Service in the OMERS Plan

In the OMERS Plan, there are two types of service.

Credited service

This is the paid service (years and months) you have in the OMERS Plan, including any service you purchased or transferred in. The maximum amount of credited service you can have is 35 years. We use your credited service and your earnings to calculate your pension.

Note: Effective January 1, 2021, OMERS will no longer cap your credited service. If you have not reached 35 years of credited service prior to this date, you will continue to contribute and accrue credited service in the Plan. If a member meets the 35-year cap before January 1, 2021, the limit will continue to apply.  

If you’re continuous full-time, you earn one year of credited service for every full year you work.

If you’re non-full-time, we calculate your credited service as a proportion of what a full-time member would earn. Also, when we calculate your pension, we annualize your earnings.

Eligible service

This is service with any OMERS participating employer that isn’t credited service. It can help bring you closer to an unreduced early retirement pension; however, it does not change the credited service used in the OMERS Plan pension formula. We add your eligible service to your credited service when we calculate your early retirement pension factor.

Examples of eligible service include:
  • summer-student work with an OMERS employer
  • service that was refunded when you left an OMERS employer
  • unpurchased pregnancy/parental leave
  • unpurchased waiting periods.
You may be able to purchase some eligible service and convert it to credited service. See “Retire with a Bigger OMERS Plan Pension.”

Have you worked for an OMERS employer, but you were not in the pension plan? Check myOMERS and make sure that period of employment is included with your eligible service. If it isn’t, contact OMERS Member Services.
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