The Member Handbook is your guide to understanding and maximizing your OMERS pension. Find out how the OMERS Plan works, what benefits you’ll receive and how you can make the most of your secure retirement income.
The information in this booklet provides a summary of the terms of the OMERS Plan text at the time of publication. From time to time, the OMERS Plan text may be amended by the OMERS Sponsors Corporation. If there is any discrepancy between this information and the Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System Act, 2006 (OMERS Act, 2006) and the OMERS Plan text, the OMERS Act, 2006 and OMERS Plan text will govern.
The OMERS Primary Pension Plan Registration Number is 0345983.
With a secure myOMERS account, you can get a comprehensive overview of your pension, choose your beneficiaries, update your contact information, estimate your retirement income and more!
All you need to get started is your email address or phone number and your date of birth. Register with a personal email address so that you still receive updates from us once you retire.
The OMERS Plan is a defined benefit pension plan, which means you can expect a predictable monthly income for life. Together with government benefits and your savings, your OMERS pension can grow into an important financial asset and play a key role in your financial security in retirement.
If you are a permanent, full-time employee who works at least 32 hours per week (also called continuous full-time ), you automatically become a member of the OMERS Plan on the date you are hired by an OMERS participating employer, or on the date you become full-time. You remain a member even if you change from full-time to non-full-time.
If you work less than a full work week or you work fewer than 12 months a year (for example, you are a 10-month, contract or seasonal employee), you may elect to join the OMERS Plan after you are hired by an OMERS employer. If you elect to join, the decision cannot be changed and you and your employer will be required to make contributions until you leave your OMERS employer.
In the OMERS Plan, there are two types of service.
This is the paid service (years and months) you have in the OMERS Plan, including any service you purchased or transferred in.
If you are a full-time employee, you earn one year of credited service for every full year you work. If you are non-full-time, we calculate your credited service as a proportion of what a full-time employee in your position would earn but annualize your contributory earnings.
This is service with any OMERS employer that is not credited service and is subject to certain limits. It can help bring you closer to an unreduced early retirement pension; however, it does not change the credited service used in the OMERS pension formula. We add your eligible service to your credited service when we calculate your early retirement reduction factor.
You will contribute a percentage of your contributory earnings in each pay period to the OMERS Plan. Your OMERS employer will also contribute an equal amount. Member and employer contributions will fund a portion of your OMERS pension. Investment earnings of the OMERS Fund will contribute the balance.
To keep the OMERS Plan adequately funded, the OMERS Sponsors Corporation periodically adjusts contribution rates. Your contributions to the OMERS Plan lower your taxable income at source. Amounts you contribute to buy a leave period or past service may also lower your taxable income for the applicable tax year(s).
Required contributions are lower on contributory earnings up to the first earnings limit under the Canada Pension Plan (CPP) i.e., the year's maximum pensionable earnings (YMPE), and higher on any salary above the YMPE. This is determined on a per pay period basis.
Current contribution rates are posted on Getting started. The contribution rates will change effective January 1, 2027. See Contribution Rates Review for more details.
Participating in a defined benefit pension like the OMERS Plan is a tax-efficient form of saving. Under the Income Tax Act, you are eligible for certain tax advantages as a result of your participation in the OMERS Plan, as summarized below:
You contribute a percentage of your earnings towards the pension benefits provided through OMERS.
Your employer deducts these contributions from your gross income each pay period, which reduces your taxable income at source. As a result, over the course of the year, the income on which you pay taxes has been reduced by the amount of your pension contributions. This will be reflected on your annual T4 tax slip.
Contributing to the OMERS Plan is similar to contributing to a Registered Retirement Savings Plan (RRSP). One of the differences is that your tax liability is reduced right away, so that you do not have to wait until you file your tax return to benefit.
Your employer also contributes an equal amount to the OMERS Plan. These contributions are not a taxable benefit; you do not count them as income.
Once you retire and begin collecting your OMERS pension, your pension may be taxable and withholding taxes may be deducted from your payments. In many cases, the annual tax liability associated with a your pension payments will be lower than that of your earnings while employed.
Note that all payments from the OMERS Plan are payable in accordance with the Income Tax Act and cash payments are subject to applicable taxes withholding at source.
When you are a member of the OMERS Plan, a pension adjustment (PA) must be reported on your T4 tax slip each year and will reduce your available RRSP contribution room. The PA is a deemed value of the pension you earned in a tax year. The Canada Revenue Agency (CRA) uses the PA from the previous year to calculate your new RRSP contribution room for the current year.
Once you start collecting your pension, the amount will increase each year to protect against inflation. For benefits earned before 2023, the amount of the inflation increase will be based on the increase in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) up to 6%, and any excess CPI increase will be carried forward. For pension benefits earned on or after January 1, 2023, the amount of the increase will be determined based on an assessment of the financial health of the Plan. Read more on Inflation protection.
