This calculator estimates a New York State and Local Employees’ Retirement System pension for a Tier 5 member: the annual Single Life Allowance, what one more year of service is worth, and what working to the unreduced age is worth.
Enter the date you joined rather than the tier. The tool works the tier out from the date on every run, which matters because Tier 5 is a narrow window, so check which side of it you fall on.
What will my pension be?
For New York public employees and teachers at the top of their systems, where the salary caps bite and the unreduced age is worth six figures over a retirement. Enter the date you joined, your final average salary, your service credit and the age you plan to retire. The estimate comes with what one more year of service is worth, what going early costs, and which cap applies to you.
Now the pension itself. These three figures, and the plan if you are in ERS.
Final average salary is the average of your three highest consecutive years, not your current pay. Service credit is what your system has credited you, which is not always the years you have worked.
Tier dates from the Office of the State Comptroller page on NYSLRS tiers. Service retirement ages and the benefit formula for teachers from the NYSTRS service retirement page. Figures verified .
The rules
Who is in Tier 5
You are an ERS Tier 5 member if your date of membership falls between 1 January 2010 and 31 March 2012. That is a window of twenty-seven months, which makes Tier 5 much the smallest of the current tiers. Anyone who joined from 1 April 2012 is Tier 6.
| Age | Tier 4 | Tier 5 | Tier 6 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | $63,000 | $38,852 | $27,720 |
| 56 | $63,000 | $42,002 | $31,474 |
| 57 | $63,000 | $45,152 | $35,228 |
| 58 | $63,000 | $48,302 | $38,981 |
| 59 | $63,000 | $51,452 | $42,735 |
| 60 | $63,000 | $54,602 | $46,489 |
| 61 | $63,000 | $58,798 | $50,243 |
| 62 | $63,000 | $63,000 | $53,996 |
| 63 | $63,000 | $63,000 | $57,750 |
What makes Tier 5 different
The benefit formula is the same as Tier 4: 1.66% of final average salary for each year under 20, 2% a year from 20 to 30, and 1.5% for each year beyond 30. Final average salary is still the three highest consecutive years, with the same rule excluding a year more than 10% above the average of the two before it.
Two things are not the same, and both cost money. Tier 5 has no unreduced route at 55 with 30 years of service, which Tier 4 does have, so 62 is the only unreduced age. And the early retirement reductions are steeper: a Tier 5 member retiring at 55 loses 38.33% permanently, against 27% for a Tier 4 member in the same position.
| Age you retire | Percentage removed | Percentage you keep |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | 38.33% | 61.67% |
| 56 | 33.33% | 66.67% |
| 57 | 28.33% | 71.67% |
| 58 | 23.33% | 76.67% |
| 59 | 18.33% | 81.67% |
| 60 | 13.33% | 86.67% |
| 61 | 6.67% | 93.33% |
| 62 | 0% | 100% |
Contributions also run for the whole of your public service rather than stopping at ten years. Uniformed court officers and Unified Court System peace officers contribute 4% rather than 3%.
Questions
Common questions
How many years do I need to be vested?
Five. That has applied to Tier 5 since 9 April 2022, reduced from ten by Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2022.
Does the reduction reverse at 62?
No. A reduced benefit stays reduced for life.
Is there any way to retire early without the reduction?
Not in the Coordinated Plan. The 30-year route at 55 belongs to Tiers 3 and 4 only. For a Tier 5 member the question is whether the years between 55 and 62 are worth more than a third of the pension, and that is arithmetic you can do above.
Several of these choices cannot be undone.
Tier 5 is a twenty-seven month window, and the cost of going early is steep. We can cover it in a short conversation, at no charge and with no obligation.
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