This article defines terms related to the TWU Total Compensation Statement. Please use this article to interpret the different earnings and employer contributions you may find on your individual compensation statement.
Earnings Information Definitions:
- Base Salary: The base salary is the amount of money paid to employees in return for work performed.
- Longevity Pay: Longevity pay is an earned benefit based on total state service, not including time at community/junior colleges or independent school districts. Longevity pay is paid each month in addition to base salary to regular full-time staff employees (except law enforcement personnel who are eligible for hazardous duty pay).
- Hazardous Duty Pay: Texas Woman's University provides hazardous duty pay to peace officers in the amount of ten dollars ($10) per month for each year of service in a hazardous duty position or as otherwise provided by law. Eligible part-time employees are paid proportional hazardous duty pay at a proportional rate based on the ratio of their scheduled work hours per week to 40 hours.
- Cell Plan Stipend: A monthly allowance for communication devices is paid to certain employees or groups of employees with an established business need.
- TWU Group Term Life (GTL) Imputed Income: Imputed income is the value of non-monetary compensation added to an employee's gross wages so employment taxes can be withheld. The IRS considers group-term life insurance provided by an employer to be a tax-free benefit as long as the policy's death benefit is less than $50,000. Therefore, there are no tax consequences if an employee's group-term life policy does not exceed $50,000 in coverage. If an employee is provided over $50,000 in life insurance coverage and pays less in premiums than the IRS deems the policy to be worth, then there are tax implications. In this situation, the value of life insurance policy in excess of what an employee pays in premiums is called 'imputed income' and is subject to income taxes.
Employer Contribution Definitions:
Please note: The "ER" tag in the following labels represents employer contributions.
- Medicare Employer Contribution & Social Security Employer Contribution: The university's contribution to an employee's Medicare and Social Security contribution.
- TWU Basic Life ER: Employees enrolled in a medical plan offered through the Employees Retirement System (ERS) automatically receives $5,000 of Basic Term Life Insurance and $5,000 of Accidental Death & Dismemberment (AD&D) at no cost to the employee.
- TWU Medical ER: HealthSelect and the Consumer Directed HealthSelect of Texas medical plans are offered through ERS and administered by BlueCross BlueShield of Texas. Employee-only coverage for full-time employees is paid fully with no cost to the employee. The University pays 50% of dependent medical coverage, with the other 50% paid by the employee.
- TWU TRS ER or ORP Retirement ER Contribution: The University makes monthly contributions to the retirement programs using percentages of employees' salaries established by the state legislature. Each regular employee of the University is required to participate in a retirement program.
Who do I contact with questions about earnings information or employer contributions?
Please contact the payroll team with questions regarding earnings at payroll@twu.edu.
Please contact the benefits team with questions regarding benefits at benefits1@twu.edu.