One date — April 1, 2012 — splits the uniformed sanitation force into two plans that pay differently. See what yours actually pays on your own numbers, including the age-62 Social Security reduction built into the 22-year plan that most members never hear about until it lands.
Run Your Sanitation Pension Numbers
Quick Answer
Should a uniformed sanitation worker retire at the first eligibility date or stay longer?
The answer is different depending on which side of April 1, 2012 you joined, and it is not a matter of instinct. On the SA-20 Plan (Tier 4, joined before that date) you can retire at 20 years of allowable sanitation service at any age with 50% of final average salary, and each further year adds 1.5% of Final Compensation until the benefit stops growing at the 30-year cap — so staying has a calculable price and a calculable payoff. On the SA-22 Plan (Tier 3, joined on or after it) the formula reaches 50% of final average salary at 22 years and then adds nothing at all for further service, so the "one more year" question is about escalation timing and final average salary, not a bigger multiplier — and the benefit is reduced at age 62 by half of your primary Social Security benefit regardless. Model your own plan and service and the decision has a clear shape. This is general educational information, not personalized advice.
The Year 20 and 22 Decision
The uniformed sanitation force runs on two plans, and the retirement question is not the same on each. Under SA-20 the pension keeps building past 20 years, 1.5% of Final Compensation at a time, until it stops at 30. Under SA-22 it climbs from 42% at 20 years to 50% at 22 — and then the formula is finished. Staying past 22 adds nothing to the percentage. Most of the advice written for city workers assumes the first case and quietly misleads everyone in the second.
Then there is the part almost nobody is told. The SA-22 benefit is 50% of final average salary minus half of your primary Social Security benefit starting at age 62. It applies by formula, whether or not you have claimed Social Security. A member who retires at 44 on what looks like half pay for life meets a different number at 62, and by then the planning window has closed.
Overtime is the other place instinct fails. Pensionable earnings include overtime, but a year used in your salary average cannot exceed the average of the two years before it by more than 10%. A late overtime push moves the pension a good deal less than the pay stubs suggest, and knowing that early changes what those years are worth.
SA-20 Pension
SA-20 and SA-22 turn the same salary and service into different numbers. SA-20 is the Tier 4 plan for uniformed sanitation members who joined NYCERS before April 1, 2012: retirement at 20 years of allowable sanitation service without regard to age, 50% of final average salary, then 1.5% of Final Compensation for each further allowable year up to the 30-year cap, and no age-62 Social Security reduction. Select SA-20 in the calculator below to see your own number.
Hypothetical illustration for education only. Not advice, a recommendation, or a guarantee. Your actual pension will differ; NYCERS is the authority.
Free Tools
Most uniformed sanitation members never see their own pension modelled, and SA-22 members rarely hear about the age-62 Social Security reduction at all. Run your real numbers below.
Pick your plan, enter your service and salary, and see what the formula actually produces — then the income timeline below shows how it lands across the years between retiring and Social Security.
Hypothetical illustrations for education only. Not a prediction, recommendation, or guarantee. Your actual result will differ.
Sirmium Capital · Sanitation Retirement Calculator
sirmiumcapital.com/sanitation · printed · Hypothetical educational illustration. Not advice, not a recommendation, not a guarantee.
Loaded with a sample SA-20 member at 22 years. Change what you know and leave the rest. You do not need exact figures, so it takes about 30 seconds.
A year used in the average cannot exceed the average of the two years before it by more than 10%. So a single very heavy overtime year gets trimmed back toward the two that preceded it, and a late overtime push moves the pension less than the pay stubs suggest.
Under SA-20 the average is the greater of any three consecutive calendar years or the 36 months before you go. Under SA-22, since April 20 2024, it is the best three consecutive years.
Sources: NYCERS Brochure #935 p.4 and Fact Sheet #720 p.2. NYCERS applies the limit when they finalize your figure, and theirs is the one that counts.
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The WTC filing deadline is September 11, 2026
Uniformed members who worked rescue, recovery or clean-up operations after 9/11 need a Notice of Participation on file with NYCERS by September 11, 2026 to keep the presumption. That date does not move. Leave your email and we will send the filing steps and a reminder before it closes.
We only write when something actually changes for the uniformed sanitation force — a rule, a deadline, a new presumption. Not a newsletter. Unsubscribe anytime.
Book a free 15-minute call with a fee-only fiduciary who works with uniformed city retirees. No products, no commissions, no obligation. Bring the numbers you just ran and we will talk through what they mean — which plan you are actually on, what your service and salary produce, and what happens to it at 62.
Book your free 15-min callFee-only · Fiduciary · Sanitation-specialized · Pension figures reviewed by William Harrison, Founder & CIO
Sirmium Capital LLC is a registered investment adviser. Educational purposes only. Not personalized financial advice. This tool does not create an advisory relationship.
The inputs that move it most, in plain English.
The calculator gives you a number. This section is about the decisions inside it: what builds it, which inputs move it most, and how to keep it. It updates live as you change the inputs above, and it is a hypothetical illustration built only on the figures you entered, not a projection and not advice.
