Here's What's New!

Each year the ASRS conducts reviews of employer accounts to ensure that our employer partners follow guidelines established in Arizona Revised Statutes (A.R.S.) 38-711 through 38-794, as well as Arizona Administrative Code (AAC) Title 2 Chapter 8.

The Employer Relations Team has started its annual planning and preparation for the ASRS Employer Basics 2023 webinars. We took lessons learned from our first live presentations in 2022 and will be offering Basics as a series of interactive webinars rather than a 3-hour-plus online workshop.

The ASRS Employer Basics webinar is essentially a walk-through of the ASRS Employer Manual. We cover topics such as membership eligibility, enrollment processing, contribution reporting, health insurance premium benefits, long term disability, and hiring retirees, just to name a few. 

From September through the first week of October, the Employer Relations Team hosted eight virtual Employer Conferences. This year’s conference was designed much differently from previous virtual conferences in answer to feedback from the 2021 conferences. 

As we close out calendar year 2022, the ASRS wants to remind you about the importance of reporting contributions accurately and in a timely manner. The purpose of this reminder is to help our employers avoid late fees and, in some cases, the potentially expensive result of creating an unfunded liability.

If you are the designated Employer Web Administrator for your organization, there are several responsibilities that you should be aware of.

One of the first things all employers should do to assist their employees is to ensure that they are enrolled in their online myASRS account using their ASRS employer’s enrollment code. Online enrollment allows employers to review and verify three important pieces of demographic data, confirm the member’s employment, and verify that they are eligible for ASRS membership.

Your ASRS contribution rate actually consists of two main parts: the “Pension and Health Insurance Benefit” rate, which is a pre-tax deduction from your paycheck, and the “Long Term Disability Income Plan” rate, which is a post-tax deduction. If you look at your paystub, the pre-tax deduction is listed as “ASRSRET” while the post-tax deduction is labeled “ASRS LTD.” 

What can you do when you’ve hired new employees, and they have questions about ASRS and all that is involved with being a member? Provide a printed or digital copy of our New Member Guide! You can find the New Member Guide on the New Employee Information page, located in the Employers tab.