Working after Mississippi teacher retirement: PERS’s 30-day break, the three earnings options and employers PERS does not cover

1. Jobs with employers PERS does not cover

The Public Employees’ Retirement System of Mississippi (PERS) has one sentence, as far as we found, that speaks directly to jobs with employers it does not cover. It is on page 1 of its guide for retirees (revised September 9, 2024; the guide is out of date on other points, section 7). Here it is, with the conditions that go with it:

PERS’s guide “Thinking of Returning to Work?” (revised September 9, 2024; its break period and options are out of date since July 1, 2026) says: “Taking a job with a non-PERS-covered employer is permissible for PERS retirees, but taking a job with a PERS-covered employer while remaining retired has stipulations that must be thoroughly understood by the retiree and the employer.” Those stipulations are about PERS-covered employers, which are public employers such as Mississippi public schools, state agencies, universities and community colleges. Work for a PERS-covered employer still counts when you do it through a private company, a staffing agency or as a contract worker; to work for one as a true independent contractor, PERS must approve it first. PERS’s rule says “Whether a retiree has been reemployed with a PERS covered agency, directly or indirectly, is a question of fact to be determined by PERS.” If you are a PERS disability retiree, different rules apply. Until your disability benefit converts to a service retirement benefit (at age 60 under the Age-Limited Plan, or at the end of the temporary period under the tiered plan), PERS limits what you may earn from all work, not only work for PERS-covered employers, and you must send PERS a copy of your federal income tax return each year, within 30 days after it is due. PERS’s guide also says: “Disability retirees cannot be reemployed in the same general position from which they retired or in a position with similar job requirements.” Ask PERS before you take any job. Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.

What a PERS-covered employer is. PERS-covered employers are public employers: the State of Mississippi and its agencies, public schools, universities and community colleges, and counties, cities and other local governments that take part in PERS. PERS’s membership rule (Board Regulation 36, § 101.4) defines the word: “‘Employer’ means the State of Mississippi or any of its departments, agencies, political subdivisions, or instrumentalities”. Its rule on working after retirement, PERS Board Regulation 34, opens: “This regulation sets forth the terms and conditions under which a service retiree may be reemployed by a covered employer after retirement.”

Reporting a job to PERS. The notice rules we found are for work with PERS-covered employers: Regulation 34 says “the employer must notify PERS in writing of the terms of the eligible employment within five days from the date of employment”, and Form 4B “should be submitted each fiscal year (July 1 – June 30) of reemployment”. We found no PERS rule that asks a service retiree to report a job with an employer PERS does not cover. Disability retirees are different: PERS asks for a federal tax return every year (section 2).

Your first 30 days. To use the exceptions that let you work for a covered employer and keep your benefit, Regulation 34 calls for “the absence of any employment in any capacity, including service without pay”, “for a minimum of 30 consecutive calendar days beginning with the effective date of retirement” (section 3). It ties that to “the complete severance of employment in state service of any member by resignation, dismissal or discharge”, and we found no PERS sentence that says whether it reaches a private job, so ask PERS before you take any job in your first 30 days.

About SpecialEdResource. As we read PERS’s rules, W-2 tutoring for SpecialEdResource is work for an employer not covered by PERS. SpecialEdResource hires special education teachers who live in Mississippi as part-time W-2 employees who give live, one-on-one online tutoring, one student at a time. Its hiring site states the license requirement this way: “Special education certification and a current teaching license from any US state.” If your license has expired or is inactive, you can still apply, as long as you’ll renew it before you start. The Mississippi Department of Education’s licensure guidelines let a teacher retired from Mississippi public schools use an official letter from PERS, dated in the year it is submitted, to renew a five-year standard license in its final year or reinstate it after it expires. Our Mississippi teaching license guide has the details. Whether a job counts as work for a PERS-covered employer is a question of fact PERS decides, so confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377 before you start.

2. If you retired on disability

If you are a PERS disability retiree, different rules apply. Until your disability benefit converts to a service retirement benefit (at age 60 under the Age-Limited Plan, or at the end of the temporary period under the tiered plan), PERS limits what you may earn from all work, not only work for PERS-covered employers, and you must send PERS a copy of your federal income tax return each year, within 30 days after it is due. PERS’s guide also says: “Disability retirees cannot be reemployed in the same general position from which they retired or in a position with similar job requirements.” Ask PERS before you take any job.

For the period before the benefit converts, PERS’s Board Regulation 45A says: “The earnings limitations pursuant to the statute will be based on the earned income of the disability retiree.” PERS’s guides do not say whether the same-position sentence above reaches a private job, such as tutoring.

PERS’s documents also differ on when a disability retiree may go back to a PERS-covered employer, so this guide gives no date for it. Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.

