Understanding the plan
Click on any of the topics below to find the answer to your question.
If you’re a permanent, full-time employee (also called continuous full-time or CFT), you automatically become a member of the Plan on the date you are hired by an OMERS participating employer (OMERS employer) or on the date you become full-time. Under the Plan, CFT employees must work at least 32 hours per week. You remain a member even if you change from full-time to non-full-time (NFT).
You’re an NFT employee for Plan purposes if you work less than a full work week or fewer than 12 months a year (for example, you are a 10-month, contract or seasonal employee). As an NFT employee, you may elect to join the Plan after you are hired by an OMERS employer. If you elect to join, the decision cannot be changed and you will continue to make contributions until you leave your OMERS employer.
Your OMERS employer will report to OMERS if you are CFT or NFT and if your status changes. Note that in some cases, your OMERS employer may have a policy to make enrolment mandatory for some or all NFT employees.
If you’re a continuous full-time member, you will be automatically enrolled in the Plan.
If you’re a non-full-time member and have the choice to join the Plan, complete the Offer of OMERS membership form in the booklet your employer provided when you were hired. Give the form to your employer and they will send your information to OMERS. If you need a copy of the form, contact your employer.
Yes, as it’s important that your employer has a record of your decision. Complete the Offer of OMERS membership form in the booklet your employer provided when you were hired. If you need a copy of the form, contact your employer.
If you’re a continuous full-time member, you cannot decline membership in the Plan.
If you’re a non-full-time member who has the option of declining to join the Plan now, you can join in the future as long as you remain employed with an OMERS employer. Contact your OMERS employer to initiate enrolment when you are ready.
Once you’re enrolled, your membership in the Plan will continue while you are working for your OMERS employer. There is no ability to opt out. There are no minimum work hours or earnings limits.
Any time you worked for an OMERS employer before you enrolled in the Plan can be converted into credited service through the OMERS service purchase process. Increasing your credited service will increase your pension and may allow you to retire earlier without a reduction.
You may also have other service that you can buy back and convert to OMERS service. For example, this could be a period of service from another pension plan that can either be purchased through a buy-back or transfer.
If you decide to wait and buy back service later on in your career, it can become more costly. See the Buying service page for more information.
OMERS is a defined benefit (DB) pension plan. Your OMERS DB pension provides you with a reliable, predictable lifetime stream of income based on your years of credited service and contributory earnings. Once you retire, your pension is guaranteed, so you know exactly how much you will receive every month for life. Learn more about How your pension is calculated.
The Plan benefit is based on a defined benefit formula that is the same for all members and the OMERS pension grows based on each member’s contributory earnings and credited service. This means that those who work less and have lower contributory earnings have a smaller OMERS pension. In addition, when you work less than full-time, OMERS will annualize your contributory earnings to calculate your pension. This means we use the equivalent of what you would have earned had you worked full-time.
For example, Emily works 18.5 hours a week, compared to a 37-hour full-time schedule – this equates to other-than-continuous full time of 50% (18.5/37). Her "best five" earnings are $35,000. To calculate her pension, we would annualize her “best five” earnings and use $70,000 ($35,000/50%) but use only six months of credited service (12.000 months x 50%). Emily will also have six months of eligible service to account for that full calendar year period.
For more information, visit the Non-Full-Time page.
You will contribute a percentage of your contributory earnings in each pay period to help pay for your future pension and your employer will contribute an equal amount. Contributions from all members and employers fund a portion of the pension. Investment earnings of the OMERS Fund pay the balance.
Learn more about OMERS contribution rates.
The timing of your pension statement depends on your membership status with OMERS.
If you are a working member (including if you are currently on a leave), we will produce your pension statement once we receive the required information for the year from your OMERS employer. We usually send out pension statements starting in the spring. If you are no longer working for an OMERS employer but you chose to leave your pension with OMERS, we will send your deferred pension statement in the spring.
If you are currently receiving a monthly pension from OMERS as either a retired member, a surviving spouse or a dependent child, we will produce your pension statement in December. The statement will include the inflation adjustment for the next year.
If you don’t see a spouse on record on page two of your pension statement or in your myOMERS account, don’t worry. Whether we have your spouse information on our records or not, their eligibility for a survivor pension does not change and is always reviewed and confirmed by OMERS, as required under legislation. By updating records with us in advance, it will ensure that we can more quickly identify your spouse and proceed with steps required to determine their eligibility for a survivor pension.
