Earnable Salary Increase Changes to 5 percent, Contribution Rates Unchanged for 2026

The minimum earnable salary for 2025 is currently $734.07 per reporting month and will increase to $770.77 beginning with the first payroll reporting month ending in 2026 for pension credit.

If an employee earns less than the minimum earnable salary in a reporting month, the amount of service credit that is earned will be pro-rated. The minimum earnable salary will continue to increase each year through 2029. The rate of increase from 2020 through 2025 was 1.75 percent, and the rate of increase has changed to 5 percent per year starting in 2026 and continuing through 2029.

The contribution rates will remain the same for 2026 – 10 percent for members and 14 percent for employers reporting under regular codes, and 13 percent for members and 18.1 percent for employers for employers reporting under law enforcement codes.

Election Workers Exempted from OPERS membership

Ohio House Bill 96 became effective Sept. 30, 2025. The Act exempts from OPERS membership anyone who is appointed to serve as a precinct election official (formerly referred to as "election workers" or "poll workers") who receives compensation for that service during a calendar year. All precinct election officials must be qualified electors and constitute the election officers of the precinct. Ohio Revised Code Section 145.012 has been updated accordingly.

Election workers should still be included on the Non-Contributing List each year using the status of X-Excluded.

Disability Benefit Application online

Eligible OPERS members can initiate a request for disability benefits by filing the Disability Benefit Application (DR-1). Beginning Nov. 19, 2025, members will be able to apply online within their OPERS online account. This will allow them to monitor the progression of their request for benefits. Members will be able to view status details regarding the receipt of relevant third-party applications and documentation, medical reviews and exam scheduling, OPERS Board of Trustees dates for allowance determinations and payment status.

Keep ECS Contact information up to date

There are two employer user lists in ECS, the employer contact information and the ECS user list. It is important to keep both lists up to date.

The employer contact information is a list of individuals who are permitted to discuss your employer's account with OPERS and notates who is an authorized signer for the organization. This can be updated by your Delegated Administrator (DA) on ECS under the Employer Contacts button on the ECS main menu. The DA can add, disable or update the permissions available to any current employer contact. Consider reviewing your employer's contact list on a regular basis.

The ECS user list is a list of individuals who have been granted access to use ECS and should be reviewed periodically. Please remember to disable the ECS user account for any individuals who leave employment with your entity or who change positions and should no longer have access to ECS. This will notify OPERS that we can no longer discuss the entity's account with that individual. You can manage your ECS user list under the User Management button on the ECS main menu.

If you need assistance updating your employer contact information or the ECS user list, please contact Employer Outreach at 1-888-400-0965 or employeroutreach@opers.org.

Certification of Final Payroll

There are two types of certifications of final payroll that OPERS requests from employers when one of their employees is terminating employment – the SRF-85 is requested for those seeking a Service Retirement benefit, the DRF-85 is needed for those going out on Disability Retirement. If you are asked to fill out an SRF-85 or a DRF-85 before the employee has worked their final day, you can submit the form ahead of time, even if the person is still working or is still on payroll. You should use the last day of earnable salary (the last day they had earnings with your entity) as the final earnable salary date, and reporting period these final contributions will be remitted on. If the employee changes their intended termination date after a certification is submitted, you can invalidate the form and resubmit a corrected certification.

There is also the form LR-2 which is required when a member is refunding their OPERS account. The LR-2 cannot be submitted prior to the employee's termination date – the employee must work their final day before ECS will accept the LR-2.

Please note that we have updated the form, LR-2, and are asking for the employee's termination date instead of the final earnable salary date. You will see this change occur in October 2025.

Regardless of the form requested, each are an important part of the benefit and refund process.

Employer-Sponsored Disability Plan?

Do you have an employer-sponsored disability plan? Did you know if an employee is receiving benefits under an employer-sponsored plan, the employer should be reporting earnable salary in the wages that the employee would have earned if working (as opposed to reporting as earnable salary the percentage of the disability benefits that is wage replacement) and remitting contributions on this earnable salary.

Avoid Double Reporting

At times, we receive duplicate reporting from employers. This can occur for any number of reasons. Two of the issues that we find more common are described here.

