Montgomery, AL – The Alabama Senate has voted to count some overtime pay toward the pensions for Alabama's public employees.
The Senate rewrote a House-passed bill to allow public employees to include overtime pay that's up to 20 percent of their regular pay. The bill passed 33-0 Wednesday and now must return to the House for review of the Senate's changes.
The bill stems from an opinion by Attorney General Luther Strange in 2011 that said state law didn't allow for overtime to count toward pensions in the Retirement Systems of Alabama. That ended the pension system's practice of counting overtime. Strange encouraged the Legislature to change the law.
The Legislative Fiscal Office estimates the overtime legislation will cost the state an additional $3.6 million annually in retirement costs.
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