The Chicago Board of Education will not pick up any of the 9% participant pension contribution for new teachers and other school-related personnel, while it will continue picking up 7% for existing active members in Chicago Public School Teachers’ Pension & Retirement Fund under a tentative labor agreement reached Monday with the Chicago Teachers Union.
The agreement provides a 7% salary increase phased in two 3.5% steps in January and July 2017 for the teachers and school-related employees hired beginning Jan. 1, 2017, offsetting the lack of a pension contribution pickup, according to the agreement posted on the union’s website.
Existing teachers and school-related personnel will continue to contribute 2% of their salary.
The agreement, whose terms are retroactive to July 1, 2015, and runs through June 30, 2019, will take effect upon ratification by CTU members and the board, according to a statement on the union’s website. Dates for the voting were not available.
The collectively bargained agreement will not change the total amount of participant contributions to the pension fund, whether paid by employees or picked up by the school board.
Employee contributions are projected to be $201 million for the current fiscal year ending June 1, 2017, and $208 million in the following fiscal year, up from $195 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2016, according to the pension fund’s June 30, 2015, actuarial report prepared by Segal Group.
Board of education contributions are projected to be $720 million for the current fiscal year, and rise to $743 million for the following fiscal year, up from $675 million for the fiscal year ended June 30, according to the Segal report.
The pension fund had $9.5 billion in assets as of May 31 and $19.9 billion in liabilities as of June 30, 2015, the latest actuarial valuation.
Charles A. Burbridge, executive director of the pension fund; Stephanie Gadlin, CTU spokeswoman; and media representatives of the board of education could not be reached for comment.
