Thirty years of service, retiring at 55. In Tier 4 that is a full pension. In Tier 5 it is a 38% cut. In Tier 6 it is 52%. Same job, same service, different hire date.
If you work for New York State or a local government outside New York City, your pension is run by NYSLRS. If you work for the City, it is run by NYCERS. Either way what it pays is decided less by your job than by the date you were hired, and the gap between tiers is much wider than most members realise.
This page shows what the same salary and the same years of service produce in Tier 4, Tier 5 and Tier 6, side by side, and then goes into Tier 4 in depth — the 20-year threshold, the 62/5 plan, and where the City and State versions differ. Figures come from the plan booklets the State Comptroller publishes and from NYCERS’ own allowance tables, and the sources are listed at the bottom.
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Your numbers
What each tier pays
Your tier is set by the date you joined NYSLRS. It does not change if you switch employers within the system, and it does not change with promotion.
If you are not sure, your Retirement Online account shows it. Tiers 1 and 2 cover pre-1976 hires and are not modelled here. Tier 3 members can retire under Article 14 or Article 15, and the Comptroller states the benefit "in most cases, will be greater under Article 15" — which is the same calculation shown here for Tier 4. If you are in Tier 3, treat the Tier 4 column as the Article 15 result and confirm your election with NYSLRS.
This page covers the Employees' Retirement System. The Police and Fire Retirement System runs on different plans, and New York City employees are in NYCERS, a separate system entirely.
| Tier 4 | Tier 5 | Tier 6 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full benefit at | 62 | 62 | 63 |
| Under 20 years | 1.66% a year | 1.66% a year | 1.66% a year |
| At 20 years | 2% a year | 2% a year | 1.75% a year |
| Beyond 30 years | 1.5% a year | 1.5% a year | 2% a year |
| Cut for starting at 55 | 27% | 38.33% | 52% |
| 30 years waives the cut | Yes | Court officers only | No |
The bottom row is where careers diverge. A Tier 4 member with 30 years of service can start their pension at 55 and lose nothing. A Tier 5 member doing exactly the same thing loses 38.33% for life, unless they are a uniformed court officer. A Tier 6 member loses 52%. If that is your tier, the NYS Tier 5 pension calculator runs the schedule on your own numbers.
Below 20 years of service all three tiers pay the same 1.66% a year, which is why the differences only really bite later in a career, when they are hardest to do anything about.
In Tiers 4 and 5, reaching 20 years lifts the rate to 2% and applies it to every year of service, not just the years past 20. On a $35,000 salary base the Comptroller's own examples show 19 years paying $11,039 and 20 years paying $14,000. One more year, 27% more pension.
Tier 6 works differently. At 20 years the rate is 1.75%, giving 35% of salary, and each year beyond 20 adds 2%. The same 19-to-20 step is $11,039 to $12,250, about 11%. Tier 6 members are not rewarded for the twentieth year nearly as much, and they wait an extra year for a full benefit.
The reduction for going early is prorated by month in every tier, so retiring partway through a year lands between the whole-year figures. And in all three it is permanent. It does not lift when you reach full retirement age.
Most pension formulas pay you a little more for each extra year. Tier 4 does something different at twenty years: the rate rises from 1⅔% to 2%, and the new rate applies to every year of service you have, not only the years past twenty.
So nineteen years pays 31.7% of your final average salary. Twenty years pays 40%. One more year moves the whole calculation.
These are NYCERS' own published figures, from the allowance table in the plan document:
| Final average salary | 19 years | 20 years | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| $60,000 | $19,000 | $24,000 | $5,000 |
| $75,000 | $23,750 | $30,000 | $6,250 |
| $90,000 | $28,500 | $36,000 | $7,500 |
That is a 26% increase at every salary level, for one year of work, and it repeats every year for the rest of your life. If you are close to twenty years, this is the single most valuable thing to know about your pension.
Figures are Maximum Retirement Allowances before any option reduction. Choosing a survivor option lowers your own benefit, and a shortfall in your contribution account reduces it too.
"Tier 4" is not one plan. Three sit under the same label, and your membership date decides which one you are in. Using the wrong one gives you a wrong number, so start here.
Two exceptions worth knowing. Bridge and Tunnel Maintainers, Assistant and Senior Maintainers, and Laborers at MTA Bridges and Tunnels are in the 62/5 plan whenever they joined after July 26, 1976, so the 1995 cutoff does not move them. And if you were mandated into 57/5 but transferred an older membership from another New York State system, you may be able to elect back into 62/5 once the transfer is processed.
Members who joined NYCERS after July 26, 1976 and before September 1, 1983 hold what the plan calls Tier 3 rights. The formula is the same, but the benefit is then reduced by half of your Primary Social Security benefit at 62. That offset is calculated only on earnings where you also earned NYCERS service credit.
This is the most commonly missed fact in Tier 4. If you are comparing numbers with a colleague who joined later and yours looks lower, this is usually why. The calculator on this page does not apply the offset, so if you are in that window, treat its figures as a ceiling and confirm yours with NYCERS.
