Part-time, Seasonal and Temporary (PST) Employees Retirement Program
What is PST?
Part-time, seasonal and temporary (PST) employees hired by the State of California or the California State University (CSU) system whose wages do not qualify for Social Security deductions or membership in the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) are required to participate in PST. The Department of Human Resources’ Savings Plus Program (Savings Plus) administers PST, an eligible 457(b) Plan under the Internal Revenue Code. Your HR office determines who qualifies for PST.
As an active participant in the PST program, you have access to:
Frequently asked questions
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If your employment status changes and you become a CalPERS member, your PST deduction stops and a CalPERS retirement deduction begins. Once we identify your CalPERS eligibility, we establish a 457(b) Plan account for you, if you don’t already have one established. We then transfer 100% of your PST assets approximately 75 days after notification of eligibility or adjustment posts to your PST account. You will receive a notice, and one final statement showing and confirming the transfer of your PST account balance to the Savings Plus 457(b) Plan.
Yes. PST participation is mandatory for employees who meet the qualifications, which include:
- Part-time employees who work less than half time
- Seasonal employees
- Temporary and Permanent-Intermittent (PI) employees. Note: Temporary and PI employees are generally not excluded from CalPERS membership if one of the following requirements are met:
- They work longer than six months Employed on a per diem basis, they work more than 125 days in a fiscal year (July 1 through June 30)
- Employed on an hourly basis, they work more than 1,000 hours in a fiscal year (hours are cumulative regardless of the number of departments the employee works for)
- Half-time CSU employees who are not yet eligible for membership in a state retirement system
Your HR office can provide you with information about your PST eligibility.
Your mandatory PST contribution is 7.5% of your gross wages. It is withheld on a before-tax basis, deposited into your PST account.
Your employer does not contribute to your PST account or match your PST contributions. Your account balance is limited to the amount you contribute plus attributable earnings or losses.
Savings Plus deposits your contribution in the Short-Term Investment Fund – PST (STIF-PST); the fund’s objective is to preserve capital.
If you leave state employment, your PST payroll deductions stop. You can — and should — close your PST account; you are eligible to withdraw your full account balance 90 days after the last transaction posts into or out of your account.
After two years of inactivity and if your account balance does not exceed $1,000, Savings Plus will distribute the balance of your account to you in a lump sum, even if you do not request a distribution.
You may contact the Savings Plus Solutions Center for your distribution request. After three years of inactivity your account is considered dormant and may be sent to your state’s unclaimed property division.
Direct payment: This option may allow for 100% of your account balance to be made payable directly to you. Choose direct deposit—a fast, simple, and secure way to have your payment deposited automatically into your checking or savings account. Direct payments are reported as ordinary income in the year you received them.
Rollover: This option may allow for the rollover of funds in your PST account to an individual retirement account (IRA), 401(k), 403(b), or 457(b) Plan.
- Direct payments are subject to a mandatory 20% federal tax withholding
- California State taxes are generally withheld at the rate of 10% of federal tax withholding
- Direct payments to you are reported to the IRS as ordinary income
- Direct rollover payments to qualified pre-tax plans are reported as nontaxable
- Savings Plus mails your IRS Form 1099-R by January 31 of the year following your distribution
Savings Plus does not charge employees an administrative fee to administer PST. Instead, departments are charged an administrative fee for each active PST employee, and the estimated cost of investment management fees is 0.08% annually. Additionally, there is a nominal custodial/trustee fee and an administrative expense reimbursement of 0.30% annually.
Yes. If you contribute to a 457(b) Plan during the same calendar year you contribute to PST, you must reduce the annual deferral limit by the amount contributed to your PST account.
Employees who meet these circumstances are excluded from PST participation:
- Full-time students who regularly attend classes in the institution in which they work except during school break periods of more than 5 weeks, including summer breaks.
- Employees hired on a temporary basis in case of emergencies, such as fires, floods, earthquakes, etc.; this exclusion applies only to employees hired to perform work requiring immediate action to address the urgent nature of the emergency.
- Election officials and election workers paid less than the annual threshold established under federal law for the applicable calendar year.
- Persons hired through programs to relieve unemployment, such as summer youth programs.
- Employees who retired from service covered by a state retirement system and who are receiving benefits from a state retirement system or have reached normal retirement age under a state retirement system, including CalPERS, CalSTRS, Legislators’ Retirement System (LRS), and Judges Retirement Systems (including Judges’ Retirement System II Law (JRS).
- Authorized, nonresident aliens who have F or J visas or M teaching visas.
- Persons paid for performing services in a hospital, home or another institution in which they live.
- Employees working in multiple state positions at the same time and covered by a state retirement system due to a full-time position with the state (Note: This exclusion does not apply if an employee has membership in a state retirement system other than CalPERS through employment with a non-state employer).
- Casual employees who have benefits from the Health and Welfare Fund of their union.
- Self-employed persons who render services to the state and make Social Security payments on wages earned from their state contract; to request this exemption, you must submit a letter to your HR office, indicating you will pay Social Security taxes on the earnings along with a copy of your Schedule SE from your Form 1040 from the previous year.