Guide for plan members

WorkSafeBC Pension Plan is committed to helping you make the most of your pension. This guide is a provincial requirement. Please use the links at right to explore the topics most relevant to you.

Your pension and your job

You are eligible to join the WorkSafeBC Pension Plan if you are a permanent full-time or part-time employee at WorkSafeBC.

If you are a temporary employee, you are also eligible to join the plan after you work two continuous years and if you earn a minimum of 35 per cent of the year’s maximum pensionable earnings.

You will continue to be an active member of the plan during your employment at WorkSafeBC, even if you take on a new position at the organization.

When your employment ends at WorkSafeBC, you are no longer an active member of the WorkSafeBC Pension Plan. However, you can still continue to be a plan member as either an inactive or retired member.

You will need to decide what to do with your pension benefit. Your options will depend on:

• Your age
• Your contributory service
• If you are retiring
• If you begin working with a new employer, and that employer’s pension plan has a transfer agreement with WorkSafeBC Pension Plan

How much do I contribute?

As an active member, you contribute to your pension through automatic deductions from each paycheque.

The amount of these contributions depends on how much you earn and the year’s maximum pensionable earnings (YMPE). This is a salary limit set each year by the federal government to determine maximum annual contributions to the Canada Pension Plan.

Your contribution rates are:

• 6.5% of your salary up to and including the YMPE
• 8.0% of your salary above the YMPE

For example, in 2022, the YMPE was $64,900. If your annual salary was $75,000, your annual pension contribution in 2022 would be $5,026.50. This is calculated as follows:

6.5% x $64,900 = $4,218.50
+
8.0% x ($75,000-$64,900) = $808.00
=
$5,026.50

As part of your contribution, one per cent of your salary is transferred to a fund called the inflation adjustment account (IAA). The IAA is used to help offset the effects of inflation.

This means that the pension payments you receive may include cost-of-living adjustments (COLAs) if sufficient funds are available in the IAA; however, COLAs are not guaranteed.

Both members and WorkSafeBC pay contributions to fund future pensions. Members contribute through automatic salary deductions. When members end employment, retire or reach 35 years of pensionable service, they no longer contribute.

Your WorkSafeBC Pension Plan is a defined benefit pension plan. This means your lifetime pension is not based on your contributions to the plan or the investment performance of plan assets.

Instead, your pension is based on your years of pensionable service and the average of your highest five years of salary.

Will my contribution rates increase?

It is possible that your contribution rates may increase.

At least once every three years, an independent actuary (a specialist in financial modelling, the law of probability and risk management) assesses the financial position of the plan.

This assessment examines the plan’s ability to pay all current and future pensions. The assessment also reviews the current contribution rates to see if they are sufficient to fund the plan.

WorkSafeBC rights and obligations

WorkSafeBC has certain rights and obligations:

• Provide complete, accurate and sufficient personal information and records required to administer the plan for any member
• Collect your pension contributions and WorkSafeBC contributions and provide them to us
• Provide you with any information or records supplied by us or otherwise required by the Pension Benefits Standards Act

Nothing in the plan affects the right of WorkSafeBC to dismiss an individual.