent for fiscal 2023.

The employee contribution rate will increase to 8 percent for fiscal 2022 and 2023.

Optional Retirement Program (ORP) Rates for Fiscal 2022 and Fiscal 2023

For employees participating in the Optional Retirement Program (ORP), the state contribution rate will remain at 6.6 percent for both fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023. Employers are authorized to use local funds or other sources of funds to supplement the General Revenue Fund appropriation at a rate up to 1.9 percent. The employee contribution rate will remain at 6.65 percent for both fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023.

Changes to Leave Administration

Paid Leave for Certain Military Service

House Bill 1589 provides a paid leave of absence, not to exceed seven workdays per fiscal year, to state employees who are members of the Texas military forces, a reserve component of the armed forces or a member of a state or federally authorized urban search and rescue team called to state active duty by the governor or another appropriate authority during a disaster.

Family Leave Pool

House Bill 2063 requires each state agency to establish a program that allows employees to voluntarily transfer accrued sick or vacation leave to a family leave pool. Employees become eligible to withdraw time contributed to their agency's family leave pool if they have exhausted all eligible compensatory, discretionary, sick and vacation leave because of:

The birth of a child.
The placement of a foster child or adoption of a child younger than 18 years of age.
The placement of any person at least 18 years of age requiring guardianship.
A serious illness to an immediate family member or the employee, including a pandemic-related illness.
An extenuating circumstance created by an ongoing pandemic, including providing essential care to a family member.
– or –
A previous donation of time to the pool.

Paid Leave for Volunteers of Certain Disaster Relief Organizations

Senate Bill 44 provides paid leave to state employees of executive and judicial branch agencies who are volunteers of any organization that is a member of the Texas Voluntary Organizations Active in Disaster (VOAD) if the volunteer services provided are for a state of disaster declared by the governor. This leave is limited to a maximum of 10 days per fiscal year and must be approved by the employee’s supervisor and the executive director.

Changes to Salary/HR Administration

Change to Salary Schedule Effective Sept. 1, 2021

The GAA, Article IX, Part 2, Schedule A Classification Salary Schedule added a new Pay Group, A21, to the listing and increased the salary for all groups and steps on the Schedule C Classification Salary Schedule.

Payroll Contribution for Group Health Insurance

A provision in the GAA, Article IX, Section 17.03, requires each state agency and institution of higher education included in the group benefits program for the state fiscal biennium beginning Sept. 1, 2021, to contribute an amount equal to 1.0 percent of the total base wages and salaries for each benefits eligible employee of a state agency or institution of higher education to the ERS group benefits program.

For this requirement, “institution of higher education” does not include components within the University of Texas or Texas A&M University systems.

The calculation of base salary excludes longevity pay, hazardous duty pay, benefit replacement pay, overtime pay and other payments that are not part of the base salary of the employee.