The 2025-26 Budget: Concession Bargaining

May 19, 2025 - The first is payment towards the “normal cost, ” which is the amount of money that actuaries determine (based on actuarial assumptions like expected investment returns on assets) must be contributed to prefund the benefit earned by employees today.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5047

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Unit 6 (Corrections)

Sep 7, 2023 - The normal cost is the amount of money that actuaries determine must be set aside for the benefit employees earn today so that the contribution and any future investment returns on that contribution are sufficient to pay for the benefit after the employee retires.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4800

The 2024-25 Budget: Proposition 2 Debt Payment Proposals

Mar 20, 2024 - Revenues from investment returns vary significantly year to year depending on market performance; however, CalPERS assumes an annual return of 6.8  percent. Employee and Employer Contributions to “Normal Cost. ” The normal cost is the amount actuaries determine must be contributed to the system in a given year to fund the benefit earned by state employees in that year.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4887

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Unit 16 (Physicians, Dentists, and Podiatrists)

Jul 14, 2025 - The reduced amount of money invested in the trust fund will result in higher unfunded liabilities in the long-run. In most of the agreements, the state ’s contributions towards the benefit would be fully restored in 2027-28.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5064

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Unit 5 (Highway Patrol)

Aug 23, 2024 - The normal cost is the amount actuaries determine must be contributed to the pension system in a given year to fund the benefit earned by state employees in that year. The normal cost is developed using various actuarial assumptions including assumptions about investment returns on assets and the life expectancy of members.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4920

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Units 10 (Professional Scientists) and 18 (Psychiatric Technician)

Sep 9, 2025 - Typically, a furlough for state employees reduces state employee pay by 4.62  percent in exchange for one day (eight hours) off per month without affecting other elements of compensation (for example, pension and health benefits).
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5073

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Unit 8 (Firefighters)

Aug 19, 2025 - Employees in different bargaining units who have similar jobs (for example, public safety classifications like peace officers and firefighters) earn compensation packages with similar components. For example, while the specific structure of the benefit varies, public safety employees generally earn pension benefits that are designed to offer a higher annuity to retirees at an earlier age.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5066

Strengthening the CalSTRS Funding Plan

Mar 10, 2021 - Creditable compensation includes educators’ salaries, as well as other eligible pay, such as pay earned for teaching a summer school class. Contribution Rates . The amounts that the state, employers, and members are required—by law and given board authority—to contribute to CalSTRS, calculated annually as a percentage of creditable compensation.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4400

MOU Fiscal Analysis: Bargaining Unit 9 (Professional Engineers)

Jun 27, 2025 - Under state law, vacation or annual leave is considered a form of wages that is vested when earned. As such, employers cannot adopt a “use it or lose it ” policy for earned employee vacation and annual leave whereby unused vacation or annual leave above a certain level is forfeited at the end of the year.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/5061

The 2023-24 Budget: Total Compensation Studies

May 24, 2023 - For example, the retirement benefits earned by state employees varies significantly depending on an employee ’s date of hire. A compensation study should compare wages but also should attempt to quantify the value of most of the ancillary benefits earned by employees in an effort to compare the value of total compensation earned by employees.
https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4773