We’ve identified a recurring issue in recent payroll reports, where former employees who receive comp time or contract payouts after termination are being marked as Not Eligible. Please ensure these employees remain marked as Eligible on your payroll reports.

Comp time and contract payouts issued after termination are considered pensionable wages and must be reported to MOSERS. When an employee is marked as Not Eligible, those wages are not reported to MOSERS, which prevents us from processing them correctly and may negatively affect the employee’s salary credit for retirement purposes.

• Keep these employees marked as Eligible on the payroll report.
• Use the Move Wages button to move the payout, along with any other pensionable wages, to the employee’s last active pay period.
• Once the wages have been moved, the error will clear, and you can proceed with your payroll report.

Reporting these wages accurately ensures employees receive proper salary credit toward their retirement.

Earlier this week, HR/payroll representatives received a system-generated email regarding the Retiree Sick Leave Report in Phoenix. This report is available as a query and lists employees from your agency who have recently retired.

You should use this report to remove any remaining sick leave balances from your payroll system. Retirees who return to work in a benefit-eligible position cannot receive additional service credit for unused sick leave accrued before retirement.

Because the retirement verification process continues throughout the month of retirement, sick leave should only be cleared for individuals who retired in a prior month. When running the report, be sure to search for employees who retired in previous months. For example, if running the query in June, search for retirees from May or earlier.

The SAM II Payroll Reporting Calendar in Phoenix has been updated and is now available on the Phoenix homepage. This calendar outlines key dates for each pay cycle, most notably, the reporting windows for HR/payroll representatives.

• Reports with no errors or warnings will be submitted automatically.
• Reports with errors or warnings will generate a system email once they are ready to work in Phoenix.
• All open payroll reports, including supplemental payrolls, must be submitted by the Final Day to Submit Payroll Reports listed on the calendar.

To ensure MOSERS has the most up-to-date information, please continue submitting payroll reports in tandem with your pay schedule. This is especially important for retiring employees, as MOSERS cannot verify retirement eligibility or process benefits until we receive both the termination record and the employee’s final payroll.

Timely reporting ensures that employees receive their pension benefits without delay.

Please continue to contact Employer Services with questions about your payroll reports or Phoenix in general:

• Phone: (800) 827-1063, option 2
• Email: employers@mosers.org

When emailing about a payroll report, please include the Phoenix reporting group number to help us assist you more efficiently.

The SAM II payroll reports for the April 16-30 pay period, as well as any outstanding supplemental payroll reports, are due by the end of day on Thursday, May 15.

Need help? The fastest way to get assistance is by calling an employer services analyst at (800) 827-1063, option 2. We're happy to walk through your payroll report with you!

Online Office Hours continue daily from 11 a.m. to 12 p.m. and alternate between employer types. Your questions drive these sessions—drop in to get help with Phoenix, clarify processes, or ask anything you need. There is no formal agenda.

• SAM II Employers: May 9 and May 12-15
• Local Employers: May 16

On the fifth of every month, Phoenix will send an automated message alerting you to the Retiree Sick Leave Report. This report identifies employees from your agency who have recently retired.

• Use the report to zero out the unused sick leave balance in your payroll system for recent retirees.
• Only clear sick leave for employees who retired during the previous month or any earlier period, if not already processed.
• Do not clear leave for members retiring in the current month.

• If running the report in May, only clear sick leave for employees who retired in April or earlier.
• Set your report dates from April 1 through April 30 to capture April retirees.

If a retiree returns to benefit-eligible employment after meeting MOSERS' termination and reemployment rules, they are not eligible to receive service credit for any unused sick leave from before retirement.

• Payroll reports for the April 28 and May 2 supplemental payroll cycles were released into Phoenix on Tuesday, May 6.
• Payroll reports for the April 16-30 regular payroll cycle will be released into Phoenix on Thursday, May 8.
• Any payroll reports that did not auto-submit (due to errors or warnings) must be manually submitted by the end of the day on Thursday, May 15.

Need help? If you have questions, the fastest way to get assistance is by calling an employer services analyst at (800) 827-1063, option 2. We're happy to walk through your payroll report with you.

Please upload your payroll files and work the resulting payroll reports on a regular schedule. This ensures employee benefits remain current and are administered accurately.

Need help? Call us at (800) 827-1063, option 2. We're here to help with any questions you may have.

Please remember that payroll reports must be submitted by the close of business on Wednesday, April 30. Due to the SAM II processing schedule, there are no exceptions to this deadline.

• If you encounter any difficulties completing your report, contact Employer Services as soon as possible at (573) 632-6100, option 2.
• We are happy to assist you over the phone to resolve any issues and ensure your report is finalized.

Phoenix identifies employees designated in SAM II as 50% FTE or greater as benefit-eligible. This first payroll report has revealed instances where benefit-eligible employees hired more than 31 days ago were not entered into SEBES.

If you missed enrolling a benefit-eligible employee through SEBES within 31 days of their hire date, please follow these steps:

• Enter the employee into SEBES using the first date of the current payroll reporting period as the employee’s start date.
• SEBES enrollments are imported into Phoenix approximately every five minutes, allowing you to clear the related error shortly after the enrollment is processed.
• Submit an Application to Correct Service to MOSERS. We will coordinate with OA to review the request. If approved, we will work with OA to add the retroactive service credit and collect any required back contributions.

Thanks to the daily exchange of information between SAM II and Phoenix, we do not anticipate late SEBES enrollments being a recurring issue in Phoenix. Going forward, MOSERS staff will be alerted to new benefit-eligible employees and may contact you if a SEBES enrollment needs to be submitted.