3. Going back to a PERS-covered employer: the 30-day break

This section is about service retirees and jobs with PERS-covered employers, such as Mississippi public schools. Since July 1, 2026, if you are a service retiree, PERS requires you to take a break of at least 30 consecutive days from your effective retirement date before you work for a PERS-covered employer in any way, and you may not have a pre-arranged agreement to go back. If you work for a PERS-covered employer during the break, or under a pre-arranged agreement, PERS’s rule says the payments you received must be repaid and the retirement is negated. Before that date the break was 90 days, and some older PERS handbooks and guides still say 90.

PERS Board Regulation 34 (amended effective July 1, 2026) bars covered work “until the retired person has been retired for not less than 30 consecutive days from his or her effective date of retirement”. On PERS’s Form 4B, filed each fiscal year of covered work, the retiree acknowledges Regulation 34, “which stipulates that I must be retired at least 30 days or I forfeit my retirement benefit”.

What the break means. To use the exceptions that let you work and keep your benefit, Regulation 34 says “such complete severance shall mean the absence of any employment in any capacity, including service without pay”, “for a minimum of 30 consecutive calendar days beginning with the effective date of retirement”. It also says a retiree has not separated from service if reemployed by a covered employer in any capacity within 30 days of retiring, if the retiree “has entered into a pre-arranged agreement for reemployment with a covered employer”, or if “the parties otherwise have a reasonable expectation that the retired member will return to work for a covered employer”.

No agreement to come back. PERS’s 2026 Hybrid Retirement Plan Handbook: “The member and employer should not make any pre-arranged agreements regarding post-retirement employment.” A retiree has not withdrawn from service if reemployed by a covered employer within the 30 days, “or if he or she was promised or guaranteed reemployment before the effective date of retirement”.

What breaking it costs. Regulation 34: without a true separation of at least 30 days, “any retirement allowance payments received by the retired member shall be repaid to PERS and the retirement shall be negated”.

If you retired at the end of a school year. If you worked on a school contract of less than 12 months and retired at the end of the school year, PERS’s rule for service retirees is later: you may not go back to work with a PERS-covered educational institution until 30 consecutive calendar days after the next school year begins. Regulation 34’s words: such a retiree “may not be reemployed in an educational institution any earlier than 30 consecutive calendar days after the beginning of the next school year”. The handbook explains: “The beginning of the next school year is marked when employees working on a less-than-12-month basis return.” If such a retiree goes back too early, benefits paid over the summer “shall be recovered and the retirement shall be negated” (Regulation 34, § 106.2).

Ask first. The handbook: “Please contact PERS with any questions regarding reemployment before returning to any PERS-covered employer.” If you are a PERS disability retiree, ask PERS what applies to you (section 2). Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.

4. The three ways to work for a PERS-covered employer and keep your benefit

After the break, you may work for PERS-covered employers and keep your retirement benefit under one of three options, chosen once each July–June fiscal year: (a) up to half of the position’s normal working days (or hours) in the year, at no more than half of its salary; (b) as long as you earn no more than 25% of your average compensation; or (c), new since July 1, 2026, for as long as you and the employer agree, at no more than 80% of the position’s salary. Option (c) needs a written agreement signed after the 30-day break and is not open to elected officials, K-12 superintendents or college administrators, or to retirees whose benefit was reduced for early retirement. You and the employer must tell PERS in writing within five days of the reemployment, the employer must tell PERS again within five days after the job ends, and Form 4B, signed by you and the employer, is filed each fiscal year.

Regulation 34 § 103.1 lists them under this line: “PERS may not withhold a monthly benefit payment if the retiree is employed by a covered employer in the following instances:” A fiscal year is “the period beginning on July 1 of any year and ending on June 30 of the next succeeding year”, and a retiree “shall make one election per fiscal year”. The limits count all PERS-covered employers you work for together.

Who cannot use option (c). It is not open to elected officials, K-12 school superintendents or administrators at a university or a community or junior college. The law also bars a retiree whose benefit is actuarially reduced, unless the reduction comes only from taking a partial lump-sum distribution or another optional benefit. Regulation 34 puts that in other words: “a retiree who became a member of the system on or after July 1, 2011, who retires with less than 30 years of creditable service, but before reaching age 65, shall not be eligible to return to work under this paragraph”. The law sets option (c) to end on July 1, 2036.

Paperwork and contributions. Regulation 34 says “the employer must notify PERS in writing of the terms of the eligible employment within five days from the date of employment and also from the date of termination”, and late notice “may result in the assessment of a $300 penalty per occurrence payable by the employer”. You have a part too: PERS’s 2026 handbook says “you and the employer must notify PERS in writing within five days of the reemployment”, and you sign Form 4B along with the employer. The handbook adds: “Notification must be repeated each new fiscal year of post-retirement employment.” Form 4B adds: “Options A and B require employer contributions be paid by the employer, and Option C requires the employer to pay both the applicable employee and employer contributions on all earnings.” You pay no PERS contributions on this work, and it “does not entitle a retiree to additional service credit for such limited period of reemployment” (Regulation 34, § 107.1).

