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Evaluating TRS Eligibility and Employment Contracts Examples

The most common errors on the TRS Regular Payroll (RP) report are related to verifying TRS membership eligibility for employees. Errors may occur depending on the number of hours an employee works and the number of hours reported to TRS. Reminder, the hours worked must be the time worked from the first through last day of the report month. Please compare the View Employee Information screen to your system to ensure the hours previously reported are correct. 

All employees must first be evaluated for membership eligibility when they are hired. However, there may be other occasions throughout their employment when membership needs to be reevaluated such as a work agreement change. 

Here are some tips for evaluating employment contracts and determining TRS membership eligibility: 

  • If an employee makes a change to their employment status, they should be reevaluated to determine if their TRS membership eligibility has changed.

    Example: An employee was hired to work as a bus driver for 10 hours per week from Sept. 1 – May 31, 2026. The Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) for a bus driver is 30 hours per week. In November, the employee takes on another half-time maintenance position that is also 10 hours per week from Nov. 1, 2025 – May 31, 2026. Since the combined hours of both positions is 20 hours or more, the employee would need to be changed to ‘eligible’ for both positions beginning Nov. 1, 2025 due to concurrent employment at the same RE.

  • Employees not eligible for TRS who begin working more than one-half time on a regular basis should be reevaluated to determine if their increased workload is expected to continue or if they will return to less than one-half time hours.

    Example: An employee with a FTE of 30 hours was originally hired to work 12 hours per week. Due to staffing shortages, the employee is now asked to work 15 hours per week. On the November report, you receive the verify membership eligibility error that the employee may be eligible for TRS. At this point, we recommend evaluating if the increased workload is a temporary increase or expected to continue. If expected to continue, the employee may need to be changed to ‘eligible’, especially if there is no end date for their increased workload. If the ending date is known, please provide this to your RE Coach.

  • TRS membership eligible employees who begin working less than one-half time hours on a regular basis should be reevaluated to see if their decreased workload is going to continue or if they will return to half-time hours.

    Example: An employee with a FTE of 40 hours was originally hired to work 24 hours per week. Due to a decreased workload, the employee is only working 15 hours per week. On the November report, you receive the verify membership eligibility error that the employee may no longer be TRS membership eligible. At this point, we recommend evaluating if the decreased workload is a temporary decrease or if it is expected to continue. If so, they may need to be changed to ‘ineligible’ if there is no end date for the decreased workload and they have not earned a year of service. If you know the expected date of return to one-half time or more, please provide that to your RE Coach for review. 

  • Temporary employees whose employment will be extended to 4½ months or longer should be reevaluated.

    Example: A temporary employee was originally hired to work from Oct. 15, 2025 – Dec. 31, 2025, which was less than the 4½ months and not TRS eligible. On Dec. 1, the employee was offered to continue working through May 31, 2026, and accepts the position. As of Dec. 1, the employee would no longer be considered temporary and will need to be reevaluated for TRS eligibility as of Dec. 1, 2025. If the employee is working half-time or more based on the FTE, then an ED45 will need to be submitted to end the temporary position as of Nov. 30, 2025. The TRS-eligible position will need to be added as of Dec. 1, 2025.

  • Substitutes (non-TRS retirees) who begin working in a vacant position should be reevaluated.

    Example: A non-TRS retiree substitute has been working in a nonvacant position for an employee who was out on leave. The employee of record decides not to return and terminates their employment as of Oct. 1, 2025. As of Oct. 1, the substitute is no longer filling in for an employee of record out on leave and needs to be reevaluated for TRS membership eligibility. If they continue working in the same position and will be working more than one-half time for more than 4½ months, they will need to be changed to ‘eligible’ as of Oct. 1, 2025. If you are unsure if an employee should be reported as TRS eligible, please reach out to your TRS Coach for assistance. Provide as much information as possible so that we can help make the correct eligibility determination.