In 1927, Californians amended Article IV of the State Constitution by adding Section 22a to require that the State provide pensions to state workers. Shortly thereafter, the State Legislature passed a bill creating the State Employee Retirement System (SERS). In 1967, the State Legislature changed the agency's name to Public Employee Retirement System (PERS). The record group consists of 15.5 cubic feet of textual records from the California Public Employee Retirement System covering the years 1899 to 1991 with the bulk of the records covering the 1950s to the 1990s.

Following the 1927 Commission on Pensions of State Employees (Chapter 431, Statutes of 1927) recommendations, Californians amended Article IV of the State Constitution by adding Section 22a to require that the State provide pensions to state workers. Not long after, the State Legislature passed and Governor James Rolph, Jr. signed the bill creating the State Employee Retirement System (SERS) (Chapter 700, Statutes of 1931). SERS initially provided retirement payments to state workers and would incrementally increase to cover all California public employees. In 1939, the Legislature expanded SERS to include public teachers (Chapter 954, Statutes of 1939). The next major change to SERS came in 1962 with the Myers-Geddes State Employees' Medical and Hospital Care Act (Chapter 1236, Statutes of 1961), allowing SERS to provide health insurance to state workers. The Legislature expanded these provisions to include all public employees in 1967 (Chapter 1455, Statutes of 1967). The Long Term Care Act (Chapter 9, Statutes of 1991) further expanded the health care by granting the agency authorization to offer long-term care to all PERS members, both state and local.

15.5 Cubic Feet

For permission to reproduce or publish, please consult California State Archives staff. Permission for reproduction or publication is given on behalf of the California State Archives, Office of the Secretary of State, Sacramento, as the owner of the physical items. The researcher assumes all responsibility for possible infringement that may arise from reproduction or publication of materials from the California State Archives' collections.

While the majority of the records are open for research, any access restrictions are noted in the record series descriptions.