Instructions:

1. Log In: Sign in to the Employer Login.
2. Navigate: Hover over the Error Reports heading and click on the Salary Verification Report.
3. Review: Names of individuals responsible for working the report will appear. Select the appropriate name or department to view the report. Please ensure the individuals listed are aware of their requirement to work the report.
4. Submit: Responses will be recorded and submitted to MOSERS electronically.

Deadline: The report must be completed by September 5.

MOSERS is making final preparations for our Annual Life Insurance Review, which will occur in October. To ensure that all benefit-eligible employees receive their life insurance review information, it is crucial that we have correct mailing addresses on file. MOSERS does not send mail to members who have an invalid address on file in our system.

Action Required:

1. Log In: Sign in to the Employer Login.
2. Navigate: Hover over the Error Reports heading and click on the Invalid Address Report.
3. Review and Update: Submit any necessary changes.

MOSERS will release the Annual Salary Verification Report in mid-August. Once the report is ready for your review, we will send a notice (including instructions). Employers must complete all salary verifications by September 5.

Eligible employees receive one times their annual salary in basic life insurance coverage. The amount of coverage adjusts each January according to the employee's annual earnings in effect on July 31 of the previous year (or the employee's first day of coverage if not covered on July 31).

• Annual earnings include normal earnings from a benefit-eligible position, including shift differential, security differential, and retention pay.
• Overtime pay and other irregular payments are excluded from annual earnings.
• If an employee works simultaneously in both a benefit-eligible and non-benefit-eligible position, only pay from the benefit-eligible position is included in annual earnings.

If you have questions about the annual salary verification process, please email employers@mosers.org. You can also watch the Life Insurance Verification tutorial on how to work the report.

We collect contributions from you — our employer partners — to help fund retirement, life insurance, and long-term disability benefits for benefit-eligible state employees.

Each month, we receive a record of the previous month's pay and contributions for all covered employees. A small percentage of those records contain an error, or discrepancy, between the pay and contributions MOSERS expected to receive for an employee and what MOSERS actually received.

There are two error reports within the secure Employer Login that employers must work each month to address pay and contribution discrepancies:

• The Aged Accounts Receivable Report (for active employees)
• The Terminated Report (for separated employees)

Employer representatives responsible for working the reports receive an email notification when a report is released and ready to work. 

Staying current on monthly error reports and submitting outstanding leave of absence, transfer, and termination forms to MOSERS is vital in administering timely and accurate benefits for your employees.

Maintaining the integrity of member records is a joint effort between MOSERS staff and covered employers. Feel free to contact the Employer Services team with your questions by emailing employers@mosers.org or calling (800) 827-1063 and selecting option 2.

For SAM II employers, MOSERS receives final unused sick leave balances from SAM II to calculate pension benefits for retirees. Once MOSERS has captured this information, the retiree appears on the Current Retiree Sick Leave and then the Previous Retiree Sick Leave reports within the secure Employer Login.

When a retiree appears on these reports, you can safely remove their unused sick leave balance from SAM II. Removing unused sick leave from SAM II will not remove retirees from the reports - they will drop from the Current Retiree Sick Leave Report to the Previous Retiree Sick Leave report as the next month’s retirees' cycle through the process.

Working these reports is important because a retiree reemployed in a benefit-eligible position cannot receive additional retirement credit for pre-retirement unused sick leave, including any remaining hours that did not convert to whole months of service credit at retirement.

Each August, MOSERS asks our employers to help verify employee salaries to ensure that basic life insurance coverage amounts are accurate.

MOSERS will release the Annual Salary Verification Report in mid-August. A notice (including instructions) will be sent as soon as the report is ready for your review. Employers must complete all salary verifications by September 6th.

The report is essential to ensuring that covered employees receive the correct amount of basic life insurance coverage each year.

Eligible employees receive one times their annual salary in basic life insurance coverage. The amount of coverage adjusts each January according to the employee’s annual earnings in effect on July 31 of the previous year (or the employee’s first day of coverage if not covered on July 31).

• Annual earnings include normal earnings from a benefit-eligible position, including shift differential, security differential, and retention pay.
• Overtime pay and other irregular payments are excluded from annual earnings. 

Additionally, if an employee is working in both a benefit-eligible and non-benefit-eligible position simultaneously, only pay from the benefit-eligible position is included in annual earnings. 

Please email employers@mosers.org if you have questions about the annual salary verification process. You can also watch a brief video tutorial on how to work the report if needed.

Occasionally, employers misclassify a benefit-eligible employee as non-benefit-eligible at the time of hire or neglect to enroll a benefit-eligible employee through SEBES. Fortunately, there is an easy way to correct those mistakes when they occur.

Benefit-eligible employees are entitled to service and salary credit towards the calculation of their future pension. 

Your agency must pay employer contributions for pension, life insurance, and long-term disability benefits (as applicable) for all benefit-eligible employees. Additionally, your agency remits employee contributions to MOSERS on behalf of MSEP 2011 and Judicial Plan 2011 employees.

Once you discover the mistake, ensure the employee is entered into SEBES. Then, log in to the Employer Login, enter the employee's SSN, and select the Forms tab to complete the Application to Correct Service. 

Once MOSERS receives the application, we will work with your agency to collect the necessary contributions, including contacting the Office of Administration to approve any corrections for agencies that use the SAM II payroll system.