A variety of events are available to graduate assistants to assist them in learning about the UW benefits package and completing their applications.

In addition to the regular seminars and drop-in sessions, graduate assistants will have the chance to attend the New Graduate Student Resource Fair on August 28 from 11:30 a.m. – 1:30 p.m. at Union South.

Sessions begin in mid-July and run through early September. Check Graduate Assistants Benefits Seminars and Drop-In Sessions for a complete schedule.

New graduate assistants are strongly encouraged to attend at least one of these events. Any questions regarding these events can be directed to: benefits@ohr.wisc.edu.

If you were covered by the Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) in 2012, your Wisconsin Retirement System (WRS) Annual Statement of Benefits is now available online in My UW, under the Work Record tab. Log in to the portal and go to the "Benefit Information" module and click on the "Statements" tab. Click on "ETF Annual Statement of Benefits (WRS) Issued 2013" to view and print your statement.

The WRS Annual Statement of Benefits provides you with information about your Wisconsin Retirement System account as of January 1, 2013. Information on the statement includes 2012 WRS earnings and creditable service, total years of WRS creditable service, and separation and death benefit calculations. You should review this statement closely for accuracy.

You may also review the Explanation of Annual Statement of Benefits (ET-7333) to help understand the information presented on your individual statement of benefits.

Statement Section 2 - After Act 10 Service

The name of your retirement category is in both Sections 1 and 2 of the Statement. If you are in a General, Teacher or Protective retirement category, all of your creditable service will be listed in the "Before 2000" and/or "After 1999" columns in Section 2 of the Statement. Only employees in an Elected or Executive retirement category will have creditable service in the "After Act 10" column. 2011 Wisconsin Act 10 changed the way retirement benefits are calculated for Elected/Executive category employees so service earned after Act 10 must be tracked separately for this group of employees.

Statement Section 3 - 2012 Employee Required Contributions

You may see an amount listed under Section 3 in the Employer Paid Employee Contributions field. The amount loaded to the field Employee Paid Contributions is the amount deducted from paychecks dated in 2012. If the amount deducted from payroll checks dated in 2012 did not equal 5.9% of your annual WRS earnings, the slight difference is shown in the Employer Paid Employee Contributions field.

If your WRS contribution amount was less than 5.9%, it may have been due to:

• Rounding differences: As a result of rounding on each WRS payroll deduction, the amount deducted from your paycheck may have been slightly less than 5.9% of your total 2012 WRS earnings.
• Refund of 2011 WRS contributions: Prior to January 1, 2012, the WRS contribution amount was 5.8%. All classified employees inadvertently had the new 5.9% amount (instead of 5.8%) deducted on their December 29, 2011 payroll check. This 0.1% difference was refunded on the June 14, 2012 paycheck.

Information to Help You Understand Your WRS Statement

Please note that if you have recently been upgraded to Firefox 19 (with a new built-in PDF viewer) you may find your statement unreadable in My UW/My UW System. For workaround instructions visit: https://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=28831. Please contact your institution's IT helpdesk if further assistance is needed.

• Explanation of Annual Statement of Benefits (ET-7333)
• Video Explanation of the Statement
• Webinars presented by the Department of Employee Trust Funds:
  • May 20, 2013 - 6:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m.
  • May 22, 2013 - 11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m.

Please contact your institution HR office with any questions on the ETF Annual Statement of Benefits.

Unclassified employees (academic staff, faculty and limited) with a 12-month appointment are eligible to bank unused vacation in an Annual Leave Reserve Account (ALRA) at the beginning of their 11th fiscal year of employment. Unclassified vacation is allocated on a fiscal year basis. Unused vacation can be carried over into the following fiscal year, but must be used by the end of that fiscal year or it will be lost.

Your July Leave Report will indicate how many hours of unused vacation you are eligible to bank into ALRA. You are allowed to bank any unused vacation as of June 30, 2013.

If you meet the eligibility requirements for ALRA:

• You may transfer unused vacation hours into an ALRA account to use at a future date (banked hours do not expire).
• You may accumulate hours in your ALRA from year to year without limit.
• With your supervisor's approval, you may use ALRA hours at any time. These hours can be used in any circumstance where you are allowed to use paid leave.
• Any unused ALRA at the termination of employment will be paid to you at your current wage rate as a lump sum payment.
• You will be offered the option to bank hours in ALRA in July following the fiscal year in which you qualify.
• Banking Schedule (the amount of leave that can be banked is prorated if part-time):
  • You are allowed to bank up to 40 hours of vacation into ALRA per year at the beginning of your 11th fiscal year of employment.
  • You are allowed to bank up to 80 hours of vacation into ALRA per year at the beginning of your 26th fiscal year of employment.

