Stevenson

INTRODUCTION

Orange County employees receive retirement benefits under a retirement system established pursuant to the County Employees Retirement Law of 1937 (CERL) (Gov. Code, § 31450 et seq.). (All further statutory references are to the Government Code, unless otherwise specified.) The pension amount an employee receives is based in part on the employee’s “ ‘[compensation eamable’ ” which is defined in section 31461 as “the average compensation ... for the period under consideration upon the basis of the average number of days ordinarily worked by persons in the same grade or class of positions during the period, and at the same rate of pay.” An employee’s compensation eamable includes compensation received for mandatory overtime work the employee performed that is also ordinarily worked by others in the same grade or class. Compensation received for work performed that is not ordinarily worked by others in the same grade or class of positions is excluded.

Plaintiff Robert Stevenson worked as an investigator in the narcotics bureaus of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department until he suffered a serious injury and was approved for disability retirement. In calculating…