Pension Plans

The Non-Union Pension Plan is a noncontributory, single-employer, defined-benefit plan and was closed to new participants on October 1, 2007.

METRO makes monthly contributions to this plan which are authorized annually by METRO’s Board of Directors during the annual budgeting process.

Funding policy for the defined benefit pension plans is to contribute each year the independently calculated, actuarially determined contribution in equal payments over a 12-month period using the key assumptions provided in the actuarial methodology tab below.

The Transport Workers Union Pension Plan (Union Plan) is a contributory (effective October 1, 2018), single-employer, defined-benefit pension plan and was closed to new participants on October 1, 2012. Employees in the Union Plan contribute $3 each week through payroll deductions. Employees not eligible for the defined benefit pension plans are placed into the defined contribution plan.

METRO makes monthly contributions to this plan which are authorized annually by METRO’s Board of Directors during the annual budgeting process.

Funding policy for the defined benefit pension plans is to contribute each year the independently calculated, actuarially determined contribution in equal payments over a 12-month period using the key assumptions provided in the actuarial methodology tab below.

METRO’s monthly contributions to the defined contribution plan equals 4% of the employees’ annual salary with METRO matching up to an additional 4% of the employee’s 457(b) Deferred Compensation Plan contributions.

METRO makes weekly contributions to the defined contribution plan, which are authorized annually by METRO’s Board of Directors during the annual budgeting process.

METRO’s contributions are placed into a third-party trust account with employees’ vesting rates equally 40 percent after the second year with an additional 20 percent vesting occurring each of the next three years.

Funding policy for the defined benefit pension plans is to contribute each year the independently calculated, actuarially determined contribution in equal payments over a 12-month period using the following key assumptions:

• Actuarial cost method – Entry age normal
• Amortization method – Level percentage of payroll, closed
• Asset valuation method – five-year smoothed market value
• Inflation – 2.30%
• Salary increases:
  – Union
  3.25% for 2024, 4.00% for 2025, 3.50% for 2026, 4.00% for 2027 and 3.25% thereafter, with an additional 0.25% for 2025, 1.25% for 2026, and 1.5% for 2027 for bus operators hired after June 1, 1999.
  – Non-Union
  3.25% for 2024 and thereafter.
• Actuarial assumed rate of return 6.25% is a net of an explicit assumption for expected administrative expense.
• Mortality – The mortality assumption is updated annually and is currently using the Pub-2010 General Employee / Healthy Retiree Mortality Tables for M/F projected forward (fully generational) with MP-2021 with separate tables for contingent survivors and disabled participants. This reflects the most current mortality experience published by the Society of Actuaries for public plans. This assumption includes a margin for future improvements in longevity.