skip to main navigation skip to demographic navigationskip to welcome messageskip to quicklinksskip to features
  • Continue Your Membership
  • WEAC Member Benefits

ESP Retirement Equity Sought

WEAC is working in the Legislature this session to improve retirement benefits for Education Support Profession-als.
As part of its Legislative Agenda, WEAC supports passage of legislation to improve the way retirement benefits are provided to ESP by making the following changes:

  • Require that ESP and teachers, librarians, and administrators be treated the same in terms of qualifying for Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) coverage, with full-time employment for ESP set at 1,330 hours per year.

  • Provide that the final average earnings of an ESP employee be increased by 25% for the purpose of determining the initial amount of WRS retirement annuity.

  • Reduce the amount that is required for the purpose of calculating what constitutes a year of creditable service. The result will be that ESP participants will not have to work as many hours in a year in order to qualify.

Background
Under current law, to become covered under the WRS, an individual must work for a covered employer at least one-third of what is considered to be full-time employment. For all WRS participants, other than teachers, librarians, and administrators, the Department of Employee Trust Funds (DETF) defines full-time employment to be 1,904 hours per year and one-third employment to be 600 hours per year. In contrast, for teachers, librarians, and administrators, DETF defines full-time employment to be 1,320 hours per year and one-third employment to be 440 hours per year.

This difference in calculating creditable service toward retirement has the effect of requiring ESP to work longer than other educational staff to become eligible for contributions to be made to the WRS.

Why WEAC supports this change
WEAC believes that Wisconsin’s public schools are great when they maintain the highest quality staff. An important part of maintaining quality staff is to offer them a retirement benefit that is an incentive to spend an entire career in public service.

History
Past improvements for Wisconsin’s schools and ESP occurred because generations of WEAC members made them happen.
A recent example of an improvement for ESP was approval of a retirement benefit increase for public employees in Wisconsin.

WEAC was the driving force behind legislative approval of the single largest retirement system benefit increase in state history. The law, which was the bipartisan product of years of negotiations and cooperation between labor and governmental groups, provides a 10% increase in pensions for past service and makes various other improvements in the WRS.

Additional changes, however, are needed to modify how the WRS treats ESP.

Fairness issue
WEAC believes all its 93,000 members should be treated equally under the WRS. The WEAC membership includes more than 15,000 Education Support Professionals who perform a tremendous variety of tasks every day. ESP are the secretaries, teacher aides, bus drivers, custodians, and cooks employed in public K-12 schools and technical colleges. They play an important role in providing every kid with a great school.

If schools are to maintain the highest quality ESP, their creditable time in service should be calculated the same as all other education professionals. This improvement will provide an incentive for ESP to stay in public service for their entire careers maintaining overall quality and experience among staff.

As stated in the WEAC Legislative Agenda: “ESP members transport students to and from schools, and look after their safety and well-being while they are in school. They play critical roles in ensuring that students are ready to learn in classrooms that work. Many make their principal contribution to students’ education by helping to keep schools running. ESP create and maintain records, maintain physical plant and grounds, and care for computer systems. Their time spent in public service should be given the same level of respect as all other professionals in public service.”

For more information about the WEAC Legislative Agenda, go to the At the Capitol area of OnWEAC, under News & Information. You also may contact WEAC Legislative Program Coordinator Bob Burke at 800-362- 8034, extension 254 or by e-mail at burkeb@weac.org.

Posted April 4, 2003