If you elect to bank hours to ALRA, the vacation hours used will first come from any remaining Vacation Carryover you had as of June 30, 2013. If you allocated more unused vacation to ALRA than you currently have as Vacation Carryover, the additional hours to be banked will come from your new Vacation Carryover balance as of July 1, 2013 (vacation earned in the current fiscal year).

If you have questions, please contact the Payroll Coordinator for your work unit.

If you are an academic year (9 month), or other employee* who does not work during one or more of the summer months and are expected to return for the fall semester, you are required to have multiple benefit deductions taken from your earnings paid during the spring semester to cover insurance premiums for the summer months. These deductions are referred to as "Summer Prepay" deductions. Summer Prepay deductions will be taken along with your regular monthly insurance deductions on your April 1, May 1 and May 31 paychecks.

*Annual basis (12 month) Faculty, Academic Staff or paid bi-weekly and are not working during one or more of the summer months.

If you are an academic year employee, insurance premiums cannot be deducted from summer earnings. If you are expected to return in the fall, your benefits must be continuous. You may not opt out of summer coverage.

What You Need To Do

Your division/department benefits office will determine your eligibility for Summer Prepay deductions. You need to let them know if you plan on returning in the fall semester to either your current or different department/institution.

If you are an annual basis (12 month) Faculty, Academic Staff or paid bi-weekly, and are not working during one or more of the summer months, you must contact your institution's payroll and benefits office to set up summer prepay deductions. The number of benefit deductions and how these deductions appear on your earnings statement will be based on your individual situation.

Summer Prepay Deduction Schedule

You will have 2 deductions for each benefit plan taken from your last 3 checks of the semester, with the exception of Income Continuation Insurance (ICI). If enrolled in ICI, you will have 2 additional deductions on your May 1 check and 1 additional deduction on your May 31 check.

Multiple deductions are not taken for the following plans: Tax-Sheltered Annuity 403(b) plan, Wisconsin Deferred Compensation, Employee Reimbursement Account (Health Care and Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts). Deductions for these plans are only taken during the academic year.

How Summer Prepay Deductions Appear on Your Earnings Statement

Summer prepay deductions will appear as a lump sum amount on your earnings statement. All deductions taken pre-tax (most medical-related premiums and a portion of State Group Life premiums) will be added together under the name "Prebtx" and all deductions taken post-tax (most life insurance premiums) will be added together under the name "Preatx." Your regular benefit deductions for the month will continue to be listed under the plan name. For example, if you carry family Dean Health Insurance and Single VSP Insurance, you will see a $211 deduction under Dean Health Plan and a $5.24 deduction under Vision Service Plan (VSP). These deductions are typically taken on a pre-tax basis. If you have one extra deduction for each plan, there will be a total of $216.24 ($211.00 + $5.24) listed under Prebtx on each earnings statement impacted by the additional deductions.

Refunds if You Don't Return in the Fall

If Summer Prepay deductions are taken and it is later determined that you are not returning to employment for the fall semester, you will be refunded overpaid premiums. If your department/division determines that you are eligible for Summer Prepay deductions, it is not a guarantee of a summer or fall employment contract.

Questions

If you have questions, please contact your institution's payroll and benefits office.

UW employees who upgraded to Firefox 19 (with a new built-in PDF viewer) have reported issues when opening Earnings Statements and other PDFs in the My UW portal. The Firefox 19 PDF viewer will render some PDFs unreadable.

Firefox 19 users have three alternative PDF viewing options:

• Use a different web browser, like Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, or Safari.
• Right click on the PDF link, select "Save Link As..." to download the file. Open the PDF with Adobe Reader or Preview.
• Disable the Firefox PDF viewer by following these instructions: https://kb.wisc.edu/page.php?id=28831. Mozilla support is aware of this issue and has created a support page for Firefox users: http://support.mozilla.org/en-US/kb/view-pdf-files-firefox-without-downloading-them. Please contact your institution's IT helpdesk if further assistance is required.