Eligible Organizations and Employees
The Ontario Municipal Employees Retirement System Act, 2006 (“OMERS Act, 2006”) establishes two broad categories of employers who can participate in the OMERS Plan:
"Traditional" employers
Mainly employers that work in the local municipal government and local municipal boards sectors.
"Associated" employers
Employers that don’t work directly in the local municipal government or local municipal boards sectors but that provide a municipal service or program under an agreement with a municipality or local board or under a statute. See below for more information.
Traditional employers
The following organizations can participate as an OMERS traditional employer:
Municipalities
Local boards (as defined in the Municipal Affairs Act)
Conservation authorities (as defined in the Conservation Authorities Act)
District social service administration boards (as defined in District Social Services Administration Boards Act)
Associations of municipalities or local boards
Associations of the officials or employees of municipalities or local boards
The Crown
OMERS Sponsors Corporation
OMERS Administration Corporation
Associated employers
The following organizations can participate as an OMERS associated employer:
Organizations that, under an agreement with a municipality or local board or under a statute, provide a service, program, or thing to a person that the municipality or local board is authorized to provide to the person.
Organizations incorporated in accordance with section 142 of the Electricity Act, 1998 for the purpose of generating, transmitting, distributing, or retailing electricity.
Employees eligible to join OMERS at an associated employer are referred to as being in “Covered Employment” and include:
Employees whose duties relate primarily to the service, program, or thing the organization provides on behalf of a municipality or local board.
"Primarily" means at least 51% of an employee’s regular duties relate to the service, program, or thing that the organization is providing to a municipality or local board. Any administrative activities relating to the provision of the service, program or thing can be included in considered Covered Employment.
Employees providing others services are not eligible to join OMERS.
Employees whose duties relate primarily to generating, transmitting, distributing, or retailing electricity.
"Primarily" means at least 51% of an employee’s regular duties relate to generating, transmitting, distributing, or retailing electricity. Any administrative activities relating to generating, retailing, transmitting, or distributing electricity can be included in Covered Employment.
Employees providing others services are not eligible to join OMERS.
Frequently asked questions
Traditional employers
Generally, traditional employers must participate on behalf of all employees. Participating municipalities may choose to include or exclude council members in OMERS participation.
Effective December 6, 2023, certain new traditional employers who do not already participate may elect to join the OMERS Plans in respect of a limited class of employees who are already OMERS members and who are on a temporary leave of absence with other OMERS employers. For example, when an OMERS member takes a leave of absence from their OMERS employer to temporarily work at their union or association, the union or association (i.e., the new traditional employer) may elect to participate on behalf of the member who is temporarily employed with them and for all future members in similar circumstances. All other employees of the association or union would be ineligible for OMERS participation in this scenario and the new employer would have to meet the applicable definition of traditional employer under the OMERS Act, 2006.
See the “Traditional employers’ section above (before the FAQs) for more information about traditional employers.
Associated employers
Associated employers can designate, from among those employees who are in Covered Employment, a class or classes of employees that may participate in the OMERS Plan. For example, the class can be defined as all employees in Covered Employment, employees of a particular union or association, or management employees.
See the ‘Associated employers’ section above (before the FAQs) for a description of Covered Employment.
Generally, your current eligible employees (i.e., those described in the answer above) who were hired before the date you started participating in OMERS have the option to join OMERS on a voluntary basis. As soon as you become an OMERS employer, you must offer OMERS membership to these eligible employees. Eligible employees who decline can join OMERS at any point in the future provided they continue to be eligible and employed by an OMERS employer.
For your future full-time eligible employees (i.e., hired after the effective date of your OMERS participation), enrolment in OMERS will be mandatory upon hire. Depending on your OMERS participation by-law/resolution, for your future non-full-time eligible employees (e.g., contract, part-time and seasonal employees), enrolment will either be mandatory upon hire, or they will have the option to join OMERS on a voluntary basis following their date of hire.
For more information about offering membership, see Offering OMERS Membership.
Contact us and we’ll send you a short questionnaire to complete.
Members contribute a percentage of their contributory earnings in each pay period to help pay for their future pension and their OMERS employer also contributes an equal amount. These contributions will fund a portion of the member’s pension. Investment earnings of the OMERS Fund will fund the balance. See Contribution Rates (omers.com) for more information about current contribution rates.
You can use the Employer Cost Estimator to estimate the cost of contributions that would be required by your organization.