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 Rough-skinned newt walking in Honeyman Memorial State Park south of Florence.
Photo credit: Jonathan Yost.
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What’s going on
30-second summary
As we approach 2025 year-end on March 5, employer reporters have an important to-do list to accomplish. Check off these four priorities to reach your goal of 100% posted reports. ❖ Preview the preliminary earnings rates for the different PERS funds. ❖ Your employees need to make sure their addresses are up-to-date before PERS mails their annual statements. Share these instructions on how to change their address. ❖ The Employer Rate Projection Tool has been updated with the latest actuarial data, so now is a good time to see how you can impact your budget. ❖ A deadline is approaching in the 2025 Employer Incentive Fund cycle.
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Your February to-do list
Employer reporters have critical steps to complete this month. Completing your February to-do list improves the following:
YOUR
BUDGET
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PERS members are guaranteed to receive earnings on their Individual Account Plan (IAP) and Employee Pension Stability Account* (EPSA) accounts, if applicable. (See “Earnings Crediting — Preliminary Rates.”)
Who pays the PERS members’ earnings?
The Oregon Public Employee Retirement Fund (OPERF) pays earnings on all 2025 wages that employers report by March 5, 2026, and all contributions that employers pay by March 12, 2026.
Employers are invoiced for the earnings on any 2025 wages and contributions that are reported after those dates.
The invoices appear on your statement as prior year earnings (PYE); for example, “IAP ER Prior Year Earnings.” This invoice is included in your statement any time wages from any prior year are posted. Late wages will rack up PYE charges for every year that they miss the deadline.
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YOUR WORKLOAD
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Reporting on time all year (and especially by March 5) gives you:
More accurate employee employment data.
More current member annual statements.
Easier reporting with fewer EDX error messages.
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*An EPSA is a result of the Member (IAP) Redirect program. When a member earns over the monthly gross-salary threshold, a percentage of their 6% IAP contribution is automatically deposited into their EPSA. That account helps fund their pension at retirement.
Your to-do list
Your to-do list is published on the PERS website. Four Steps to 100% Posted Reports. You can download a copy and even print it. The list states the benefits of completing each step (save money and time!) on page 1 and includes instructions on page 2.
These four steps will give you the biggest bang for your buck (that is, the most benefit for your time and effort):
☐ Correct suspended records.
☐ Run an Eligibility Exception report.
☐ Check your Work List.
☐ Create an Inactive Employee list.
Your deadlines
⏲ All 2025 (and earlier) pay dates posted by MARCH 5.*
⏲ All payments for March 5 remittance statements paid by MARCH 12.*
If you check the above boxes, then you should have no PYE charges.
*By 6:00 p.m. Pacific Time on that date.
Need help?
If you are having trouble submitting your 2025 reports, contact your employer representative to schedule one-on-one time or reach out to the ESC Call Center. ESC contact information
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Earnings crediting — preliminary rates
Every year, PERS financial experts calculate earnings for each reserve fund within the Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund (OPERF). The rate each fund receives is based on market returns and the earnings rate for that fund per Oregon law.
Earnings crediting is the annual process of adding the amount of interest earned to (or deducting the amount lost from) the various reserves within the OPERF based on each account’s total as of December 31.
When will 2025 earnings be credited?
Once 2025 ended, PERS financial experts calculated the preliminary earnings crediting rates. Before the earnings can be credited, the rates must go through an approval process.
- At the January 30 PERS Board meeting, PERS financial leaders presented the preliminary earning crediting rates to the PERS Board for approval. They were approved.
- At the April 3 board meeting, PERS financial leaders will present final rates to the PERS Board. The final earnings crediting rates capture any “in-flight” changes that were still processing during preliminary earnings crediting.
- When the board approves the final rates, PERS financial experts will calculate the earnings for each PERS fund based on its balance as of December 31, 2025.
- PERS financial experts will add earnings to each fund in early May.
Preliminary earnings crediting rates
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Fund
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Rate
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Tier One Member Regular Accounts and Judge Member Accounts
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6.90%
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Tier Two Member Regular Accounts
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9.21%
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Benefits in Force Reserve
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9.21%
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Employer Reserves
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9.21%
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OPSRP Pension Program
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9.31%
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Individual Account Program (IAP) accounts
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10.52%
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Employee Pension Stability Account (EPSA) — Tier One/Tier Two accounts
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9.21%
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Employee Pension Stability Account (EPSA) — OPSRP accounts
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9.31%
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Side Accounts (established before 1/1/2023)
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9.50%
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Variable Annuity Accounts
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22.81%
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Update employee addresses by end of month
Make sure all employees get their member annual statements
This spring, PERS will mail member annual statements to the addresses we have on file as of February 28. For information about member annual statements, go to the Member Annual Statements FAQ webpage.
How employees can check their address
Employees can check the address PERS has on file for them by logging into their Online Member Services (OMS) account. From the Account Home page, they need to click the Member link under Account Type.
How employees can change their address
The process depends on whether you are a state agency or another type of organization (see below). PERS Member Services cannot update mailing addresses for members.
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Non-retired state employees
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Non-retired school and local government employees
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Retirees, working retirees, beneficiaries, alternate payees, and others
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Employees must update their address in Workday as follows:
1. Log into Workday.
2. Click their profile image in the upper right corner of the home screen.
3. Go to View Profile, then Contact, and click Edit.
4. Click the pencil icon on the right to edit.
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Employees must contact their Payroll or Human Resources department and request to have their mailing address updated.
For instructions on changing an employee’s address in EDX, read Detail 1 Member Demographics Fields, section “Reporting an Employee Change of Address.”
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These groups need to change their addresses themselves through Online Member Services or by filling out a form.
Instructions are in employer guide 22, Changing Demographic Information, section “How Inactive, Retired, and Nonmembers Can Request Changes.”
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Now is a good time to use the Employer Rate Projection Tool
In January, the PERS actuarial team updated the Employer Rate Projection Tool (ERPT) with the latest actuarial data.
The ERPT is an online tool that is programmed with current contribution rates and payroll data. It helps employers to budget and forecast for future contributions (estimated) and see how their contribution rates could be affected by the criteria they enter.
It will also generate an estimated contribution reduction for a new side account based on whatever side account deposit amount you enter.
You can access the updated tool and user guide on the ERPT webpage.
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Employer Incentive Fund (EIF) update
As of December 31, 2025, nearly all approved EIF matching funds have been distributed.
For employers whose EIF applications were successful, your side account deposit must be received by PERS no later than March 31, 2026, or your match will be forfeited. Unless an actuarial calculation is requested, your side account contribution rate offset will be effective on
July 1, 2028.
Please contact actuarial.services@pers.oregon.gov for payment instructions.
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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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