Part-Time Employee Retirement Program (PST)

The Part-Time Seasonal Temporary (PST) Employees Retirement Program is a mandatory retirement savings program authorized by federal law (OBRA) for employees who are not covered by a retirement system (CalPERS). Savings Plus, part of the California Department of Human Resources, administers the PST Program for California State employees and California State University employees.

If you're a CSU employee who is not covered by Social Security and you're excluded from coverage under CalPERS, you're automatically enrolled in the PST Program. PST employees generally include:

• Part-time employees who work less than half time

• Seasonal employees

• Temporary and Permanent-Intermittent (PI) employees, who work less than six months or 125 days if employed on a daily basis or less than 1,000 hours in a fiscal year (July 1 through June 30) if employed on an hourly basis

• Half-time CSU employees who have less than one academic year of credited service

The program deducts 7.5 percent of your pretax wages and deposits it in a PST Program account for you, allowing you to build retirement savings. It's set up as a 457 Plan, a type of retirement savings plan governed by IRS rules.

Your PST Program deductions from your paycheck are invested in a “stable asset” fund (specifically, the Short Term Investment Fund – PST), which preserves capital and provides a stable rate of return. Your account balance consists of the deductions from your paycheck and any potential earnings.

 For more information on the PST plan, visit the PST website or view the Fact Sheet. You may also access your account on the Savings Plus website.