The first scenario is that the employer is unsure if the Report of Retirement Contributions has been submitted. To verify the report has been submitted, you can log into ECS, click Online Reports and then click the View Reports tab at the top – this will display your Submitted Reports List at the bottom of the screen. You can verify whether the report has been submitted. If your report has been submitted and you just need to schedule payment without going through your report again, log into ECS and click on the Online Payments button and then click on the Payment Remittance Advices link. This takes you directly to your normal payment screen and prevents you from accidentally duplicating your report.

Secondly, ECS will automatically default to the previous month's end date based on the current date when submitting a new report. You want to ensure you are verifying the report period date you are entering. If the report date is incorrect, you are able to correct the date before entering the employee data into ECS.

Notice of Re-Employment or Contract Services of an OPERS Benefit Recipient (Form SR-6)

The Notice of Re-Employment or Contract Services of an OPERS Benefit Recipient (SR-6) is required when hiring or engaging in services with any of the following benefit recipients (whether as a public employee, an independent contractor or in any other capacity):

• an OPERS age and service benefit recipient,
• an OPERS disability benefit recipient, or
• a retired elected or appointed official returning to employment to an elected office.

The SR-6 form should be submitted by the end of the month in which an OPERS benefit recipient begins re-employment or contracted services with an OPERS employer. If the individual starts within the last 10 days of the month, in addition to submitting this completed form, the employer will need to contact Employer Services immediately to prevent overpayment of benefits. If the employer does not submit the SR-6 form in a timely manner, the employer will be billed for any overpayment of benefits.

When the employment or contract comes to an end, an Employer Certification of Termination of Employment of an OPERS Benefit Recipient (TERM-MP) must be submitted to notify OPERS that the individual has terminated re-employment. A TERM-MP can be submitted on ECS, under online forms for those who are being reported to OPERS. These individuals should also have their final re-employment contributions reported with a PPE (pay period end) code of "Q" (quit).

For individuals who are not reported to OPERS, such as independent contractors or an employee who has no earnable salary, the TERM-MP form can be found on www.opers.org under the Employer Section and Forms and Documents. The form can be submitted via email or faxed.

Reminder: the SSN lookup under Online Forms on ECS can be used to identify those who are OPERS benefit recipients.

If you have any questions regarding what is required as an employer when someone becomes re-employed, please review the Re-employment Quick Refence Guide.

Autumn Reminders

Annual Non-Contributing list - Each year employers are required to submit an annual non-contributing list identifying non-contributing individuals. Non-contributing individuals, , are those providing services to a public employer and earning compensation but are not contributing to OPERS such as independent contractors, someone who has no earnable salary or excluded by law.

Employers must:

• Submit a Social Security Number for each person on the non-contributing list.
• Ensure they are using the correct indicator which describes the individual's non-contributing status.
• Submit the non-contributing lists to OPERS by Jan. 31, 2026. If you report on ECS, your non-contributing list should be submitted via ECS.

Annual Conversion Plans - Plans must be submitted to Employer Services each calendar year by March 31. All plans must be approved before any conversion payments are made if the payment is to be reported as earnable salary. The payment is for leave accrued in the calendar year and cannot exceed the maximums defined in the plan document

Conversion payments must be submitted on a supplemental report and must be accompanied by the OPERS Conversion Payments document (CONVDOC). A copy of the CONVDOC template can be found by visiting opers.org and clicking Form and Documents under the Employer tab at the top of the home page.

Plans can be submitted for review by mail, by fax at 614-857-1138 or by email at employeroutreach@opers.org. Plans cannot be retroactively approved.

2026 Reporting and Payment Due Dates

*Due dates are corrected for weekends and holidays if applicable

Year-End Reporting

As we approach the end of 2025, we want to remind you of the importance of timely and accurate year-end reporting. Timely year-end reporting allows us to generate accurate annual statements for members. Please ensure that the December 2025 report is submitted no later than Feb. 2, 2026.

For employers with employees meeting or exceeding the Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a)(17) limits, please ensure you have reported the correct amount of contributions up to the appropriate limit. A breakdown of contributions for 2025 wages that would be considered earnable salary but are not reported because the member met the Internal Revenue Code Section 401(a)(17) limit, should be submitted no later than Jan. 22, 2026. A letter will be sent to affected employers in early December.