7.00 Introduction

This section of the manual explains the participating employer IMRF contribution rate.

Employers with Sheriff’s Law Enforcement Personnel (SLEP) members have separate rates. Employers with Elected County Official (ECO) plan members have separate ECO rates. Public Act 96-0889 created a second tier of IMRF benefits for members who are first enrolled in IMRF's Regular or ECO Plans on or after January 1, 2011. Employers with members in both tiers, e.g., Regular Tier 1 and Regular Tier 2, will have a combined Regular rate.

The IMRF Board of Trustees appoints an actuary to provide all the actuarial services required by IMRF. One of the functions of the actuary is to determine participating employer IMRF contribution rates. These rates are established separately for each employer and are recomputed annually to reflect changes in funding requirements.

In 2009, the Board took several actions to moderate the impact of 2008 investment losses on employers’ funded status and contribution rates. It made three changes to the actuarial techniques used to calculate employer funded status and the actuarial required contribution rates (ARC):

Learn about Employer Contributions from the topics below:

  1. Employer Rate Notices

  2. Actuarial Assumptions

  3. Financing Pensions: General

  4. Financing the Cost of IMRF Pensions

  5. Death Benefit Reserve Account

  6. Disability Benefit Reserve Account

  7. Supplemental Benefit

  8. Normal Retirement Contributions

  9. <Over> Under Funding Adjustment

  10. How Costs are Reflected to Employers

  11. Financing the Cost of IMRF Early Retirement Incentive (ERI)

  12. Reserve Statement

  13. Tax Levy for Employer Contributions