by Caprice Lawless
Many adjunct faculty members in the CCCS console
themselves in one way, come each payday. They see the hefty deductions for
their PERA benefit, and believe that at least those funds will add to their Social
Security benefit once they retire. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Few realize how working in the CCCS and contributing to PERA will hurt them in
retirement thanks to a little-known federal initiative.
The Windfall
Elimination Provision (WEP) is a Reagan-era program designed to curb Social
Security payments, ostensibly to the wealthiest so-called “double-dippers.” The
way the initiative is calculated hurts, instead, the little guy who is forced
to work two or three low-wage jobs, either concurrently or consecutively. The
intersection of PERA, Social Security
and WEP is where retiring CCCS adjunct faculty are hurt throughout retirement.
Most adjunct
faculty work under the delusion that those hefty PERA deductions will shine
brightly in their golden years as additional payments they will receive atop
whatever they will receive from Social Security. Instead, what we learned from
the recent Adjunct Survival Workshops our chapters have hosted, is how the WEP deducts
from your Social Security benefit two-thirds of the PERA benefit amount. For example,
that $600/per month PERA benefit an adjunct faculty member believed would
supplement his/her $1,200 Social Security benefit will, instead, mean that
$400/per month will be deducted from
his/her Social Security benefit. While the retiring adjunct faculty member
will receive his/her full PERA retirement, the total retirement income will be
reduced dramatically because of it.
This
little-known problem, which exists only in states where public employee retirement
programs are set up the way Colorado PERA is, has come to the attention of U.S.
Representatives Kevin Brady (R-Tex) Richard
Neal (D-MA). They co-sponsored the Equal Treatment of Public Servants Act of
2015-2016 (HR 711). The bill proposed calculating the WEP differently, to correct
the inequality toward public servants whose state retirement programs are
arranged similarly to Colorado PERA. The bill was defeated, largely under
pressure from the National Association of Active and Retired Federal
Employees (NARFE), who objected to last-minute bill changes that would have provided little
benefit to those adversely affected by the WEP.
Look for HR-711 or related legislation to be taken up
again by Congress after the general election next month.
Wouldn’t it
be helpful if the CCCS were forthcoming in details such as this with its
adjunct faculty?
For more information on
the WEP:
For more information about the
intersection of WEP, Social Security and PERA:
Colorado
PERA or phone the Colorado PERA office: (303) 832-9550.
