View UNM’s Coronavirus Guidance for Employees.
The Education Retirement Act (ERA) mandates that both employees and employers make contributions to the pension plan for eligible classes of employees who work greater than .25 FTE. UNM is required to report Full Time Equivalency (FTE), earnings, and contributions for eligible employees. UNM is responsible for defining .25 FTE based on their own business practices, as the ERB statute does not provide a specific definition. UNM has established the following definitions that will be elaborated on in these guidelines.
Note: ERB guidelines are written in terms of Full Time Equivalency (FTE), UNM administers work effort in terms of Appointment Percentage. For example, an FTE of 1.0 is equivalent to an Appointment of 100%.
Note: The revised guidelines below are not applicable to Working Retirees. There are different restrictions for Working Retirees.
As on-call staff reach 130 hours in a quarter, communications will be sent to on-call staff and their supervisor as a reminder that the employee may be at risk of exceeding 130 hours for the quarter and work schedule should be managed or FTE proactively increased if appropriate.
If an on-call staff exceeds 130 hours in a fiscal year quarter, FTE will automatically be updated to 0.375 FTE and ERA contributions will be made retroactively for the entire quarter and Social Security will be withheld from the employee’s paycheck.
It is first the responsibility of the supervisor and employee to monitor time worked to ensure the employee is working the appropriate amount of time based on their FTE at the time of hire.
Additionally, HR & Payroll are developing automated communications to notify employees, supervisors and HR Agents when an on-call staff is trending toward 130 hours in a quarter. HR and Payroll are also developing automated processes to increase FTE from 0.25 FTE to 0.375 FTE if on call staff exceed 130 hours in the quarter, which will result in retroactive ERA contributions for the entire quarter. The on-call staff employee will also begin to have Social Security deductions.
ERA contribution information is available on the HR Website.
The department should be diligent in determining an appropriate FTE and may contact their HR Consultant for assistance. If it is anticipated that an on-call staff will work greater than 0.25 FTE, the department should increase the FTE to 0.375 proactively to minimize the potential for the employee experiencing retroactive ERB contributions for the quarter.
Employees who consistently work .25 FTE or less in a quarter will not be affected. Also excluded are student employees, working retirees, resident physicians, and post-doctoral employees.
UNM has typically used a .25 FTE as a placeholder for On-Call employees. Going forward, hiring officials and supervisors will need to proactively determine if an employee will work more than 130 hours in a fiscal year quarter. If working more than 130 hours, the FTE should be 0.375 FTE, if working 130 hours or less, the department should use 0.25 FTE.
You should discuss your staffing needs with your HR Consultant to determine the appropriate employee classification.
Yes, unless the FTE is changed at the beginning of the quarter where the employee worked less than a .25 FTE. If the FTE captured in Banner is .26 or above, then the employee will make ERB contributions. If the employee will continually work below or over their assigned FTE, then the department will need to change the employee’s FTE to 0.25 FTE.
Yes, the 130 allotted hours are based on a timeframe of when hours are paid, not when the hours are worked.
Regarding staff employment, contact your HR Consultant using the Find Your Consultant report or the HR Contacts webpage.
Regarding Main Campus faculty employment, contact the Office of Faculty Affairs and Services.
Regarding HSC faculty employment, contact the HSC Faculty Contracts Office.
For questions regarding payroll, contact the Payroll Office.
