This calculator estimates a New York State and Local Employees’ Retirement System pension for a Tier 6 member: the annual Single Life Allowance, what one more year of service is worth, what working to the unreduced age is worth, and your contribution rate by wage band.
Enter the date you joined rather than the tier. The tool derives the tier from the date on every run.
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 6
You are an ERS Tier 6 member if you joined on or after 1 April 2012. Tier 6 is now the tier most working members are in, and its rules differ from the earlier tiers.
The formula changes shape at 20 years
Tier 6 accrues 1.66% of final average salary for each year under 20. At 20 years the rate becomes 1.75% a year, applied to all twenty, which is 35% of final average salary. Beyond 20 years each additional year adds 2%.
There is no step down at 30 years. Tiers 3, 4 and 5 drop to 1.5% a year past 30; Tier 6 keeps accruing at 2% indefinitely. That is counterintuitive enough that it has been reported as a bug more than once, and it is correct.
| 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 |
Going early costs more than in any other tier
The unreduced age is 63, not 62. A Tier 6 member who retires at 55 keeps 48% of the benefit, permanently. The same decision costs a Tier 4 member 27%.
| Age you retire | Percentage removed | Percentage you keep |
|---|---|---|
| 55 | 52% | 48% |
| 56 | 45.5% | 54.5% |
| 57 | 39% | 61% |
| 58 | 32.5% | 67.5% |
| 59 | 26% | 74% |
| 60 | 19.5% | 80.5% |
| 61 | 13% | 87% |
| 62 | 6.5% | 93.5% |
| 63 | 0% | 100% |
Two caps that only Tier 6 members meet
Earnings above the New York governor’s salary, $250,000 since 1 January 2021, do not count toward the pension at all. Retirement and Social Security Law section 601 excludes them, and this applies to Tier 6 only. The federal compensation limit under Internal Revenue Code section 401(a)(17) applies as well, and whichever binds first is the one that matters. The calculator applies both and says which one it used.
Contribution rates are set by wage band rather than being a flat 3%. The bands change on 1 October 2026, and the calculator carries both schedules with a date switch, so it returns the rate that applies on the date you are asking about.
Questions
Common questions
How many years do I need to be vested?
Five, since 9 April 2022. It was ten before that.
Is the 20-year jump worth staying for?
Usually, and by more than people expect, because the 1.75% rate is applied to every year rather than only to the twentieth. The calculator warns you when you are within a year of it and tells you what the year is worth.
Did the Social Security Fairness Act change anything for me?
For most ERS members, no. Your public employment was covered by Social Security, so the provisions the Act repealed were never applied to you. The claiming decision is a separate question and still matters.
Several of these choices cannot be undone.
The unreduced age, the 20-year rate change and the salary caps all interact, and the year you file decides which of them bind. We can cover it in a short conversation, at no charge and with no obligation.
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