Generally, if you take an unpaid or partially paid leave of absence that has been approved by your OMERS employer, you may be able to buy the service for the time you are away, which means your leave can count as credited service.
This includes both leaves protected by employment standards legislation (for example, pregnancy, parental, family medical and personal emergency leaves) and other leaves authorized by your employer.
The cost and process depend on the type and timing of the leave.
When you stop working for an OMERS employer, you’ll need to decide what to do with your pension. Depending on your eligibility to retire and pension amount, you have some options.
If you stopped working for an OMERS employer within 10 years of your normal retirement age (NRA) you are eligible to retire.
If you are not within 10 years of your NRA when you leave your employer, you are not eligible to retire and some of your options are time-sensitive.
If you stop working for your OMERS employer and you are within 10 years of your NRA but not yet at your NRA, you can choose to receive an early retirement. Your early retirement date will be the last day of the month immediately prior to your pension starting. There are two types of early retirement pensions: unreduced and reduced. If you don’t qualify for an unreduced pension, you can still retire within 10 years of your NRA (55th birthday for NRA 65 or 50th birthday for NRA 60) but your pension will be reduced.
If you go back to work for an OMERS employer in a job where you are eligible for membership in the OMERS Plan, you will either be re-enrolled or offered enrolment on a voluntary basis depending on your age or you specifically elect to continue receiving your pension and not re-enrol.
If you re-enrol in the OMERS Plan, your pension payments will stop, and you will resume as a working member.
Life can bring unexpected changes, and your OMERS pension is designed to support you through significant events.
As an OMERS member, if your spousal relationship ends, dividing your pension with your former spouse is not a requirement – the decision is up to you and your former spouse. If you choose to divide your pension, OMERS must administer any valuation and/or division of OMERS Plan benefits in accordance with the Ontario Pension Benefits Act and applicable family law.
More information on the rules is available on Separation and divorce or on the Ontario pension regulator’s website at www.fsrao.ca.
If you are dealing with an injury or illness and are unable to work for more than four months while still being employed with your OMERS employer, the Plan provides disability benefits. To receive and maintain disability benefits, you must submit the necessary medical documentation and notify OMERS of any changes in your employment status.
Read more about eligibility and types of disability benefits.
In the event of your death, OMERS offers survivor benefits to help provide financial support to your loved ones. The type of survivor benefit and amount payable depend on whether you have started your pension. Your spouse and dependent children have automatic entitlements if they meet the eligibility criteria at the relevant time.
Read more on Survivor benefits and ensure you have designated a beneficiaries.
Increasing your credited service in the OMERS Plan can help you retire with a bigger pension or may allow you to retire earlier with a reduced pension. If you have service from another registered pension plan, previous OMERS service, an unpurchased leave or you transferred/cashed out your OMERS pension, you may be able to transfer or buy back that service and convert it to credited service in the OMERS Plan.
If you belonged to another registered pension plan before joining OMERS, you may be able to transfer your service into the OMERS Plan. OMERS has transfer agreements with most Canadian public- and private-sector registered pension plans, which can make it easier for you to bring your pension from your previous employer into the OMERS Plan.
Contact OMERS Member Experience to find out if your pension can be transferred.
You can increase your credited service by buying back certain types of past service. This includes service with an OMERS employer that you did not purchase before the deadline (such as a parental leave), waiting periods before joining OMERS, refunded or transferred service after 1991 and shortfalls from previous transfers. Buying service can increase your pension amount and may help you reach an unreduced retirement date sooner.
If you think you have service that you can buy back, contact OMERS Member Experience to see if it is purchasable.
OMERS offers Additional Voluntary Contributions (AVCs) as a flexible way to grow your retirement savings. AVCs let you invest additional funds in the globally diversified OMERS Fund, separate from your OMERS defined benefit pension. Your AVC account earns the OMERS Fund’s net rate of return and is subject to an administrative fee. AVCs are governed by the AVC Terms of Participation and are available exclusively to OMERS members until the year you turn 70.
Transfer funds: Move money from a registered retirement savings vehicle, such as an RRSP or LIRA, during the annual transfer-in window (January 1 to June 30 each year, until age 70)
Automatic contributions: Working members can set up regular contributions by pre-authorized debit or payroll deduction (if your employer offers this option), starting from as little as $40 per month or $20 biweekly (working members only)
Visit the AVCs page to learn more about how AVCs work and if they are the right option for you.
Learn about features of the OMERS Plan, your contributions and more.
Learn about the lifetime pension formula and early retirement.
Learn more about the OMERS Plan through frequently asked questions.