Retirement financial incentive offered at CLC

College of Lake County's administrative and professional employees still will have a financial incentive to retire early, but it won't be as generous as in the past.

Board members Tuesday night approved a new retirement incentive policy that provides for 6 percent annual increases in base salary for those who commit to departing on or before June 30, 2013.

Officials said the 6 percent raises would be in each of the four years before retirement. In exchange for the raises, the retiring employees must complete what's known as a "senior service project" benefiting the Grayslake-based community college system.

CLC board President Richard Anderson said the change in the maximum percentage of raise that can be offered as an early retirement incentive was dictated by a change in the Illinois pension code.

Under that, which began in June 2006, the state charges public-sector employers for any salary increases exceeding 6 percent for retirees in their last four years on the job.

"It's a lot less generous than it used to be," Anderson said of the new early retirement policy approved Tuesday.

Some community college employees used to receive one-year, 20 percent salary bumps before retiring. That was the case at McHenry County College, which shifted to providing up to 6 percent in annual raises over four years in 2006.

CLC's administrative and professional employees have until Feb. 15, 2009 to commit to a retirement date to be the first eligible for the 6 percent annual raises.

Anderson said the senior service project of the early retirement policy has been useful. For example, he said, instructors with expertise in heating and air conditioning have detailed how the college could run systems more efficiently to save money.