View UNM’s Coronavirus Guidance for Employees.
The New Mexico Educational Retirement Board (NMERB) has clarified guidance on which employees are required to make ERB contributions. Effective July 1, 2016, certain UNM employees classified as On-Call or Temporary will be eligible to earn retirement service credits with the ERB. ERB retirement service credits are earned in relation to a certain amount of time worked/paid, and in turn, contributions toward retirement service credits are withheld from the employee’s paycheck.
Please note that although the 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%.
Previously, UNM followed the ‘520 Rule’ which meant that On-Call and Temporary employees did not earn service credit or make ERB contributions until they worked over 520 hours in a fiscal year.
Starting with the July 1, 2016 paycheck, employees hired as On-Call or Temporary (including those hired through UNMTemps) who are working a Full Time Equivalency (FTE) of .26 or more per quarter, will be eligible to earn retirement credits and thus are required to make ERB contributions. Additionally, as the employer, UNM will be required to contribute the Employer Rate for each of these employees.
While Human Resources (HR) will evaluate and manage the affected On-Call and Temporary Staff positions, the Office of Faculty Affairs and Services will evaluate affected Main Campus faculty positions and the HSC Faculty Contracts Office will evaluate the affected North Campus faculty positions.
The Division of Human Resources (HR) is reviewing and evaluating the employee data for the position types affected.
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, Human Resources developed an ERB exception report that will be closely monitored. HR will notify the HR Agent of those employees trending toward the changeover point in the quarter.
The contribution rates are as follows:
Wage Category |
Member Rate |
Employer Rate |
Combined Remittance Rate |
$20,000* or less |
7.9% |
13.9% |
21.8% |
Over $20,000* |
10.7% |
13.9% |
24.6% |
The department should contact their HR Consultant and raise the FTE to reflect the actual working FTE. The employee and UNM will be required to pay ERB contributions.
ERB looks at time paid during the quarter based on the reported FTE. The employee may receive a paycheck after the first day of the quarter where the time worked was in the previous quarter.
Example: A non-exempt employee receives a paycheck on July 1 for time worked June 11 through June 24. The service credits will be applied to the quarter starting July 1 and not the quarter ending June 30.
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 calculate the “true” FTE that the employee is working. In the event that the employee is actually working sporadic and unpredictable hours, then the default FTE will be .125.
Departments should use the following table as a guide:
FTE |
Hours Worked Per Week |
.125 |
5 |
.25 |
10 |
.335 |
15 |
.5 |
20 |
.625 |
25 |
.75 |
30 |
.875 |
35 |
1.0 |
40 |
If a position is I&G funded, then ERB contributions will not affect the department’s budget. If a position is non-I&G funded, then ERB contributions will be taken from the departmental budget. To confirm budget information for Main Campus contact the Budget Office at 505-277-6465, for HSC departments, contact the HSC Budget Office.
Yes. You would need to predetermine the employment duration and time to be worked by the employee beginning at the time of hire. The FTE will be documented as 1.0 and the employee and UNM will be required to contribute to ERB.
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 submit an FTE change form.
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.