AB 2474, as introduced, Committee on Public Employees, Retirement and Social Security. Final compensation: death benefits.
The County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL) authorizes counties to establish retirement systems pursuant to its provisions in order to provide pension benefits to county, city, and district employees and their beneficiaries. The CERL provides for a defined retirement benefit based upon credited service, final compensation, and age at retirement subject to specified formulas relating to membership classification.
The California Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 (PEPRA) requires a public retirement system, as defined, including county and district retirement systems created pursuant to CERL, to modify its pension plan or plans to comply with the act and, among other provisions, establishes new limits of pensionable compensation that may not be exceeded whenever pensionable compensation is used in the calculation of a benefit. PEPRA defines pensionable compensation for purposes of its provisions.
This bill would clarify that the definition of final compensation for members whose services is on a tenure that is temporary, seasonal, intermittent, or part time in the CERL, as described, also applies to those members meeting the same service criteria who are subject to PEPRA.
The CERL provides that the surviving spouses of members who die in service after a specified number of years of service or as a result of service-connected injury or disease may elect a benefit calculated using the annual compensation earned by the deceased in lieu of a death benefit or life annuity.
This bill would instead require that benefit to be calculated using the pensionable compensation earned by the deceased member, if that member was subject to PEPRA.
The CERL provides that a surviving spouse of a safety member who is killed in the performance of duty or who dies as the result of an accident or injury caused by external violence or physical force incurred in the performance of his or her duty be paid a one-time lump-sum benefit calculated using the annual compensation earnable by the deceased.
This bill would instead require that benefit to be calculated using the pensionable compensation earned by the deceased member, if that member was subject to PEPRA.
Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: no. State-mandated local program: no.
The people of the State of California do enact as follows:
Section 31462.2 of the Government Code is
2amended to read:
(a) “Final compensation” for members whose service
4is on a tenure that is temporary, seasonal, intermittent, or for part
5time only means one-third of the total compensation earned for
6that period of time during which the member rendered the
7equivalent of three years of full-time service.
8(b) The member may elect at or before the time he or she files
9an application for retirement the period of time during which he
10or she has earned three full years of credit upon which final
11compensation shall be calculated. If he or she does not so elect,
12begin delete suchend deletebegin insert thatend insert period of time immediately
preceding his or her
13retirement shall be used.
14(c) This sectionbegin insert
alsoend insert applies to a member meeting the conditions
15specified in subdivision (a), whose service is described in
P3 1subdivision (a), and who is subject to the California Public
2Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013begin insert (Article 4 (commencing
3with Section 7522) of Chapter 21 of Division 7 of Title 1)end insert.
Section 31781.3 of the Government Code is amended
5to read:
The surviving spouse of a member who dies in service
7after five years of service or as a result of service-connected injury
8or disease may elect, in lieu of the death benefit in Section 31781
9or the life annuity provided in Section 31781.1 or 31787, the
10begin delete following combined benefit:end deletebegin insert benefit that is the sum of both of the
11following:end insert
12(a) An amount, provided from contributions by the county or
13district, equal to one-twelfth of the annual compensation earnable
14begin insert or pensionable
compensation as defined in Section 7522.34,
15whichever is applicable,end insert by the deceased during the 12 months
16immediately preceding hisbegin insert or herend insert death, multiplied by the number
17of completed years of service under the system, but not to exceed
1850 percent ofbegin delete such annual compensation, plusend deletebegin insert that compensation.end insert
19(b) A monthly allowance as provided in Section 31781.1 or
2031787 reduced by a monthly amount which is the actuarial
21equivalent of the amount in subdivision (a) as applied to the life
22of the surviving spouse.
Section 31781.31 of the Government Code is amended
24to read:
Notwithstanding Sections 31781.1 and 31781.3, the
26surviving spouse of a member subject to Section 31751 who dies
27in service after 10 years of service, or as a result of
28service-connected injury or disease, may elect, in lieu of the life
29annuity provided in Section 31765.11 or the death benefit provided
30in Section 31781.01, thebegin delete following combined benefit:end deletebegin insert benefit that
31is the sum of both of the following:end insert
32(a) An amount, provided from contributions by the county or
33district, equal to one-twelfth of the annual compensation earnable
34begin insert
or pensionable compensation as defined in Section 7522.34,
35whichever is applicable,end insert by the deceased during the 12 months
36immediately preceding hisbegin insert or herend insert death, multiplied by the number
37of completed years of service under the system, but not to exceed
3850 percent ofbegin delete such annual compensation, plusend deletebegin insert that compensation.end insert
39(b) A monthly allowance as provided in Section 31765.11
40reduced by a monthly amount which is the actuarial equivalent of
P4 1the amount in subdivision (a) as applied to the life of the surviving
2spouse.
Section 31787.6 of the Government Code is amended
4to read:
A surviving spouse of a safety member who is killed
6in the performance of duty or who dies as the result of an accident
7or injury caused by external violence or physical force, incurred
8in the performance of his or her duty, shall be paid the following
9amount in addition to all other benefits provided by this chapter:
10A one-time lump-sum benefit equal to an amount, provided from
11contributions by the county or district, equal to the annual
12compensation earnablebegin insert, or the pensionable compensation for a
13member who is subject to the California Public Employees’
14Pension Reform Act of 2013 (Article 4 (commencing with Section
157522) of Chapter 21 of Division 7 of Title 1),end insert
by the deceased at
16his or her monthly rate of compensation at the time of his or her
17death.
18This section is not applicable to members described in Section
1931469.2.
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