Retirement Transition Program
Retirement Transition Program
Visit the RIT Service Center for questions about your retirement benefits.
The Retirement Transition Program is a phased-in approach to full retirement status available only to regular full-time employees who are eligible to retire. Acceptance into the program is not automatic or guaranteed; a request may be denied upon the exclusive and sole discretion of RIT management. If approved, participation in the Retirement Transition program cannot be revoked by either the participating employee on transition or RIT, and at the end of a maximum of three years, the employee is required to retire.
Eligibility
Regular full-time employees must confirm eligibility to retire, and must have worked in a full-time assignment for three years immediately preceding the start date of Retirement Transition. The employee’s manager and Dean/Vice President must approve participation using the Retirement Transition Application/Change Form on the HR Forms page.
Age, years of service, and date of hire (or adjusted date of hire, if applicable) determines an employee’s eligibility for retirement from RIT. You may be ineligible for certain retiree benefits if your employment at RIT is terminated for cause (you would remain eligible for your retirement plan income). Refer to the eligibility section of the Medical Care and Prescription Drug Plan summary for details.
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Age, years of service and date of hire determines an employee's eligibility for retirement from RIT. |
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Date of Hire |
Retirement Requirements |
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Adjusted date of hire is prior to July 1, 1990 |
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| Adjusted date of hire is between July 1, 1990 and December 31, 1994 |
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| Adjusted date of hire is between January 1, 1995 and December 31, 2018 |
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| Adjusted Service Date of January 1, 2019 or before and under age 45 with 10 years of regular full-time or 15 years of qualifying regular part-time service on January 1, 2019 |
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| Adjusted Service date of January 1, 2019 or after |
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A year of qualifying regular part-time service is a year in which the employee is scheduled to work at least 750 hours. A year of extended part-time service (an employee work classification that existed prior to July 1, 2017) counts as a year of qualifying part-time service.
For those who have both regular full-time and qualifying regular part-time service, the following rules apply for counting the Service component:
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If the employee meets the Age and Age+Service components and if the employee has at least 5 years of regular full-time service and the regular full-time years of service plus one-half of qualifying regular part-time years of service is at least 10 years, the employee would be eligible to retire with full-time cost sharing.
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If the employee meets the Age and Age+Service components and if the employee has less than 5 years of regular full-time service and the regular full-time years of service plus the qualifying regular part-time years of service is at least 15 years, the employee would be eligible to retire with part-time cost sharing.
Service must be regular full-time and/or qualifying regular part-time service.
Work Schedule
The employee and their supervisor should discuss a plan of work and work out a schedule that is mutually acceptable. The employee in retirement transition status must work at least the equivalent of half-time for the employee’s position.
- For faculty, this means working a minimum of 50% of the annual normal workload in a fiscal year for the employee’s position, as defined by the employee’s department head/manager and dean.
- For staff, this means working a minimum of 50% of the employee’s scheduled annual work hours during each fiscal year while in retirement transition.
Duration of Retirement Transition
Since this plan is intended to provide a transition to retirement, it is available for a maximum of three consecutive years. At the end of the three-year period, or sooner, the employee must retire from RIT. If the employee is a tenured-faculty member, upon retirement, the employee no longer retains tenure. Once approved, this election is not revocable (i.e., a person cannot change his/her mind and cancel retirement transition).
Salary and Benefits
While on transition, the employee is still considered a full-time employee and is eligible for all full-time employee benefits, even though the work schedule is not full-time.
Since the employee is not working full-time, however, the salary is reduced based on the actual work schedule (e.g., if the employee is working half-time, the annual pay is reduced by one-half). Based on the reduced salary, some benefits contributions and coverage amounts may change.
- Medical - employee contributions are based on the full-time employee contribution schedule; you will remain in your current salary level until the January 1 on or after your retirement transition begins; then the salary level will be based on the reduced salary
- Vision and Dental – employee contributions are based on the full-time employee contribution schedule
- Life, AD&D, LTD - coverage amount will change as of the January 1 on or after your retirement transition begins based on the reduced salary
- Short-term Disability – coverage amount based on reduced salary immediately
- Retirement Plan Contributions - employee and RIT contributions based on reduced salary immediately
- Vacation – the monthly vacation accrual is prorated prospectively according to the reduced annual schedule
- Sick/Personal – sick/personal time (nonexempt only) is prorated prospectively according to the reduced annual schedule
- Holidays – holiday time is prorated prospectively according to the reduced annual schedule
- Other Benefits - Beneflex, tuition waiver, tuition exchange, tuition scholarship continue
You can contact the Social Security Administration at (800) 772-1213/V and (800) 325-0778/TTY, or check their web page at http://www.ssa.gov for details on any impact there may be on your future Social Security benefits.
