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 Western tanager in Fremont National Forest
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For schools
Closing for summer or changing your schedule?
There’s a new way to let us know
When PERS needs information to process an employee’s benefits, it can’t wait.
For this reason, if your school is closing or modifying its normal schedule for some or all of summer break, the Employer Service Center needs to be able to quickly reach someone who has EDX access.
To make it easy for you to let us know whom to contact, ESC is sending you the new Summer 2025 Employer Contact Information form. Please fill it out, save it, and email it to ESC as directed on the form.
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For all employers
New PERS policies that affect employers
PERS policy experts recently completed a comprehensive study of certain PERS policies. This is necessary to ensure that PERS staff continue to apply policies consistently and fairly as laws change over time.
The result of the study is two new policies effective this year, which are described in detail in the employer announcements linked below.
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Determining Membership Eligibility Prior to January 1, 2006, for Tier One and Tier Two Members (PDF)
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Summary: This policy concerns situations when an employee’s membership status for a period of employment before 2006 comes under review. Standards for determining qualifying membership were different before 2006; therefore, PERS policy experts determined that it is not appropriate to apply today's standards to pre-2006 employment periods.
The new policy supports the hiring employer's original eligibility determination, no matter how many hours the employee actually worked. This will reduce the number of pre-2006 qualifying membership statuses being changed from qualifying to non-qualifying.
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Requesting Retroactive Changes to Employment Data (PDF)
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Summary: This policy concerns making changes to employee data for a past, closed year (i.e., one that is past its official year end). An internal study of past policies and practices concluded that altering a PERS member’s past, closed employment period can have significant impacts on the employee or employer or both.
PERS will no longer make changes to employee data for a closed year — including demographic changes and wage adjustments — without supporting documentation that proves why the original data reporting was incorrect. PERS also cannot make changes to locked data, which is defined in the announcement.
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Questions? Reach out to your Employer Service Center representative or the ESC Call Center.
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For web administrators
Granting EDX access
Reporting official vs employer reporter
On the surface, the process for adding an EDX contact (e.g., Reporting Official*) and a new employer reporter seem to be the same.
When a web administrator goes to the Work with Contacts function and clicks the Contact Type dropdown list, all the employer reporting roles are listed, as shown here.
Can you choose an employer reporting role, fill in their information, click Save, and have a new employer reporter?
No. It does not work that way.
That process only adds people to a contact list — it does not give them EDX access. Access requires account activation.
*The reporting official is the head of your organization or the person PERS should contact for financial matters. The reporting official does not normally do PERS reporting.
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Adding and activating an employer reporter account
This is an overview. The complete process is explained in employer reporting guide 3, Reporter Roles and EDX Access and the video The Role of the Web Administrator, section "Managing Employer Reporting Accounts,” starting at minute 7:06.
Prospective employer reporter
- Go to the EDX Log In webpage and click “Open an Employer Reporting Account.”
- Fill in your account information and save it.
- Notify your agency’s web administrator that you have submitted a request to open an account.
Web administrator
- In EDX, select the Admin Web Accounts function.
- Follow the steps to activate an account in employer reporting guide 3, Reporter Roles and EDX Access, Part 1 — The Web Administrator, subsection “Managing Employer Reporter Accounts.”
- Notify the new employer reporter that their account is now active.
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TIP
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Remember that when an employer reporter steps down from the role, you must inactivate their account. Follow the steps in employer reporting guide 3, Reporter Roles and EDX Access, Part 1 — The Web Administrator, subsection “How to In-Activate an Employer Reporter Account” on page 14.
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Final earnings crediting rates
The PERS Board approved the final earning crediting rates for 2024 at its March 31, 2025, meeting.
As a reminder, earnings crediting is an annual process of crediting the amount of interest earned (if any) to the various reserves within the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund, based on the accounts’ totals on December 31.
To understand the role that earnings play in your employer contribution rate, read the Guide to Understanding Your Rate, "Components of Your Contribution Rate" section, particularly the assumptions considered in your normal cost rate.
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2024 earnings crediting rates
Fund
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Rate
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| Tier One Member Regular Accounts and Judge Member Accounts |
6.90%1
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| Tier Two Member Regular Accounts |
5.29% |
| Benefits in Force |
5.29% |
| Employer Reserves |
5.29% |
| OPSRP Pension Reserves |
5.40% |
| IAP accounts |
6.28%2
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| Employee Pension Stability Account (EPSA) — Tier One/Tier Two |
5.29% |
| Employee Pension Stability Account (EPSA) — OPSRP |
5.40% |
| Side accounts (established before 1/1/2024) |
5.58% |
| Variable Annuity Account |
14.60% |
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1There were not enough earnings to cover these payments, so the difference was funded from the Tier One Rate Guarantee Reserve account.
2This is the rate for IAP accounts as a whole. To check IAP earnings rates for target date funds, go to the 2024 Earnings Crediting webpage, 2024 IAP Earnings Rates table.
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Your feedback matters!
The annual employer satisfaction survey is your most important feedback of the year.
We tally every rating and study every comment to find out —
What did we do well this year?
Did we improve since last year?
What could we do better?
Please take five minutes and give your thoughts on how PERS, the agency, is serving you.
(Click the button below or paste https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/2025ERSatisfactionSurvey into your browser.)
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Training opportunities abound
Check out new training options offered by the Employer Service Center.
Live virtual training: Offered once a month. For beginner employer reporters or those who need a refresher on the basics of reporting. Go to Training webpage under Instructor-Led Courses.
Webinars: Webinars begin with a short training followed by an open question and answer session. ESC experts are on hand to answer questions. Upcoming webinars are announced via News Bite emails; past webinar materials are posted on the Training webpage under Webinars.
For an overview of all the training options, check out the recent All-Access Training Forum Webinar (PDF) presentation.
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For your employees
2024 member annual statements are
on their way
 Member annual statements for 2024 will be mailed to all active PERS members by the end of May. These statements reflect all the data you submitted about your employees between January 1, 2024, and March 5, 2025.
About member annual statements
Each statement shows an individual member’s progress toward their future PERS retirement package, which includes their pension and Individual Account Program (IAP) account, plus other accounts they may have if they are Tier One, Tier Two, and/or Police and Fire job class. Information and links to frequently asked questions and sample statements are on the Member Annual Statements FAQ webpage.
Sample statements
To help your employees understand each section of their statement, direct them to the relevant interactive example statements on the PERS website. When viewing the example statement, hover over each green outlined area and read the pop-up explanatory text.
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Need help?
Contact the Employer Service Center to ask questions and get one-on-one reporting help.
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