If you go past the limits. Covered work outside the three options ends your benefit: Regulation 34 says “such retiree shall have his or her benefits terminated, and he or she shall again become a contributing member”. If that work lasts more than six full calendar months, “the member shall have his or her benefit recomputed upon subsequent retirement”. Benefits paid in error must be paid back, and after 30 days “the retiree shall be liable for the return of the overpayment plus interest thereon at 10 percent per annum” (§ 111). Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.

5. Working for a PERS-covered employer through a company or as a contractor

Work for a PERS-covered employer done through a staffing agency or other company, or as a contract worker, still counts, and working for one as a true independent contractor needs PERS’s approval first. PERS’s rule says “The limitations on reemployment while in receipt of a retirement allowance may not be circumvented by contracting to perform services through a third party” and “Whether a retiree has been reemployed with a PERS covered agency, directly or indirectly, is a question of fact to be determined by PERS.” PERS’s guide tells retirees to “seek counsel from PERS before starting such employment”.

Regulation 34 § 110 adds: “If an individual is performing services with a covered agency as an employee, the reemployment limitations will apply whether a particular retiree has been reemployed directly by the covered agency or through a third party.” To decide, PERS uses the IRS factors for who is an employee, along with others such as who controls the details of the work, the skill it takes, who supplies the tools and place of work, how long the job lasts, how it is paid, and whether the work is part of the employer’s regular business.

PERS’s guide also says: “Restrictions also apply to any retiree returning to work through a third-party employer (e.g., staffing agency).” The employer’s part of Form 4B has a line, “Retiree Employed through Third Party”, with a yes-or-no box and a space for the third party’s name.

Contract work. During the first 30 days, Regulation 34 bars paid service for the State or a participating agency or subdivision, “including services as an employee, contract worker, contractual employee or independent contractor”. A retiree who wants to work for a covered employer as a true independent contractor must wait “for at least the 30-day separation period prior to being engaged to perform services as an independent contractor”, and “prior to contracting for such services, such retiree must submit to PERS for its approval, documentation” about the work. If PERS approves, Regulation 34 says the retiree “may contract to provide such services as a true independent contractor outside the limitations of Section 103 while in receipt of a retirement allowance”. If PERS finds the person is really an employee, “the retirement allowance will be terminated and benefits repaid unless such reemployment follows the guidelines and limitations of this regulation”.

These rules are about work done for a PERS-covered employer. Whether a particular job is that kind of work is a question of fact PERS decides. Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.

6. Can retired teachers substitute in Mississippi?

As we read PERS’s rules, substitute teaching for a Mississippi public school district is work for a PERS-covered employer. We found no PERS document about retirees who substitute teach, but Regulation 34’s break reaches reemployment by a covered employer in any capacity, and its limits reach any covered work.

• The first 30 days. No substitute work for a PERS-covered employer during the break (section 3).
• Retired at the end of a school year. If you worked on a school contract of less than 12 months and retired at the end of the school year, PERS’s rule for service retirees is later: you may not go back to work with a PERS-covered educational institution until 30 consecutive calendar days after the next school year begins.
• Before you retire. No agreement or promise to come back as a substitute (section 3).
• After the break. One of the three earnings options each fiscal year, with Form 4B (section 4).
• Placed by an agency. Substitute work for a public school through a staffing agency still counts as covered work, and PERS decides those facts (section 5).
• At a private school that is not a PERS-covered employer, section 1 applies, with its conditions.

Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.

7. What changed in 2026, and which PERS documents are current

House Bill 4073 of 2026, approved by the Governor on April 8, 2026, changed § 25-11-127 from July 1, 2026: the break before going back to a PERS-covered employer was cut from 90 days to 30 days, and option (c) was added. PERS’s legislation page lists three other 2026 return-to-work bills that died in committee. We also checked the bill lists of the 2025 and 2026 extraordinary sessions: by their titles, none changed these rules.

Senate Bill 2103 of 2026 repealed § 25-11-126, the section “which contains provisions for retired teachers returning to work” while drawing retirement benefits (the program for retired teachers in critical-shortage districts), effective July 2, 2026. House Bill 4073 had also amended § 25-11-126 from July 1, 2026; Senate Bill 2103’s repeal took effect the next day. Pages that describe that program as open are out of date.

The 2025 law that created PERS’s Tier 5 is a different change. PERS’s 2025 Legislative Summary: “The Legislature created a new tier of retirement benefits for new hires, effective March 1, 2026.”

When this guide’s facts were read on Oct. 14, 2026, these were the documents behind it:

These were out of date on working after retirement when read, so this guide does not link them: PERS’s Retiree Handbook (revised February 26, 2026), Member Handbook (revised November 8, 2024) and Service Retirement Guide (revised July 27, 2023). Each was written when the break was 90 days and before option (c) existed. The 2026 law and Regulation 34 are what this guide follows. Confirm your own situation with PERS at 800-444-7377.