How Much Is an FDNY Pension After 20 Years?
Tier 2 and Tier 3, on 2026 rules

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The number, and which tier you are in

A twenty-year FDNY service retirement pays half of your final average salary. That has been true for Tier 2 for a long time. For Tier 3 it became true on December 19, 2025.

Your tier follows your appointment date. Appointed before July 1, 2009 and you are Tier 2. Appointed on or after that date and you are Tier 3. That one date decides more about your retirement than any choice you will make.

What Chapter 692 of 2025 actually changed

Chapter 692 of the Laws of 2025, signed December 19, 2025 and effective immediately, raised the Tier 3 service retirement benefit at twenty years from 42% of final average salary to 50%.

Two things are commonly said about it that are wrong. It did not let Tier 3 members retire at twenty; they always could. And it did not restore anything, because Tier 3 never had 50% at twenty before. What changed is the amount, not the door.

• Before: a Tier 3 member reached 42% at twenty years and needed twenty-two years to reach 50%.
• After: 50% of final average salary at twenty years.
• Tier 2 was untouched. It already paid 50% at twenty.

Where the two tiers stop being the same

At exactly twenty years the two tiers now pay the same percentage. Past that point they diverge sharply, and this is the part most comparisons skip.

A Tier 2 member is not capped. Service beyond twenty years accrues an additional 1/60 of final average salary per year, roughly 1.67% annually, reaching about 67% at thirty years. A Tier 3 member is capped at 50%. A twenty-fifth year adds nothing to a Tier 3 percentage.

Tier 3 also carries a Social Security offset. Under Retirement and Social Security Law section 511, the pension is reduced at age 62 by half of the primary Social Security benefit, and that reduction applies whether or not you actually claim Social Security at 62.

Which salary the percentage is applied to

Half of final average salary is only meaningful once you know what counts as final average salary, and the basis is not the same in both tiers.

For Tier 2 the salary base is the greater of your final twelve months or the average of your best three consecutive years, subject to an anti-spiking test that trims a year running more than 20% above the average of the two before it.

For Tier 3 the basis is the average of your highest three consecutive years. Chapter 56 of the Laws of 2024 restored that three-year basis for all Tier 3 members separating on or after April 1, 2024. Any article still describing a five-year average for Tier 3 is quoting repealed law.

The $12,000 nobody counts

A twenty-year service retirement also brings the Variable Supplements Fund, a fixed $12,000 a year. It is not a percentage, it does not grow with your salary, and it has been $12,000 since 2007 and 2008 depending on your retirement year.

Three conditions matter. It requires a service retirement of at least twenty years, so vested and deferred retirees do not receive it. Disability retirees do not receive it either, which means a member retiring on the World Trade Center presumption at 75% of final average salary gets none of it. And before age 62 any cost of living increase you receive reduces the VSF dollar for dollar, with both paid in full from 62 onward.

If you are EMS, this page is about a different plan

FDNY EMTs and paramedics are not in the Fire Department Pension Fund. They are in NYCERS, under a separate plan with its own schedule, and the twenty-year figures above do not describe it.

The EMS twenty-five year plan pays a flat 50% at twenty-five years, with additional accrual only in years twenty-six through thirty. If you are on the EMS side, work from those rules and not from the fire schedule.

What the number means for your money

Knowing the pension pays half your final average salary is the beginning of the planning question, not the end of it. The pension is between you and the Fund. We do not touch it, cannot affect it, and make nothing from it. The decisions that are genuinely yours sit around it.

The first is the 457(b). Money in a governmental 457(b) is generally not subject to the additional 10% federal tax on early distributions once you separate from service, at any age. Roll that money into an IRA and it generally becomes IRA money, subject to that additional tax before 59 and a half. Firefighters who retire in their forties are exactly the people that rule was written for, and rolling it out is the one decision that quietly removes the advantage. Our firm is paid in part on rolled assets, and we are telling you this anyway.

The second is order of operations. Which account you draw from first, in which years, changes what you keep. New York does not tax the FDNY pension, but the rest of the picture is not automatically exempt, and the years between putting your papers in and claiming Social Security are usually where the plan is won or lost.

The third is what the percentage does not cover. Half of final average salary, plus $12,000, against a household that was living on full salary plus overtime is a gap you can size in advance. It is much harder to fix afterward.

Common questions

How much is an FDNY pension after 20 years?

50% of final average salary in both Tier 2 and Tier 3 for a 2026 service retirement, plus the Variable Supplements Fund of $12,000 a year for service retirees with twenty or more years. Confirm your own figure with the Fire Pension Fund.

Does an FDNY pension increase after 20 years?

In Tier 2 it does. Service past twenty years adds about 1.67% of final average salary per year, reaching roughly 67% at thirty. Tier 3 is capped at 50%, so additional years do not raise the percentage.

What is the FDNY tier cutoff date?

July 1, 2009. Appointed before that date you are Tier 2; on or after it you are Tier 3.

What did Chapter 692 of 2025 change?

It raised the Tier 3 twenty-year benefit from 42% of final average salary to 50%, signed December 19, 2025 and effective immediately. It did not change when a Tier 3 member may retire, and it did not affect Tier 2.

Is the FDNY pension taxed in New York?

New York State does not tax a New York City pension. Federal treatment and the rest of your retirement income are separate questions, and you should confirm your own situation with a qualified tax professional.

Do FDNY EMTs and paramedics get the same pension?

No. EMS members are in NYCERS under a separate plan, not the Fire Department Pension Fund, and the twenty-year figures on this page do not apply to them.