This calculator estimates a New York State and Local Employees’ Retirement System pension for a Tier 4 member: the annual Single Life Allowance, what one more year of service is worth, and what working to the unreduced age is worth.
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 4
You are an ERS Tier 4 member if your date of membership falls between 1 September 1983 and 31 December 2009. Anyone who joined from 1 January 2010 is Tier 5 or Tier 6, and the formula is not the same.
One exception is worth knowing. There are no Tier 4 New York State correction officers. Those who joined between 27 July 1976 and 31 December 2009 are Tier 3 members.
How the Tier 4 pension is worked out
The pension is a percentage of final average salary, and the percentage depends on years of service credit. It moves in three bands:
- Under 20 years: 1.66% of final average salary for each year.
- 20 to 30 years: 2% for each year, applied to all of them, not only the years past 20.
- Beyond 30 years: 1.5% for each additional year.
The step at 20 years is the one that matters most. At 19 years the pension is 31.54% of final average salary. At 20 years it is 40%. That single year is worth more than eight percentage points, and it is the reason the calculator above warns you when you are within a year of it.
There is no cap on service credit and no ceiling on the pension as a percentage of pay in the Coordinated Plan. Thirty-seven years produces 70.5%, and that is correct rather than a rounding error.
| 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 |
Retiring before 62
Age 62 is the unreduced age for Tier 4. Retiring earlier is allowed from 55, and the benefit is permanently reduced. The reduction does not end when you reach 62.
| Age you retire | Percentage removed | Percentage you keep |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | 27% | 73% |
| 56 | 24% | 76% |
| 57 | 21% | 79% |
| 58 | 18% | 82% |
| 59 | 15% | 85% |
| 60 | 12% | 88% |
| 61 | 6% | 94% |
| 62 | 0% | 100% |
The 30-year route
There is one way out of the reduction. A Tier 4 member with 30 or more years of service credit can retire at 55 with no reduction at all. That is worth more than any other single decision available to a Tier 4 member near retirement, and it is why the years either side of 30 are worth planning rather than guessing.
What counts as final average salary
Final average salary for Tier 4 is the average of your three highest consecutive years of earnings. A year that runs more than 10% above the average of the previous two years is trimmed back to that limit, so a large final-year increase does not carry into the pension the way people often expect.
What is capped
The caps in Tier 4 are on the salary side rather than the service side. If you joined on or after 1 April 1996, the federal compensation limit under Internal Revenue Code section 401(a)(17) applies, and earnings above it do not count toward the pension. A member who joined before that date is not subject to it. The New York governor’s salary cap applies to Tier 6 only and does not reach Tier 4.
Questions
Common questions
How many years do I need to be vested?
Five years of service credit. That has been the rule for every current tier in both systems since 9 April 2022.
Does the reduction reverse at 62?
No. A reduced benefit stays reduced for life.
Is Social Security affected?
For most ERS members, no. Your public employment was covered by Social Security, so the Social Security Fairness Act changes nothing for you. The claiming decision still matters, and it is a separate question from the pension.
What about the survivor election?
The payment option you elect at filing is permanent, and on a six-figure pension it is the largest single decision in the file. That is covered on the pension decisions page.
Several of these choices cannot be undone.
The year you file, the option you elect, and whether you reach 30 years are three decisions that cannot be undone afterwards. We can cover them in a short conversation, at no charge and with no obligation.
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