§ 36.01 INTRODUCTION
This chapter will discuss Washington state public pensions. Federal pensions are discussed in Chapter 33 and private pensions are discussed in Chapter 35 of this deskbook. Most employees of the agencies and local governments of the state of Washington are members of one of the state's public retirement systems. There are eight state-administered public retirement systems with 15 different plans within those systems. As of the time of this writing, there are approximately 840,000 current and former public employees. The eight retirement systems include
1. the Public Employees' Retirement System (PERS);
2. the Teachers' Retirement System (TRS);
3. the School Employees' Retirement System (SERS);
4. the Law Enforcement and Fire Fighters' Retirement System (LEOFF);
5. the Washington State Patrol Retirement System (WSPRS);
6. the Judicial Retirement System (JRS);
7. the Judges' Retirement Fund (JRF); and
8. the Public Safety Employees' Retirement System (PSERS).
Membership in a particular system is based on the type of work a member performs. For example, a public school teacher may belong to TRS.
Some of these systems are divided into various plans. For example, the Washington State Patrol Retirement System offers WSPRS Plan 1 and WSPRS Plan 2; the Public Employees' Retirement System offers PERS Plan 1, PERS Plan 2, and PERS Plan 3. In general, membership in a particular plan is based on the date the employee became a member of the retirement system.
Comment: In 2007, the legislature passed conditional legislation affecting plan membership. In the same legislation, the legislature repealed a provision in some of the retirement plans known as "gain sharing," a provision previously codified in Chapters 41.31 and 41.31A RCW. ("Gain sharing" was a pension enhancement received by eligible members in years of extraordinary investment return.) As a replacement for gain-sharing, the legislature provided new members of TRS and SERS with the option to choose either Plan 2 or Plan 3 within the first 90 days of their employment (hereinafter "plan choice option"). RCW 41.32.835(1) (TRS); RCW 41.35.610(1) (SERS). Recognizing that the repeal of gain sharing would potentially be challenged in court, the legislature provided that if the courts ultimately reinstated gain-sharing or ordered some other benefit as an alternative to the reinstatement of gain sharing, the foregoing "plan choice option" would be repealed. RCW 41.32.835(3) (TRS Plan 3); RCW 41.35.610(3) (SERS Plan 3). In 2014, the repeal of gain sharing was upheld by Washington state's highest court. Wash. Educ. Ass'n v. Dep't of Ret. Sys., 181 Wn.2d 233, 332...
