Hazardous Duty Employees

Hazardous Duty Provisions

Contribution Rate

Hazardous duty employees pay a contribution rate of 8% for the first 20 years of hazardous duty participating service. After contributing at the hazardous duty rate for 20 years, the employee will contribute at the non-hazardous duty rate (excluding Oklahoma Military Department firefighters).

Computation Factor

Your future retirement benefit is based on a three-part formula that considers your compensation, years of credited service and a computation factor. The formula for the majority of OPERS members is as follows:

Final Average Compensation x Years of Service Credit x Computation Factor

Hazardous duty service has a higher computation factor of 2.5% on whole years for up to 20 years of hazardous duty service. All other service types and partial years of hazardous duty service will be calculated at the non-hazardous duty rate, which is 2% for most members.

Example: Sally is retiring with a final average compensation of $30,000. She has 25 years of service credit in a Hazardous Duty position. A maximum of 20 years will be calculated using the Hazardous Duty computation factor of 2.5%. The remaining five years of service will be calculated using the standard computation factor of 2%. Both calculations will be added together to get the gross maximum benefit as shown below:

$30,000 x 20 x 0.025 = $15,000 (or $1,250 per month)
$30,000 x 5 x 0.02 = $3,000 (or $250 per month)
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Gross Maximum Benefit = $18,000 (or $1,500 per month)

Retirement Eligibility

Hazardous Duty employees may retire after 20 full years of full-time-equivalent employment in the hazardous duty plan. You must retire from the employer where you contributed as hazardous duty to retire under the 20-year rule. This eligibility option is in addition to the regular age and service requirements.

In-the-Line-of-Duty Benefit

A monthly pension shall be paid on behalf of any member who is an employee with the Department of Corrections and killed or mortally wounded during the performance of their duties for the Department. The monthly benefit will be calculated by multiplying the member’s final average compensation by 2.5%; then by the actual number of years of service OR 20 years of service, whichever is greater; and then dividing by 12.

For all other situations, normal death benefits apply.

Step-Up

Hazardous Duty members are ineligible to participate in the Step-Up program while contributing at the 2.5% contribution rate. After you have earned 20 full years of hazardous duty service, you will contribute at the standard 2% rate. At that time, you are eligible to participate in Step-Up.