Proper Payroll Reporting Due to Personal Leave Program 2025

September 2, 2025
Circular Letter: 200-043-25
Topic: Payroll

To: Agricultural Districts

Purpose

The purpose of this Circular Letter is to provide payroll reporting guidance to agricultural districts that report directly to the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS). This ensures members subject to the Personal Leave Program (PLP) 2025, pursuant to California Government Code 19849, receive the proper service credit and retirement calculation.

Reporting PLP 2025

Beginning with July’s 2025 reporting period, all payroll reporting for members subject to PLP 2025 should be reported in a two-step process to ensure that service credit and pay rate data are reported accurately.

Step 1

Report a reduced pay rate attributable to PLP 2025. A reduction in pay rate should be applied to employees based on their bargaining unit, as outlined below.

  • 3% reduction for five hours of pay for Bargaining Units 1, 3, 4, 6, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 17, 19, 20, and 21 and their associated excluded and exempt employees.
  • 2% reduction for three and a half hours of pay for Bargaining Unit 7.

The reduction is applied the same for hourly and monthly pay rates. The reduced pay rate will not be used for retirement purposes but will be used to generate service credit that is not reduced.

To calculate the reduced pay rate, multiply the pay rate by the reduction percentage amount associated with their bargaining unit, then subtract that amount from the pay rate.

Example:

The member is in Bargaining Unit 1 with a pay rate of $3,000.00.

  1. $3,000.00 × 0.03 = $90.00
  2. $3,000.00 − $90.00 = $2,910.00
  3. $2,910.00 is the reduced pay rate

Step 2

Create an adjustment record to adjust the pay rate up to the full pay rate. This step may be performed by manually creating an adjustment report.

The details of how to report steps 1 and 2 are outlined in the table below:

StepActionResult
1

In the Earned Period or Prior Period Adjustment record, enter the following information:

  • Begin Date
  • End Date
  • Transaction Type
    • Select Earned Period Reporting or Prior Period Adjustment
  • Pay Rate Type
  • Pay Rate
    • Enter reduced pay rate
  • Reportable Earnings
    • Enter actual earnings reduced by PLP 2025
  • Scheduled Full Time Hours Per Week
  • Contributions
    • Based on the reduced earnings
Allows the system to calculate service credit that is not reduced.
2

In the Retroactive Salary Adjustment record enter the following information:

  • Begin Date
    • Matching the earned/adjusted period
  • End Date
    • Matching the earned/adjusted period
  • Transaction Type
    • Select Retroactive Salary Adjustment
  • Pay Rate Type
  • Pay Rate
    • Enter the normal pay rate without reduction
  • Reportable Earnings
    • Enter amount of $0.01
  • Scheduled Full Time Hours Per Week
    • Matching the earned/adjusted period record
  • Contributions
    • Enter amount of $0.00
Adjusts the pay rate to ensure final compensation is not reduced.

General Reminder

It is necessary to successfully post the Earned Period or Prior Period Adjustment record prior to validating and posting the Retroactive Salary Adjustment record. It is recommended that all retroactive salary adjustments be placed in the same adjustment file, per earned period, to mirror the reduced records already posted.

Questions

If you have questions, call our CalPERS Customer Contact Center at 888 CalPERS (or 888-225-7377888-225-7377).

Brad Hanson, Chief
Employer Account Management Division