BILL NUMBER: S9373
SPONSOR: GOUNARDES
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the retirement and social security law, in relation to
the definition of overtime ceiling
 
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF BILL:
To remove the cap on overtime used to calculate member contributions and
pension benefits in the 55/25 NYC Transit Authority Tier 6 plan in the
NYC Employees Retirement System (NYCERS)
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
This legislation would amend chapter 368 of the retirement and social
security law and remove the Overtime Ceiling for Tier 6 New York City
Transit Authority (NYCTA) members subject to the 25-Year and Age 55
Retirement Program (the 55/25 NYCTA Plan) for wages used to calculate
member contributions and pension benefits.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
Today there are over 400,000 public employees in Tier 6 statewide.
Although Transit 25/55 was preserved, there are still several ways that
the benefits for Tier 6 transit workers are less than those for Tier 4.
One of these is a cap on how much overtime is pensionable for a Tier 6
member. That cap, which is raised each year with the Consumer Priceln-
dex, is now $19,729 for 2023. Approximately two-thirds of the TWU Local
100 workforce is in Tier 6.
Much of the overtime worked by transit workers is scheduled overtime,
built into workers' schedules. Other overtime may be mandatory for
special projects or emergencies. Transit workers never assign themselves
overtime. Far from being a means for transit workers to milk the system,
overtime is essential to how the transit system operates and is an
accepted part of a transit worker's livelihood.
The rationale for this bill is that many of TWU members routinely accrue
mandated overtime in order to complete their shifts. This results in any
income they receive which exceeds the $19,729 cap not being pensionable.
Additionally, the final average salary (FAS) for Tier 6 transit workers
is already calculated in a manner that prevents an employee from arti-
ficially inflating their pensionable income prior to retirement, as
wages earned during any year under a FAS calculation cannot exceed the
average of the previous four years by more than ten percent.
For these reasons, the overtime cap should be removed for Tier 6 transit
workers.
 
PRIOR LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2022: S7207 - Referred to Civil Service and Pensions
2021: S7207 - Referred to Rules
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
See bill
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately.