Author Topic: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government  (Read 1625 times)

ants75

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Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« on: July 13, 2020, 11:31:12 AM »
I'm a normal Federal Government employee with a GS rating and under the FERS retirement system. I was going to talk to my boss about to moving to a part time role (1 day off every pay period). I don't think he would have too many issues with this as we have definite seasonal fluctuations in workload. I get healthcare through my wife so that doesn't concern me and I believe that all other leave will just accrue at a prorated level. Not sure about TSP matching impacts. I just wondering if there are any other issues that I'm not thinking about or if anyone else has experience with this.Thanks

mcneally

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #1 on: July 14, 2020, 03:19:45 PM »
I don't have many answers for you but a question. My agency's employee handbook says that part-time is an option  and spells out how pay and benefits work (though manager approval is required and in practice I've only heard it used for parents of young children and an older person on dialysis). I'm not ready for part-time yet, but I've never been able to find out what forms to complete to ask for it. If you find out the form(s) involved, I'd appreciate you letting me.

You said you want one day off every pay period. My employee handbook says part-time is 16-32 hours/ week, so one day off every other week would not be an option. I don't know if that's agency policy or government-wide.

Re: health insurance, you can still get it part-time. At full time, gov pays roughly 2/3 and you pay 1/3. If you work 80% of full time, the portion gov pays is 2/3 x 80%.

The amazing thing about part-time is is that part-time years count as full years for MRA and an unreduced pension, i.e. if you worked full-time for 32 years, you could retire at age 57 with a pension 32% of high-3. If you worked full-time for 10 years followed by part-time for 22 years, you'd still qualify for an unreduced pension age 57 of 21% [10 + (22 x .5) x 1%]. Your high-3 is considered what your full-time salary would be and years of service for part-time is number of years x % of full-time. Seems like an amazing deal if you can get it.

Kierun

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #2 on: July 14, 2020, 03:34:18 PM »
Don't have an answer for either of you sorry. But mcneally, straight from OPM looks like it's government wide

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Part-time Employment Defined
A part-time permanent employee has a career or career-conditional appointment (or a permanent appointment in the excepted service), works between 16 and 32 hours each week (or between 32 and 64 hours a pay period) on a prearranged schedule, and is eligible for fringe benefits. Part-time permanent employees are eligible, on a prorated basis, for the same benefits as full-time employees: leave, retirement, and health and life insurance coverage.

economista

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #3 on: July 15, 2020, 07:18:50 AM »
Does your agency offer an AWS schedule? At my agency almost everyone works the AWS schedule. Instead of 8 hour days (8.5 really b/c of lunch) I work 9 (9.5) hour days. Every pay period I get one day off (sounds like what you want?) and I have one 8 hour day per pay period. It works out really well for me. I have my day off set to every other Friday and my 8 hour days are the Fridays that I work.

It is especially nice because this year every Holiday has fallen on my AWS weekends, so I have gotten a bunch of 4 day weekends. Plus I’m still full-time so there is no impact to insurance, time in grade calculations, or years of service toward retirement. I know from my part-time intern days that if you work less than 80 hours per pay period they take into account when calculating those benefits.


DeniseNJ

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #5 on: July 15, 2020, 09:41:26 AM »
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The amazing thing about part-time is is that part-time years count as full years for MRA and an unreduced pension, i.e. if you worked full-time for 32 years, you could retire at age 57 with a pension 32% of high-3. If you worked full-time for 10 years followed by part-time for 22 years, you'd still qualify for an unreduced pension age 57 of 21% [10 + (22 x .5) x 1%]. Your high-3 is considered what your full-time salary would be and years of service for part-time is number of years x % of full-time. Seems like an amazing deal if you can get it.

True that the years are counted as full years and high three is based on full time salary--But, the would-be retirement amount is then cut by a percentage based on how many hours of total possible hours you worked.  So if you worked half time for 30 years, you would still have 30 years and your high 3 would still be what you would have earned if you were full time, but your total retirment amount would then be half since you worked half of the total possible hours.  If some of the 30 was full time then that would increase the amount by that percentage.

But they would still pay the entire part of the federal share of health insurance, even if it was prorated while you worked.

nessness

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #6 on: July 15, 2020, 10:36:29 AM »
I just recently went back to full time after 5 years of part time. If you work at least 64 hours per pay period but less than 80, you will get the same benefits as if you worked 64 hours (e.g., the government will only pay 80% of their usual contribution toward heath insurance). Not sure if that applies to leave accrual.

I know a few other people who've worked part time, and I don't know anyone who requested to go part time and was denied. My agency seems to be pretty supportive of it.

DeniseNJ

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #7 on: July 15, 2020, 01:07:38 PM »
I just recently went back to full time after 5 years of part time. If you work at least 64 hours per pay period but less than 80, you will get the same benefits as if you worked 64 hours (e.g., the government will only pay 80% of their usual contribution toward heath insurance). Not sure if that applies to leave accrual.
Do you mean if yor work, say, 70 hours, it would be the same as working 64?  Like it's prorate in 20% intervals?

RainyDay

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #8 on: July 15, 2020, 02:30:03 PM »
Great timing for this thread!  I'm currently full time but hoping to go to part time in 2.5 years when I hit FI. 

I've also considered, rather than officially becoming a part-time employee, just taking 1-2 days of LWOP each pay period.  I am not sure of the effects on benefits, however, or if it differs substantially from working part time.

For those who are or have been part time with the government, what was your rationale?  In my agency, the only part-timers are those who have been granted it due to medical need. 


nessness

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #9 on: July 15, 2020, 04:15:29 PM »
I just recently went back to full time after 5 years of part time. If you work at least 64 hours per pay period but less than 80, you will get the same benefits as if you worked 64 hours (e.g., the government will only pay 80% of their usual contribution toward heath insurance). Not sure if that applies to leave accrual.
Do you mean if yor work, say, 70 hours, it would be the same as working 64?  Like it's prorate in 20% intervals?
You would get paid for 70 hours, but yes, benefits would be the same as for 64. Benefits are prorated up to 64 hours, then stay at the 64 hour value for anything less than 80.

nessness

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #10 on: July 15, 2020, 04:19:39 PM »
For those who are or have been part time with the government, what was your rationale?  In my agency, the only part-timers are those who have been granted it due to medical need.
I went part time when I had a baby. The other people I've known who went part time all had babies/young children and/or medical conditions. A justification isn't technically required, though, although explaining that you want to go part time because you don't need the money any more might be awkward lol.

sparkytheop

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #11 on: July 15, 2020, 11:09:23 PM »
I started my career part-time because I was attending college full-time.  I paid more for health care, I only got 2 hours of LA(and LS)/pp instead of 2.  It will be prorated on my pension (but was only 1 1/2 years in what will be a 35+ year-long career) so negligible.  There weren't any special forms required, that I recall, but my SF-52 request listed the number of hours I was to work, and had to be updated any time my schedule changed.  I still received the full TSP-match.

If you're counting on taking FEHB into retirement, you don't want to drop that (unless your wife also has FEHB, or can carry you in retirement).  You'll need to have it for 5 years before retiring (government goes back to covering their full amount when a part-time employee retires, since there are "no part-time retirees".)


Eowyn_MI

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #12 on: July 16, 2020, 05:18:51 AM »
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The amazing thing about part-time is is that part-time years count as full years for MRA and an unreduced pension, i.e. if you worked full-time for 32 years, you could retire at age 57 with a pension 32% of high-3. If you worked full-time for 10 years followed by part-time for 22 years, you'd still qualify for an unreduced pension age 57 of 21% [10 + (22 x .5) x 1%]. Your high-3 is considered what your full-time salary would be and years of service for part-time is number of years x % of full-time. Seems like an amazing deal if you can get it.

True that the years are counted as full years and high three is based on full time salary--But, the would-be retirement amount is then cut by a percentage based on how many hours of total possible hours you worked.  So if you worked half time for 30 years, you would still have 30 years and your high 3 would still be what you would have earned if you were full time, but your total retirment amount would then be half since you worked half of the total possible hours.  If some of the 30 was full time then that would increase the amount by that percentage.

But they would still pay the entire part of the federal share of health insurance, even if it was prorated while you worked.

Yes, they count the actual number of hours that you worked when part time and only those hours go towards calculating your retirement amount.  My mom retired last year after 35 years with the federal government but a lot of those years were part time.  She's still going to be fine in retirement but the numbers did not turn out exactly as expected due to the way they calculate part time work.

DeniseNJ

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #13 on: July 16, 2020, 07:57:56 AM »
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I've also considered, rather than officially becoming a part-time employee, just taking 1-2 days of LWOP each pay period.  I am not sure of the effects on benefits, however, or if it differs substantially from working part time.
LWOP affects your retirement date if you take over a certain amount in a calendar year.  and you don't earn AL or SL in the pay period where you hit 80 hours LWOP. But your portion of insurance stays the same and it doesn't otherwise affect yur benefits, except if it takes longer to reach your date or reduces the number of years/months you worked.

You can also just take AL once a week.  You get paid for your leave at retirement but if you take it now you'd get paid for it anyway.  If you're at 240 when you start to go "part time" you could do over a year this way with what you earn and the 240.

DeniseNJ

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #14 on: July 16, 2020, 08:01:20 AM »
Pasted from other thread since it has the info I already researchd, including the TSP stuff.  I should also add that how much leave you earn each pay period is also prorated based on your schedule.
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1.  If you work FT for 20 yrs and PT for 10, your years worked for your eligibility to retire and your pension are still 30.  The part time years count as full years no matter how many hours you worked.
2.  While you work PT you pay a proportionate larger share of your health insurance.  However, when you retire, you get to pay the same portion as anybody else, and the gov't goes back to paying their full portion of your premiums.
3.  Your high 3 are based not on your actual salary earned but rather on what your annual salary is supposed to be.  So if you only make half your income, your high 3 is still based on your whole salary, not half.

Now the bad news, which isn't really that bad:  Your pension is reduced by a proportion of the actual hours you worked over your carreer.  So, for example, if I worked 26 yrs FT for a total of 54,080 hours, and 4 years part time (16 hours out of 40 per week) for a total of 3,328, they would add up my hours worked divided by the total hours over 30 years, 57,408/62,400 and get 92%.  I would get 92% of my pension.  Not bad really.

Other factors are your pay cut for those 4 years as well as the increased health insurance premiums for those 4 years.  You'd still get to make full TSP contributions though, but you'd only get the 5% match of your actual reduced salary. And I guess it would bring down your SS benefits, but so would retiring entirely.

RainyDay

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #15 on: July 16, 2020, 08:58:15 AM »
LWOP affects your retirement date if you take over a certain amount in a calendar year.  and you don't earn AL or SL in the pay period where you hit 80 hours LWOP.

Good point, something else I hadn't considered.  In the past (with my boss's okay), I've taken a few days here and there of LWOP, just to "buy" additional leave, but so far not enough to affect anything. 

I doubt I will stay in government til full MRA (still 13 years away), but it would be nice to add on a few extra years of part time, both for the health insurance and to increase my years in service. 

Catbert

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #16 on: July 16, 2020, 11:00:32 AM »
If you only want 1 day off a pay period, a way to sell it to your boss could be do go the LWOP route.  It's an easy way for boss to see if it works okay without committing to letting you work part-time forever.  Yes, it would affect your Service Commutation Date (SCD) if you take more than 80 hours of LWOP in a year, but at one day a pay period that's not much.  It's also entirely possible that your immediate supervisor (or their supervisor) could approve intermittent LWOP but that a switch to a part-time schedule would require much higher approval.

Annie101

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #17 on: July 17, 2020, 09:28:16 PM »
I negotiated to work 32 hours per week (80%) when my second kid was born and never want to go back to full time.  That was 7.5 years ago.  I work in city government.  We have a couple other people who work part time but not many.  I would discuss with HR before you talk to your boss so that you know the details before going into the negotiation.

RainyDay

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Re: Wanting to move to PT with the Federal Government
« Reply #18 on: July 20, 2020, 08:59:42 AM »
Seems like a lot of successful PT'ers are moms who just never went back to full time.  We also have a young lady in the office with Multiple Sclerosis who is 32 hrs/week.  I wish we didn't have to have a reason though... especially for jobs that can be done easily in a 24 or 32 hour week, or if you have decent co-workers who are also PT and everyone covers for the ones who are out of the office.