If you don’t have a spouse on record with us yet – or if you do but it needs to be revised – you can easily update your spousal information in your myOMERS account or by contacting OMERS Member Experience.
When you retired, we may not have collected information about your spouse at that time. If you would like to update your spouse on record, you can do so by contacting OMERS Member Experience.
Reminder: Your legal spouse or common-law spouse on the day you began collecting your pension is entitled to a survivor pension after your death.
OMERS refers to this person as your retirement-date spouse. The entitlement of your retirement-date spouse to your survivor pension does not change (unless they formally waive their entitlement), even if your relationship status with them has changed through separation or divorce after you began collecting your pension.
If you did not have a spouse when you began collecting your pension, or if your retirement-date spouse dies, then your legal or common-law spouse on the date of your death will be entitled to a survivor pension.
Note: If your retirement-date spouse has died and you don’t want to see their name displayed on your statement, you can make a request in your myOMERS account using the secure communication feature and by providing a copy of their death certificate. Alternatively, you can send us your request by mail.
If you would like to update your spouse on record with us now, you can do so by contacting OMERS Member Experience.
Reminder: Your legal spouse or common-law spouse on the date of your death is entitled to a survivor pension.
No. We conduct a routine verification process for all OMERS pensioners, and as part of this, you may have received an email or letter asking you to confirm that you are still receiving your pension payment. This is to protect you against fraud and to ensure the security and accuracy of our records. If you are ever in doubt about the legitimacy of an OMERS email, please contact OMERS Member Experience.
Members leaving their OMERS employer who are more than 10 years from their normal retirement age (NRA) receive a one-time option to transfer their commuted value (CV) out of the Plan in lieu of a monthly pension payment. The following members will receive the CV transfer option:
Members leaving their OMERS employer prior to age 55 (for NRA 65)
Members leaving their OMERS employer prior to age 50 (for NRA 60)
Eligible members who wish to receive a CV upon leaving their OMERS employer have a one-time option to elect to do so and have six months to make their election. The deadline will be outlined on their Pension Options Form.
Once the option is provided, an early retirement date that occurs during the six-month deadline does not impact the member’s ability to choose a CV transfer.
After the applicable time limit has expired, members can no longer elect to transfer their CV out of the Plan. If you are interested in transferring your OMERS benefit to another defined benefit pension plan, visit the transferring service page.
No, the CV election limit does not apply to the Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVC) program. However, it should be noted that members who elect to take their CV from the Plan, must also withdraw their full AVC account balance. Visit the AVCs page for more information.
If you don’t see a spouse on record on page two of your pension statement or in your myOMERS account, don’t worry. Whether we have your spouse information on our records or not, their eligibility for a survivor pension does not change and is always reviewed and confirmed by OMERS, as required under legislation. By updating records with us in advance, it will ensure that we can more quickly identify your spouse and proceed with steps required to determine their eligibility for a survivor pension.
If you don’t have a spouse on record with us yet – or if you do but it needs to be revised – you can easily update your spousal information in your myOMERS account or by contacting OMERS Member Experience.
When you retired, we may not have collected information about your spouse at that time. If you would like to update your spouse on record, you can do so by contacting OMERS Member Experience.
Reminder: Your legal spouse or common-law spouse on the day you began collecting your pension is entitled to a survivor pension after your death.
OMERS refers to this person as your retirement-date spouse. The entitlement of your retirement-date spouse to your survivor pension does not change (unless they formally waive their entitlement), even if your relationship status with them has changed through separation or divorce after you began collecting your pension.
If you did not have a spouse when you began collecting your pension, or if your retirement-date spouse dies, then your legal or common-law spouse on the date of your death will be entitled to a survivor pension.
Note: If your retirement-date spouse has died and you don’t want to see their name displayed on your statement, you can make a request in your myOMERS account using the secure communication feature and by providing a copy of their death certificate. Alternatively, you can send us your request by mail.
If you would like to update your spouse on record with us now, you can do so by contacting OMERS Member Experience.
Reminder: Your legal spouse or common-law spouse on the date of your death is entitled to a survivor pension.
The eligibility requirements to receive a survivor pension as the legal spouse of an OMERS member are different than those required for CPP survivor pensions. OMERS does not require information about your CPP entitlement when determining if you are an eligible spouse for OMERS purposes.
None. Your OMERS survivor pension will not be affected by CPP or OAS. For more information, visit the retirement income sources page.
Your OMERS survivor pension will stop when you die, unless there is an eligible dependent child or children.
