TRSL (teacher) retirement question.

Can someone please explain exactly what UAL is? I understand that I will contribute 8% of my income to retirement, but my employer contributes 28 percent??? There's no way. How does this work?

By law, the employer contribution rate is made up of two components: the normal cost of funding retirement benefits and payment to the System’s unfunded accrued liability. In years past, the employer rate has been the same for all employers. However, since Act 716 of the 2012 legislative session, employer rates are individually determined for each of the retirement system’s sub-plans.

The normal cost portion of each plan's employer contribution rate varies based upon that plan's benefits, member demographics, and the rate contributed by employees. The result is that employer contributions vary slightly from year to year. The shared UAL contribution rate is determined in aggregate for all plans.

The proposed employer contribution rates for Fiscal Year 2014-15 are as follows:

K-12 Regular Plan
Employee Normal Cost Rate = 8.0%
Employer Normal Cost = 5.2454%
Employer Shared UAL = 22.7%
Total Employer Contribution = 28.0%