Skip to content
Breadcrumbs

Legislative Changes Affecting Salary Administration, 88th Legislature

Issued: Aug. 15, 2005
Updated: Aug. 4, 2023 – View Changes

FPP F.021

Details

View entire document

Other Resources

Legislative Changes Affecting Salary Administration Details:

Calendar

Contacts

HR/Payroll Agency Services — HRIS help desk (512) 463-4008

SPRS and CAPPS authorized support staff help desk (512) 463-2277

Contact lists: SPRS; HRIS; CAPPS agency support

Overview

Applicable to

State agencies and institutions of higher education.

Summary

The 88th Legislature, Regular Session, made a number of changes to the salary administration laws:

  • Retirement rates for fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025
  • 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 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 2024 and Fiscal 2025

ERS Retirement Rates for Fiscal 2024 and Fiscal 2025

The employee contribution rates for the following plans will not change for fiscal 2024 or 2025:

  • Employees Retirement System of Texas (ERS)
  • Law Enforcement and Custodial Officer Supplemental (LECOS) Retirement Fund
  • Judicial Retirement System Plan 1 (JRS1)
    – and –
  • Judicial Retirement System Plan 2 (JRS2)

The state contributions for LECOS and JRS2 are increasing while the state contribution for ERS remains the same.

The table below outlines the rates effective Sept. 1, 2023, through Aug. 31, 2025.

Retirement Plan Employee Contribution Rate State Contribution Rate1
Fiscal 2024 Fiscal 2025 Fiscal 2024 Fiscal 2025
ERS Groups 1-32 9.5% 9.5% 9.5% 9.5%
LECOS Groups 1-32 0.5% 0.5% 1.75% 1.75%
ERS Group 43 6.0% 6.0% 9.5% 9.5%
LECOS Group 43 2.0% 2.0% 1.75% 1.75%
Judicial Retirement Plan 1 9.5% 9.5% 0.0% 0.0%
Judicial Retirement Plan 24 9.5% 9.5% 19.25% 19.25%
  • 1 This rate is pursuant to House Bill 1, Article I, Employees Retirement System Riders 4, 5 and 6.
  • 2 This includes members of the Legislature covered by ERS. These rates are applicable to employees who were members of ERS before Sept. 1, 2022.
  • 3 These rates are for the cash balance retirement program created by Senate Bill 321, 87th Legislature, for employees, including members of the Legislature, hired on or after Sept. 1, 2022.
  • 4 These rates are not applicable to the new cash balance retirement program in Judicial Retirement System Plan 2 created by Senate Bill 1245 for judges and justices who take office on or after Sept. 1, 2024.

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 2024 and Fiscal 2025

For employees covered by Teacher Retirement System of Texas (TRS), both the employee and the state contribution rate will increase to 8.25 percent for fiscal 2024 and 2025.

Optional Retirement Program (ORP) Rates for Fiscal 2024 and Fiscal 2025

For employees participating in the Optional Retirement Program (ORP), the state contribution rate will remain at 6.6 percent for both fiscal 2024 and fiscal 2025. 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 2024 and fiscal 2025.

Changes to Leave Administration

Mental Health Leave for Telecommunicators

House Bill 1486 requires each agency that employs a full-time telecommunicator to develop and adopt a policy allowing full-time telecommunicators who experience a traumatic event in the scope of that employment to use mental health leave. This is an amendment to current law, enacted by the 87th legislature in Senate Bill 1359, requiring law enforcement agencies to develop and adopt a policy for peace officers who experience a traumatic event while on duty to use mental health leave.

Paid Parental Leave

Senate Bill 222 provides 40 days of paid leave following the birth of a child, and 20 days of paid leave following the adoption of a child, birth of a child via gestational surrogate, or birth of a child by the employee's spouse to be used during the employee’s period of FMLA leave. This paid leave may be used before the employee exhausts his or her own accrued vacation or sick leave.

Changes to Salary/HR Administration

Changes to Salary Schedule

Senate Bill 30 includes an increase to the minimum and maximum salary for each salary group on salary schedules A and B and increases the rate for each salary group and step in salary schedule C effective July 1–Aug. 31, 2023. See Classification Salary Schedule for Partial Fiscal 2023 (effective July 1–Aug. 31, 2023) for the new rates.

The General Appropriations Act (GAA), Article IX, Part 2, contains the approved salary schedules for employees covered by the Position Classification Plan for fiscal 2024 and 2025. The salary amounts for fiscal 2024 are the same as those in Senate Bill 30 with the addition of a new salary group, A22, in salary schedule A. The salary amounts for fiscal 2025 are increased from the amounts for fiscal 2024. See Classification Salary Schedule for Fiscal 2024-25.

Payroll Contribution for Group Health Insurance

The GAA, Article IX, Section 17.03, continues the requirement for each state agency and institution of higher education included in the group benefits program for the state fiscal biennium beginning Sept. 1, 2023, 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.

Changes to This Document
Date Updates
08/04/2023 Updated to reflect the changes of the 88th Legislature
08/06/2021 Updated to reflect the changes of the 87th Legislature
08/09/2019 Updated to reflect the changes of the 86th Legislature