Florida Retirement System (the City pension) · Pension Modeling
General plan vs. Police & Fire plan: two pension realities
the City of Gainesville's workforce sits in two parallel structures under the Florida Retirement System (the City pension). The General Employees Pension Plan (general workforce) and Police & Fire plan (sworn police officers and certified career firefighters/medics) carry materially different employer rates. Total-compensation comparisons are meaningless without isolating which structure applies to each classification.
General Employees' Pension Plan (Defined Benefit)
24%
Employer contribution as % of payroll (illustrative political-subdivision rate)
Local defined-benefit plan for general (non-sworn) employees, with a defined-contribution option for eligible hires. Employer contribution is actuarially determined; member contribution set by plan ordinance. ATU-represented RTS employees and CWA-represented general employees participate here unless a bargaining agreement provides otherwise. Reconciled to the City's most recent actuarial valuation at award.
Consolidated Police Officers' & Firefighters' Retirement Plan (Defined Benefit)
42%
Employer contribution as % of payroll (illustrative political-subdivision rate)
Local defined-benefit plan for sworn police officers and certified firefighters, funded in part by Chapter 175 (fire) and Chapter 185 (police) insurance premium tax revenue. Higher multiplier and earlier normal retirement than the general plan; FLSA overtime treatment (including the 7(k) work-period exemption) interacts with pensionable-earnings definitions and is analyzed in the study.
Vesting and member cost
General-plan members pay 5% of payroll (4% mandatory Defined Benefit + 1% mandatory Defined Contribution) and may add voluntary DC up to 4%, with the employer matching DC up to 3.5%; the DB component vests in 5 years. Police & Fire plan members pay 5% under the pure Defined-Benefit structure (Plan 1 / Plan 2) with the enhanced public-safety multiplier. Employees hired before 1/1/2014 remain in the City pension Plan 1 or Plan 2 rather than the General plan, which affects retention and transfer modeling.
Why this matters for Gainesville's pay structure
A pay-grade structure that ignores the General vs. Police & Fire plan split will systematically misprice public-safety vs. general positions. Sworn sworn police officers and certified career firefighters/medics carry the higher employer rate and the Florida heart-lung presumption coverage, while general staff sit in the General plan. Our pay-structure design isolates pension overhead from base recommendations so the City sees true peer pay before employer pension cost. We also surface the City pension Basic Group Life (employer-paid, ~1.31% of payroll, Securian) and the Florida Local Disability Program (VLDP) for General-plan members.
Employer rates illustrative pending production data at engagement award. Member rates and the enhanced public-safety multiplier are statutory (Code of Florida Title 51.1). Production figures reconciled against the City's the City pension actuarial valuations and adopted budget personnel schedule at engagement award.