You did it! You have been heard!

Thanks to your efforts, part-time nursing and health professional staff working in the public sector remain eligible for health benefits and retirement security.

• Part timers who work 20 hours will remain eligible for health
  benefits.

• Raises the annual salary threshold for pension eligibility for all future employees to $7,500 per year, adjusted annually by the CPI or 4 percent, whichever is less. In addition, members earning less than $7,500, but more than $500 (TPAF) or $1,500 (PERS) will be eligible for the state’s defined contribution pension plan.

• The bill provides that an adjunct faculty member or part-time instructor at a public institution of higher education in the State whose employment agreement begins after that effective date will be eligible for membership in the Alternate Benefit Program (ABP), instead of PERS. 

• Lowers from 13 to 12, the number of paid holidays; Lincoln's Birthday would no longer be considered a public holiday. The third Monday in February, (Washington's Birthday) Presidents Day will be the paid holiday.  

• increases the retirement age for all future employees from 60 to 62

  For more information on “The Public Employee Pension and Benefits Reform Act of 2008,  go to http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillsByNumber.asp

 For more on the 2009 budget go to: http://www.njleg.state.nj.us/bills/BillsByNumber.asp