(a) The State of West Virginia for its public employees and county boards of education for its teachers shall pick-up and pay the contributions which the employees are required by law to make to the retirement system in which they are a member for all compensation earned by its member employees after June 30, 1986. Any political subdivision that is a participating public employer in the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System shall pick-up and pay the contributions which the employees are required by law to make to the retirement system in which they are members for all compensation earned by its member employees after January 1, 1995. Public employers participating in the Municipal Police Officers and Firefighters Retirement System shall pick-up and pay the contributions which the employees are required by law to make to the system in which they are members for all compensation earned by its member employees beginning January 1, 2010. Counties shall pick-up and pay the contributions which the employees are required by law to make to the Deputy Sheriff Retirement System in which they are members for all compensation earned by its member employees after June 30, 1998. Any election made by a political subdivision to pick-up and pay employee contributions prior to January 1, 1995, remains in effect and is not altered or amended by the amendments made to this section during the regular legislative session, 1995. Unless a different commencement date for pick-up is specifically stated in this section, all participating public employers under this article, with respect to retirement systems subject to this article, shall pick-up and pay the contributions which their employees are required by law to make to the retirement system in which they are a member from and after the commencement of the required employee contributions.

(b) When the participating public employer picks up and pays the contributions of its member employees, the contributions, although designated by statute as employee contributions, shall be treated as employer contributions in determining the tax treatment thereof under article twenty-one, chapter eleven of this code and the federal Internal Revenue Code of 1986, as amended, and the contributions shall not be included in the gross income of the employee in determining his or her tax treatment under those provisions until they are distributed or made available to the employee or his or her beneficiary. The participating public employer shall pay these employee contributions from the same source of funds used in paying compensation to the employee, by effecting an equal cash reduction in the gross salary of the employee, or by an off-set against future salary increases, or by a combination of reduction in gross salary and off-set against future salary increases. In no event shall any employee of a participating public employer have the right to opt out of pick-up or to elect to receive the picked-up and contributed amounts directly instead of having them paid by the participating public employer into the retirement system pursuant to this article.

(c) When employee contributions are picked up and paid by the participating public employer, they shall be treated by the board of trustees in the same manner and to the same extent as employee contributions made prior to the date on which employee contributions are picked up by the participating public employer.

(d) The amount of employee contributions picked up by the participating public employer shall be paid to the retirement system in the manner and form and in the frequency required by the board of trustees and shall be accompanied by supporting data that the board of trustees may prescribe. When paid to the retirement system, each of these amounts shall be credited to the deposit fund account of the member for whom the contribution was picked up and paid by the participating public employer.