My wife works for local government and pays into CalPERs (California Public Employees' Retirement System), how is this categorized?

[1amdicky]

There is no way to specify this item in Box 14 to categorize it and this causes problems as she does not pay Social Security.

[BillM223]

The CalPERS contributions do not belong in Box 14.

There is more than one CalPERS plan. Are you under the 457 Plan? If you are participating on a 457(b) plan, then the sum of your contributions and the employer contributions should be reported in box 12 with a code of G. This will tell TurboTax that you are contributing to a retirement plan.

When you say, "this causes problems as she does not pay Social Security", what sort of problems is it causing?

In any case, you should be able to contact your HR department and ask them which plan you are in and how it was reported on your W-2.