If there are no eligible children, OMERS will determine if there is a residual refund. If there is a residual refund, it will be paid to the beneficiary that the member designated for the Plan purposes before they died.
In general, after approximately five years of a pension being paid (to the member and any survivors), there would not be a residual refund.
For more information, visit Survivor benefits.
As soon as you are no longer a full-time student, you are no longer an eligible dependent child and your children’s pension ends (note that there is no option for it to restart if you return to school).
Many members of the Plan receive wages that are set by collective agreements. From time to time, the bargaining process may result in retroactive pay (also sometimes called “back-pay”) owing to members. As a result, OMERS has an established process to collect contributions related to retroactive payments and reflect any required changes to an impacted member’s pension record for the years to which the payments relate.
OMERS will generally follow our normal processes for adjustments to pension records when lump sum payments of retroactive pay are issued to members.
We understand that this is an important issue for many of our members and OMERS is working to ensure all adjustments can be made as soon as possible once information about the retroactive payments is received from OMERS employers. We are working closely with employers to make this as seamless as possible.
Adjustments for members who are not currently working have started (this includes retired members who have started their OMERS pension and deferred members who have not started collecting a pension).
For members who are still working for an OMERS employer and receive payments in 2024, updates will be made between January 1 and June 30, 2025, as information is received. These adjustments will be reflected in the annual statements that working members receive in 2025, typically starting in the spring.
OMERS contributions will be collected when you receive your retroactive payment(s). Your financial information for 2024, including the retroactive payment, will be reported to OMERS in 2025 and we will send you your 2024 pension statement with your updated pension information. Pension statements are typically sent in the spring.
OMERS has been in close communication with participating employers regarding the reporting of payments related to Bill 124, including payments that are made in instalments. To streamline the process, we have asked employers to send Bill 124 retroactive payment information once all payments have been paid. Once we have all the required information, we can adjust member records.
OMERS will prioritize required adjustments to the pension records of those who are receiving a monthly pension payment (this includes retirement pensions, disability pensions and survivor pensions). Once a retroactive payment is issued, a change in contributory earnings may result in a change to the monthly pension being paid and this will be determined on an individual basis.
Similarly, if you stop working for your OMERS employer after retroactive payments are issued (including to retire), you will also have your OMERS records adjusted following the end of your employment. This will be done on a priority basis to ensure you receive the correct pension options.
If adjustments to your pension are required, you will be notified by OMERS.
If an employer reports a change to a member’s contributory earnings, the member’s "best five" earnings will be adjusted if the change in contributory earnings falls within the 60 consecutive months of credited service where the member’s contributory earnings are highest.
If additional amounts are owed to members who have received an OMERS benefit as a result of a change to their best five earnings (for example, if the monthly pension of a retired member changes), OMERS will contact them.
If you have questions about whether you will receive a retroactive payment or the amount, please contact your OMERS employer and/or union.
OMERS will work directly with employers to manage the adjustments process. You should ensure OMERS has all of your updated information on file – including address information, electronic communication preferences and banking information if you are retired. The easiest way to do this is through your myOMERS account.
When you are on a strike or locked out, which are terms defined under the Labour Relations Act, 1995, you typically do not receive any pay from your employer and OMERS contributions are not deducted. As a result, the period is treated as a leave if it occurs during days that you are otherwise scheduled for work and there is no eligible service or credited service reported for the strike or lockout period. Your employer will report this time to OMERS as a purchasable leave period after the strike or lockout period ends.
Yes, once the strike or lockout has ended, your employer will provide you with a leave period election form. If you choose to purchase your strike or lockout period, your credited service will be restored on your record.
The cost will be equal to “double contributions.” In other words, if you choose to purchase the period of strike or lockout, you will pay both your portion and your employer’s portion of the contributions to cover this period based on your contributory earnings prior to the strike or lockout.
Yes, it is the same deadline as other leave purchases. The deadline for purchasing a period of strike or lockout at the “double contributions” rate described above is December 31 of the year following the year in which your leave ended. After this deadline, you can purchase the period of strike or lockout as a service buy-back but the cost is different and is often more expensive. See more information on Buying service.
No, any strike or lockout period that is not purchased will not count as OMERS eligible service.
You can start a secure conversation once you sign in to myOMERS or call OMERS Member Experience from Monday to Friday, 8 a.m. - 5 p.m. at +1 416.369.2444 or toll-free at +1 800.387.0813.