An April 2024 State law excluded overtime pay earned from April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2024 from the calculation of Tier 6 member contribution rates. NYSLRS reviewed earnings breakdowns provided by employers and lowered affected Tier 6 members contribution rates for State Fiscal Year 2024-25 (April 1, 2024–March 31, 2025) and State Fiscal Year 2025-26 (April 1, 2025–March 31, 2026).
Refunding Contribution Overpayments — November 2025 Update
As a result of lowering Tier 6 member contribution rates, some members are due a refund for contribution overpayments retroactive to April 1, 2024.
In October, we mailed a letter to your Payroll Contact(s) and provided a breakdown of the amount owed to each employee. Beginning in November, after your Reporting Contact submits your monthly report, we will issue a credit to your Employer Reporting Account for the total amount of the refunds due to your employees.
- For employers who pay by ACH, we will automatically reduce the amount withdrawn by the total amount of the refunds due to your employees.
- For employers who pay by check, refer to the October letter and reduce the check amount by the total amount of the refunds due to your employees.
What You Need to Do
You are responsible for reimbursing each employee per the information in the letter.
The refunds:
- Do not get reported back to NYSLRS as income.
- Should be taxed federally and reported as income in the tax year in which they are issued.
- Do not require a revision to a previous year’s W-2.
- Do not require issuance of a 1099-R.
It’s important to act timely. In mid-November, we sent letters notifying your employees of their refund amount and explained that the refund will be issued by their employer within 8 weeks of the date of the letter they receive.
Note for NY State Employers: Refunds for State employees were processed through State Payroll and automatically applied to employees’ paychecks. No action is required. In mid-November, we sent letters notifying your employees of their refund amount and explained that the refund was issued to them in either their 10/29/2025 or 11/05/2025 NYS paycheck.
Contribution Rates for SFY 2025-26
In March 2025, all Reporting Contacts received an email letting them know updated contribution rates for SFY 2025-26 were available in Retirement Online.
If we had detailed earnings information on file or if your Reporting Contacts provided earnings breakdowns, we excluded overtime pay earned from April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024 when calculating Tier 6 contribution rates for SFY 2025-26. Therefore, for most employers, we will not need to recalculate rates or issue refunds again.
What You Needed to Do Beginning April 1
Employers should have updated their payroll system to withhold the correct amount beginning April 1 and Reporting Contacts should have started using the new contribution rates beginning with the April monthly report (or beginning with the report that includes earnings for April).
Important: A Tier 6 member’s contribution rate is based on all employment reported to NYSLRS, not just their employment with your location. If a member’s contribution rate is higher than you expected, this could be the reason. If we did not receive earnings breakdowns from their other employer(s), we may need to recalculate their contribution rates once we do.
Contribution Rates for SFY 2024-25
For employers who started using enhanced reporting before or beginning in April 2022:*
In January 2025, Reporting Contacts received an email letting them know updated contribution rates for SFY 2024-25 were available in Retirement Online to be used through the end of the previous State fiscal year, March 31, 2025. We sent letters notifying members whose rates were lowered.
For employers who were still using legacy reporting or started using enhanced reporting after April 2022:
In March 2025, Reporting Contacts received an email letting them know updated contribution rates for SFY 2024-25 were available in Retirement Online. The rates were provided for their records, and no action was required. We sent letters notifying members whose rates were lowered.
*Note: Some employers who were not using enhanced reporting before or beginning in April 2022 also received updated contributions rates for SFY 2024-25 because their employees’ earnings for April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023 were reported exclusively using enhanced reporting.
Providing Earnings Breakdowns
For employers who were still using legacy reporting or started using enhanced reporting after April 2022.
In January 2025, Reporting Contacts received an email letting them know that a notification was available in Retirement Online. The notification provided a link to the Summary Page, which listed the employees who were possibly impacted by the April 2024 State law. Reporting Contacts used this page to provide a breakdown of overtime and non-overtime earnings from April 1, 2022 through March 31, 2023 and April 1, 2023 through March 31, 2024.
NOTICE FOR NON-COMPLIANT EMPLOYERS
Your non-compliance may be affecting your employees. Without detailed earnings information from you:
- We cannot take the necessary steps to determine whether your employees’ contribution rates should be lowered.
- Your employees may be contributing at a higher rate than they should, which may mean they have been overpaying and could be owed a refund.
What You Need to Do
View Notification to Access Summary Page
View the notification in Retirement Online, which provides a link to the Summary Page.
- Sign in to Retirement Online.
- From Account Homepage, go to Notifications.
- Click View All link or search for the notification:
- Click Search Notifications link.
- Choose Location Code.
- Enter 12/31/2024 in Date Created or click calendar icon to select from date picker dialog box.
- Click Search button.
- Select notification, Provide overtime earnings for rate recalculation.
- Click Tier 6 Overtime Submission link.
Provide Earnings Breakdowns on Summary Page
Provide overtime and non-overtime earnings for the employees listed in the View All table.
For step-by-step instructions on how to manually report or use the file upload process, refer to the Summary Page How-To Guide.
If You Do Not Have Overtime Earnings to Report
For the system to identify your submission, you must review and click ‘Save’ on the Data Entry Page for at least one employee listed in the View All table. Follow these steps:
- Click a NYSLRS ID to access the member’s Data Entry Page.
- On the Data Entry Page, click Save. (Note: This step is essential.)
- Click Return to Search to go back to the Summary Page.
- On the Summary Page, click Submit.
If You Need Help
If you have questions or for help with Retirement Online, use our help desk form (select Monthly Employer Reporting or Retirement Online Troubleshooting from the dropdown) or call 866-805-0990 (press 1 to access the employer menu, then follow the prompts).
Rev. 11/25