In an effort to assist you with 2018-19 budget preparations, we recommend you use an estimated employer contribution rate (ECR) of 10.63% for 2018-19 payroll. This projected rate is consistent with Administrative Bulletin 2017-11, issued in November 2017, in which we estimated a rate of between 10.50% and 11.00%.
Although the funds associated with this ECR will not be collected until fall 2019, we send this alert well in advance to assist with your planning. The Retirement Board will adopt the 2018-19 ECR at its August meeting and an Administrative Bulletin formalizing the rate will be issued soon thereafter.
At its October 2017 board meeting, the Retirement Board lowered the System’s assumed rate of return on future investments from 7.50% to 7.25%. This rate is an estimate of what the System will earn on its assets in the future. Although recent returns have been favorable, the conventional wisdom among our investment advisors is that long-term investment returns will be lower in the future than they have been in the past. NYSTRS, like many other retirement systems throughout the country, is being conservative and lowering this long-term assumption. The 10.63% estimated ECR provided above was calculated using this lower return assumption.
As previously noted (see Administrative Bulletin 2017-9), the ECR applicable to your 2017-18 payroll will be 9.80%. These funds will be collected in the fall of 2018 and correspond to NYSTRS member salaries for the 2017-18 school year.
The ECR is adopted each July/August, but the contributions associated with these particular rates are not collected for another 13-15 months. Except for those employers required to pay directly, contributions are deducted annually from State Aid apportioned in September, October, and November.
If you have any additional questions, please call John Cardillo, Manager of Public Information, at (518) 447-4743.
An archive of Delegate News issued since 2005 is found on our website.
History of Employer Contribution Rate:
