This estimator covers both New York systems: the Employees’ Retirement System, which most county, town, village and non-teaching school district staff belong to, and the New York State Teachers’ Retirement System. It returns your tier from the date you joined, the estimated annual Single Life Allowance, what one more year of service is worth, what working to the unreduced age is worth, and a warning when you are close to a service breakpoint.
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 .
How it works
Start from the date, not the tier
The tool asks when you joined rather than which tier you are in, and works the tier out on every run. That is deliberate. Tier boundaries fall in the middle of calendar years, Tier 5 is a window of only twenty-seven months, and a date-based check is more reliable than asking.
If you want the detail for a specific tier, each has its own page: Tier 4, Tier 5 and 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 it returns, and why it is not one number
A single figure is the least useful answer to this question. The estimate comes with the three things that change it: what one more year of service adds, what waiting until the unreduced age adds, and whether you are within a year of a breakpoint where one more year is worth far more than the year before it. On a $105,000 final average salary, a NYSTRS Tier 6 member with 30 years who goes at 55 instead of 58 gives up $30,030 a year, permanently.
Where it declines to answer
It does not cover the Police and Fire Retirement System at all, nor ERS Tiers 1 and 2, nor any non-Coordinated ERS plan. For NYSTRS Tier 5 below the unreduced age it returns only the endpoints, because the age factors between 55 and 62 are not published. In each case it says so rather than estimating.
One stated approximation: the one more year and working to age figures hold final average salary constant. In practice another year of service usually raises the three-year average as well, so both figures are understated rather than overstated.
Questions
Common questions
Is there a cap on service credit?
No. The Coordinated Plan has no maximum pension factor and no ceiling on total service. Thirty-seven years produces 70.5% of final average salary, which is correct rather than an error. The caps in these systems are on the salary side.
What counts as service credit?
What your system has credited you, which is not always the same as years employed. Check your annual statement rather than counting from memory, because unpaid leave, part-time service and purchased credit all move it.
Several of these choices cannot be undone.
The date you file, the option you elect and whether you cross a service breakpoint are three decisions that cannot be undone afterwards. We can cover it in a short conversation, at no charge and with no obligation.
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