Please note that if the salary for an employee working in an exempt position is reduced to an amount below the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) and/or the New York State Salary Threshold, RIT may be required to change the employee to a nonexempt status. Nonexempt employees are paid on an hourly basis on the bi-weekly payroll (paid every other Friday for 26 pay periods per calendar year). If you are changed to a nonexempt employee, you would need to record all hours worked, vacation, salary continuation (reported as sick), and holiday hours in the time reporting system, Kronos. You would be eligible for the same benefits, but the contribution amounts would change since you would be paid 26 times per year instead of 24.
Procedures for Retirement Transition
The Retirement Transition Procedures walk employees and their supervisors through the steps required to apply, get approval, adjust work schedule, and complete the retirement process in this program.
It is important that the following steps are taken for the Retirement Transition Process.
| # | Description | Responsibility |
| 1 | Request a confirmation of retirement eligibility from RIT Benefits through the Retirement Eligibility Verification service request at the RIT Service Center. RIT Benefits will respond with confirmation of your ability to retire from RIT. | Employee |
| 2 | Employee should discuss the plan of work and schedule with supervisor. | Employee and Supervisor |
| 3 | Supervisor contacts their Human Resources Business Partner (HRBP) to review the plan of work and schedule as well as plans to accommodate the request within the department’s workload. If exempt staff, review whether reduced pay will be below the FLSA/NYS salary threshold such that the employee will need to be paid hourly. HR Business Partner should also review pay treatment based on anticipated start date of employee’s transition*. | Supervisor and HR Business Partner |
| 4 | After HR Business Partner and supervisor agree that the plan of work and schedule are appropriate (i.e., meets the half-time requirement, all work will get done, etc.), supervisor works with employee to complete Retirement Transition Application/Change Form. Supervisor informs employee if they will change from salaried to hourly due to the FLSA/NYS pay threshold as well as any pay treatment based on the anticipated start date of the employee’s transition*. | Supervisor and Employee |
| 5 | The supervisor and Dean/VP need to approve the application and send to the Assistant Director of Benefits for final review. | Supervisor and Dean/VP |
| 6 | Assistant Director of Benefits reviews form and signs based on eligibility for the program and sends email with scanned copy of approved form to employee and supervisor (with a copy to the HR Business Partner and HR Assistant) to confirm that the Retirement Transition Application/Change Form has been approved and cannot be rescinded at this point. Reminds supervisor that a completed Employee Action Form (EAF) needs to be submitted to Human Resources (if not already submitted). | Assistant Director of Benefits/HRA |
| 7 | Department submits Employee Action Form (EAF) to Human Resources (hreaf@rit.edu). | Supervisor |
* NOTE: For faculty on appointment periods of less than 12 months or for interpreters on pay continuance, if the transition starts at the beginning of the academic year, the pay should be changed July 1. If the transition starts mid-year, the employee may be in an overpaid situation. Refer to the Repayment of Pre-Paid Salary.
| # | Description | Responsibility |
| 1 | If the employee or the supervisor would like to change the work schedule (percent of load for faculty; weekly hours and/or months/weeks per year for staff) after approval, they should have a conversation to come to a mutual agreement. Supervisor works with employee to complete Retirement Transition Application/Change Form. The Dean/VP does not need to sign a change form. Supervisor submits form to Benefits Manager. (Note: a change form is not needed for an adjustment in the plan of work if there is no change in the scheduled load or annual hours). | Employee and Supervisor |
| 2 | Benefits Manager reviews form and approves that the employee is scheduled to work at least half-time and sends email with scanned copy of updated approved form to employee and supervisor (with a copy to the HR Business Partner and HR Assistant) to confirm that the Retirement Transition Application/Change Form has been approved. Reminds supervisor that a completed Employee Action Form (EAF) needs to be submitted to Human Resources (if not already submitted). | Benefits Manager |
| 3 | Department submits Employee Action Form (EAF) to Human Resources (hreaf@rit.edu). | Supervisor |
| # | Description | Responsibility |
| 1 | If employee decides to retire before the end of the documented transition period, employee should contact Benefits Assistant four months beforehand, if possible, to discuss retirement benefits. | Employee |
| 2 | Benefits Assistant contacts employee four months prior to retirement date to discuss retirement benefits. | Benefits Assistant |
| 3 | Retirement from RIT is processed through Oracle Self-Service either through RIT Supervisor Self-Serve or RIT HR Transactions responsibility. | Supervisor |
| 4 | Employee completes all required forms for retirement. | Employee |