Retirement plan eligible employees are employees working in positions that are at least 50% FTE (half-time) and expected to last 4.5 months or longer. All employees who fall in this category are required to participate the Teacher Retirement System (TRS), unless an exception to TRS membership applies, for exceptions refer to the TRS Handbook. TWU employees participate in both Social Security and TRS. For information on whether or not your TRS pension will effect your Social Security benefit please log on to the social security site for Government Pension Offset and Windfall Elimination.
An Optional Retirement Program (ORP) is available for full-time faculty and certain administrative employees in lieu of the Teacher Retirement System (TRS). Eligible employees have 90 days from the date of employment to make a one-time choice to relinquish membership in TRS become a participant in the ORP. The decision to participate in TRS or ORP is extremely important because this is a one time irrevocable election. The ORP is a personal retirement plan purchased by the member to which the State makes contributions. Benefits are based on the accumulated contributions and interest in the member's account. Vesting occurs after one year and one day of participation. You can choose from any authorized provider for TWU 403(b).
COMPARE THE ORP AND TRS