Q: When calculating your FERS annuity as a GS employee, do you use the base schedule or is locality pay included? A: Locality pay is included when computing a high-3.
Browsing: high-3
Q: Is the high-3 calculation based on gross salary for a full year worked? A: The high-3 is based on your highest three consecutive years of average pay. It’s the amount payable for your grade and step, including locality pay or special rates, but does not include most other forms of compensation, including overtime, unless proven by law, for example, administratively uncontrollable overtime pay for law enforcement officers.
Q: I am a civil service employee with 17 years of service, 10 during CSRS years and seven during CSRS Offset years. I have 30 years of other Social Security wages. My High-3 years are in the Offset years. I draw full Social Security while working. I began this at 66. I am trying to make a retirement decision but I cannot get a clear understanding of how the offset impacts me. I have gotten retirement projections but they do not include any adjustment for Social Security. It appears too good to be true that I will not experience a…
Q: My current position requires an extensive amount of overtime. I was told recently that my overtime may count toward my retirement. Is this true? If so, how is that applied toward my retirement? A: You were misinformed. Overtime is never included when determining a High-3, only pay from which retirement deductions are taken. To see which pay categories are included and excluded from basic pay, go to www.opm.gov/retire/pubs/handbook/C030.pdf and scroll down to Section 30A1.1-2.
Q: I am in CSRS Offset and am eligible for an immediate voluntary retirement. I plan on continuing working until the end of 2012. There have been discussions about changing our retirement benefit to a High-5 calculation from the High-3 calculation. I want to retire before that change is implemented. If Congress passes and the president signs a retirement change like that, when would it become effective? Is it on the date the president signs the law, is the date designated in the law, or is it when OPM writes the rules implementing the law? What is the best way…
Q: I don’t know what the established policy will be, but if I know ahead of time that they will implement the retirement annuity calculation with the high-5 vice high-3, could I retire before that expected implementation date and still have my annuity calculated with the high-three? Do you have any insight that there is a probability that this change will happen? A: During these unstable times, only a fool would attempt to predict the future of a proposal that would increase the high-3 to a high-5. However, since a bill to make that change could not be effective until…
Q. I read in the Feb. 7 issue of Federal Times the affect that a high-5 would have on my annuity. Do you know if employees will be given a date the high-5 will go into effect, so that they will have the opportunity to retire prior to the change? With a large percent of CSRS employee eligible to retire now, I’d like to think that we would a least be given the opportunity to retire with our high-3 if we are eligible. I am covered under the CSRS, with 35 years of service, but will not be eligible (age…
Q. I’ve received an estimated annuity statement that shows my begin service date as 01/03/1974. Three days later I receive a retirement letter of correction saying from 01/03/1974 to 04/03/1974 my retirement witholdings were under FICA. My CSRS contributions begin 04/04/1974. If I retire June 3, I have enough sick leave to give me 38 years and one month of service. Will my first 90 days being under FICA leave me short of 38 years of service as far as getting 72 percent of my high-3 years? Do I need to stay three more months to be sure I don’t…
Q. What happened with the proposal to change the retirement base from high-3 to high-5 (previous Federal Times quote below). Do you expect this legislation to pass? If so, when would it take effect. “The CBO’s recommendations are the latest deficit reduction plans that, in part, target federal employees and their benefits. Last year, the White House’s deficit reduction commission called for basing federal employees’ pensions on the average of their highest five years of salaries instead of the current high-three method and cutting the federal work force by 10 percent, among other recommendations. Several Republican lawmakers are dissatisfied with…
Q. Is there any legislation currently being considered in Congress that would change the computation of CSRS retirement annuities from the current high-3 years average to high-5? A. No there isn’t.