"Tier 4" exists in both systems, and people use the phrase as though it means one thing. It does not. NYCERS covers New York City employees. NYSLRS, run by the State Comptroller, covers state and local government employees outside the city. They agree on a lot, and they differ on one thing that can be worth a quarter of your pension.
| NYCERS (62/5) | NYSLRS (ERS Tier 4) | |
|---|---|---|
| Full benefit at | 62 | 62, or 55 with 30 years |
| Under 20 years of service | 1⅔% a year | 1.66% a year |
| 20 to 30 years | 2% a year | 2% a year |
| Beyond 30 years | 1.5% a year | 1.5% a year |
| Early reduction at 55 | 27% | 27% |
| 30 years waives the reduction | No | Yes |
That last row is the one that matters. A state employee with 30 years of service can start their pension at 55 with no reduction at all. A city employee in the 62/5 plan doing exactly the same thing takes a permanent 27% cut. Same tier number, same age, same service, and a quarter of the pension gone in one case and not the other.
Pick your system in the calculator above and it applies the right rules. If you are on the state side, the NYS retirement calculator compares Tier 4, Tier 5 and Tier 6 together, because the tier you were hired into changes the answer more than anything else. Note that NYCERS has no Tier 5 at all: a 2010 hire is Tier 4 here and a NYS Tier 5 pension member on the state side, where retiring at 55 costs 38.33% rather than 27%.
The formula. Under twenty years of credited service, 1⅔% of final average salary for each year. From twenty to thirty years, 2% for each year. Past thirty years, 2% for the first thirty plus 1.5% for each year beyond.
The salary base. Your final average salary is built from your highest consecutive years of wages, and one rule catches people out. Under the Kingston Limitation, wages in any single year used in the calculation cannot exceed the average of the previous two years by more than 10%. Anything above that is stripped out before the average is taken. So a large final-year jump, from overtime or a late promotion, may not count the way you expect.
Retiring before 62. Under a provision called Tier Equity, going early carries a permanent reduction. It is not a flat annual rate: 6% for the first year early, another 6% for the second, then roughly 3% for each year after that.
| Age your pension starts | 61 | 60 | 59 | 58 | 57 | 56 | 55 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reduction | 6% | 12% | 15% | 18% | 21% | 24% | 27% |
The reduction is calculated by month, so retiring partway through a year lands between these figures. And it is permanent. It does not lift when you reach 62.
Vesting takes five years of credited service. A vested benefit you leave to collect later is calculated the same way, so the twenty-year threshold matters just as much if you are leaving city service early.
You can with five years of credited service in any of these tiers, but what it costs varies enormously. Tier 4 with 30 years loses nothing. Tier 5 loses 38.33%. Tier 6 loses 52%. Those cuts are permanent.
Yes, though less per year in Tiers 4 and 5, where the rate drops to 1.5% beyond 30. In Tier 6 each year past 20 adds 2%, so the rate does not fall off in the same way.
No. NYCERS covers New York City employees and is a separate system with its own rules. Its Tier 4 has no 30-year waiver at all, so a city employee retiring at 55 with 30 years takes the full cut. If you work for the City, the “City or state?” section above is the one that applies to you.
They are generally in the Police and Fire Retirement System, which runs on different plans and is not modelled here. NYPD and FDNY are in neither NYSLRS nor NYCERS.
New York does not tax it. Federal treatment depends on your own return, and that question belongs with your tax professional.
You are if you joined NYCERS between July 27, 1976 and March 31, 2012. Two groups are excluded: the Uniformed Force of the Department of Correction, and investigators employed in a District Attorney's office. Anyone who joined on or after April 1, 2012 is in Tier 6, not Tier 4, and the rules there are different.
40% of your final average salary if you retire at 62 or later, because the 2% rate applies to all twenty years. At nineteen years it is 31.7%. That step is the reason the twentieth year is worth more than any year before it.
Less than most people expect. The Kingston Limitation stops any single year in the calculation from exceeding the average of the previous two by more than 10%, and strips out the excess before averaging.
Knowing the number is the start. What it does not tell you is how your deferred compensation should be positioned for the years before Social Security starts, what a survivor option really costs, or whether staying to a threshold is worth it against everything else going on in your life.
If you want to talk it through, the first conversation is fifteen minutes and there is nothing to buy. Bring your numbers.
Sirmium Capital LLC is a registered investment adviser. Educational information only, not personalized financial, tax, or legal advice. Registration does not imply any particular level of skill or training.
Reviewed as of July 2026. Every figure comes from the plan booklet the New York State Comptroller publishes for that tier. The calculator was checked against each worked example in those booklets and reproduces them.
Sources: NYS Comptroller publication 1522, Coordinated Plan for ERS Tier 3 and 4 Members · Publication 1523, Coordinated Plan for ERS Tier 5 Members · Publication 1530, Coordinated Plan for ERS Tier 6 Members, together with each booklet's "Retiring Before Age 62" or "Age 63" section for the reduction schedules. Rules and figures change; confirm your own situation with NYSLRS, and route tax questions to your tax professional.