2702 - State Safety Retirement (Historical View)

** Effective: 10/19/2026 4:14:36 PM - 10/19/2026 4:17:28 PM **

Status: Active

Change Notes

Updated Statement and Resources.

Category

Retirement

Audience List

Synopsis

This policy:

Introduction

State Safety retirement membership was designed to recognize those state employees whose condition of employment requires public protective responsibilities and have regular and substantial contact with inmates or patients charged with a felony. State Safety employees are not peace officers but do have certain public protection responsibilities. In recognition of the duties, enhanced retirement benefits are provided to employees in classes or positions that meet state safety retirement criteria.

The purpose of this policy is to outline the retirement benefits and criteria used by CalHR to determine which classifications or positions are eligible for state safety retirement benefits.

Statement

State Safety Retirement Benefits

The major benefits of the State Safety retirement membership include:

  1. Higher benefit formula (2.5 percent at age 55, 2 percent at age 55, or 2.0 percent at age 57), as specified in the Memoranda of Understandings and CalHR laws, and California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS) laws.
  2. Earlier retirement age compared to state employees subject to the miscellaneous and industrial membership.
  3. Enhanced death and disability benefits.
  4. Employees and employers are exempt from paying Social Security tax.

Criteria for Determining Eligibility for State Safety Benefits

It is the policy of CalHR to apply the criteria specified in Government Code sections 19816.20 and 20405.1 to ensure State Safety retirement designation is only approved for employees in classifications or positions that meet State Safety criteria.

Criteria: To be eligible for State Safety benefits, an employee in the classification or position under consideration must meet all the following criteria:

  1. The employee must have ongoing responsibility for:

    1. The protection and safeguarding of public and property; and

    2. The control or supervision of incarcerated individuals, or regular and substantial contact with incarcerated individuals;

  2. The employee must, as a condition of employment, be required to and capable of responding to emergency situations;

  3. The employee must provide a level of service to the public such that the safety of the public and of property is not jeopardized;

  4. The employee’s job specification and signed duty statement must clearly outline requirement that the employee has ongoing responsibility for the items listed in item #1, above;

  5. The classification or position is consistent with classes that have previously been determined by CalHR to meet the criteria outlined in this policy.

Definitions: The following definitions apply to the above criteria:

State Safety retirement designations are approved at the position or classification level and do not follow the employee when transferring to new positions or classifications.

 

Exclusions: Employees in a classification or position shall not be granted State Safety retirement benefits if the ongoing primary responsibilities include the following:

Departments are not authorized to provide State Safety retirement designation for a classification or position without CalHR approval. Departments shall review the State Safety retirement designation criteria to determine if the classification or position may meet the State Safety requirements prior to submitting a request to the CalHR Benefits Division.

Requesting State Safety Designation for Classifications and Positions

Departments and labor organizations must submit a State Safety designation request to CalHR, Benefits Division, as follows:

  1. Prepare a request for State Safety Retirement Designation that includes:

    • Justification memo

    • State Safety Questionnaire (CalHR Form 169)

    • Duty statements (current and proposed)

    • Organizational chart (current and proposed)

  1. Combine completed documents (above) into one PDF and submit the package to CalHR Benefits Division, via the Request Tracking System (RTS).

The RTS will:

A complete and thorough retirement designation request package may take up to 30-45 days for review. Timeframes are extended when CalHR must request additional information from departments to complete a thorough review of the request.

Approval of State Safety Retirement Designation

  1. Once CalHR determines the classification or position meets State Safety criteria, CalHR will send a written notice to the department, the State Controller’s Office (SCO), and CalPERS approving State Safety retirement designation.

  2. SCO will update the classification or position as State Safety retirement in their system.

  3. CalPERS will update the retirement account for the classification or position and send the department, SCO, and CalHR the State Safety confirmation notice.

  4. Department must provide notice to the appropriate exclusive representative or excluded organization on the change in the retirement designation prior to implementation.

  5. Once the retirement designation is updated in the SCO and CalPERS systems, departments will key in the appointment transaction(s) without generating errors from the SCO and CalPERS databases.

Denial of State Safety Retirement Designation

If the classification or position does not meet State Safety retirement criteria, CalHR will send a written close out notice to the department or requesting organization.

Effective Date for State Safety Retirement Benefits

CalHR has no authority to approve requests on a retroactive basis. The Public Employees’ Pension Reform Act of 2013 prohibits all public employers from providing retroactive enhancements to a public employee’s retirement formula or benefits adopted on or after January 1, 2013, and cannot apply to any service performed prior to the effective date. Please refer to Government Code section 7522.44.  The State Safety enrollment effective date must be the beginning of the monthly pay period in which CalHR issues the approval.

State Safety Designation Audits

Departments should ensure the classification or position has been approved for State Safety retirement prior to keying in the State Safety designation. Both CalHR and CalPERS conduct periodic audits to identify any State Safety errors. As part of these audits, departments may be asked to supply any information deemed necessary to determine compliance (Government Code 22797(a)). If it is determined an employee is misallocated to the State Safety retirement designation, a correction must be made retroactively to the date the error was made to comply with CalPERS laws Government Code sections 20160-20164. When departments receive notification from CalHR of errors, they are expected to acknowledge receipt within five days and to notify CalHR that the error has been corrected within 30 days. Departments are accountable for assigning the appropriate retirement designations and for establishing an internal audit process to ensure the accuracy of these designations.  It is important to prioritize these corrections as employees misallocated to the State Safety retirement designation may be financially impacted due to overpayment or underpayment of retirement and social security contributions.

Ongoing Reporting Responsibilities

To comply with retirement laws, CalHR and departments have ongoing reporting responsibilities for the following:

Contacts

SCO Personnel/Payroll: 

CalPERS:

Application

Departments should notify employees and the respective labor union of changes to the State Safety retirement eligibility upon receiving notice from CalHR and confirmation of State Safety retirement approval from CalPERS.

 Departments will key the appointment transaction(s) in the SCO system.

Authorities

Resources

FAQs

Forms

Related Policies

Web Pages

Authorized By

Benefits Division
Benefits Division Inquiries, Benefits Division

Contact Person

Retirement Policy Benefits Division
CalHR, , Retirement Policy
Phone: 916-909-2863
Email: Retirementrequests@calhr.ca.gov

Superseded Policies

Not Applicable.