These sentences describe the sample member above. Change the inputs in the calculator and they describe you.
Each line changes one input and holds the rest. Real decisions move several at once, which is what a planning conversation is for.
The link keeps your numbers in your browser's address bar only. We do not receive or store them, and nothing is emailed. Anyone you send the link to will see the numbers you entered.
Fee-only · Fiduciary · Sanitation-specialized · Free, no obligation
These sentences and figures are hypothetical illustrations based only on the numbers entered above. They are one of several possible outcomes, not a prediction. You can change the inputs at any time to see how the picture shifts.
This is educational information, not investment, tax, or legal advice, not a recommendation to retire, keep working, roll over, or convert, and not a guarantee. Sirmium Capital LLC is a registered investment adviser. Using this tool does not create an advisory relationship. Confirm your figures with NYCERS and, for tax questions, a qualified tax professional.
Your tabs answered three questions separately. This is what they look like together.
Each tab above solves one piece. Retirement is all of them at once, arriving in the same years. Below is the same income laid out year by year from the day you leave, so you can see where each piece switches on, where one stops covering another, and where the gaps sit. It is a hypothetical illustration built on the figures you entered, not a projection and not advice.
Gross figures before tax, in today's dollars, and rounded. This view does not model Social Security, or the SA-22 age-62 reduction as a dollar amount — the SA-22 pension bars are before-reduction figures. It is an illustration for discussion, not a plan. What your own numbers should do is a conversation for a licensed adviser, and William Harrison, our Founder and CIO, leads that work.
Important: These calculators are hypothetical illustrations for education only. They are not investment, tax, or legal advice, not a recommendation, and not a guarantee. Your actual result will differ.
SA-22 only: the Tier 3 22-Year Plan benefit is 50% of final average salary minus 50% of your primary Social Security benefit commencing at age 62. That reduction applies by formula and is not affected by whether you have claimed Social Security. These calculators show the amount before it, so SA-22 figures for age 62 and later are overstated. NYCERS computes the actual reduction from your own record.
SA-20 (Tier 4) follows NYCERS Brochure #935 (July 2026): 50% of final average salary for the first 20 years of allowable sanitation service, plus 1.5% of Final Compensation for each allowable year beyond 20, plus 1% of Final Compensation for each year of other credited service, with the service benefit limited to 30 years. Below 20 years the figure shown is the vested benefit, 2.5% of final average salary per allowable year.
SA-22 (Tier 3) follows NYCERS Fact Sheet #720 (March 2026): a flat 50% of final average salary at 22 years with no additional increment for later service; from 20 to 22 years, 2.1% of final average salary times 20 years plus 0.33% per further month, capped at 50%; below 20 years, the vested benefit of 2.1% per year of credited service. All of these are before the age-62 Social Security reduction.
Final average salary under SA-20 is the greater of any three consecutive calendar years or the 36 months before retirement; under SA-22, since April 20 2024, it is the best three consecutive years. In both, a year used in the average cannot exceed the average of the two years before it by more than 10%.
A NYCERS pension is fully subtractable from New York State and New York City taxable income, with no dollar cap and no age condition (NY Tax Law § 612(c)(3)(i)), and is federally taxable. Federal figures use 2026 brackets (IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32). Tax law can change.
These figures have not yet been reviewed by William Harrison, Founder & CIO. Until that review is complete, treat every number here as a starting point for a conversation with NYCERS rather than a settled figure.
Confirm specifics with NYCERS and a qualified tax professional before acting.
SA-22 Members
Quick Answer
Two things separate an SA-22 estimate from an SA-20 one. First, the formula reaches 50% of final average salary at 22 years and then stops — it provides no additional increment for service beyond 22, so the familiar “work a few more years for a bigger check” logic simply does not apply. Second, and far more consequential: the benefit is 50% of final average salary minus half of your primary Social Security benefit starting at age 62. That reduction applies by formula and is not affected by whether you have claimed Social Security. Every figure this calculator shows for SA-22 is a before-reduction figure, so amounts for age 62 and later are overstated. NYCERS computes the actual reduction from your own earnings record, and it is worth asking them for that number long before you file.
To run your own figures, pick the SA-22 card in the calculator above and enter your service and salary. The figure it returns is before the age-62 reduction; NYCERS is the authority on what that reduction will be against your own record.
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Short, plain-English research you can read and forward to a friend on the job. Educational information only, not legal or tax advice.
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Book a free 15-minute call. We’ll check which plan you are actually on, what your service and salary produce, and — on SA-22 — what the age-62 reduction is likely to do to it. Straight answers, no follow-up pressure.
Book a Free 15-Min CallSourced as of August 2026. Built from NYCERS plan documents and 2026 IRS figures. Not yet reviewed by William Harrison, Founder & CIO — every figure here is a starting point for a conversation with NYCERS rather than a settled number.
Sources: NYCERS Brochure #935 — Sanitation 20-Year Plan, Tier 4 (July 2026) · NYCERS Fact Sheet #720 — 22-Year Plan (March 2026) · NYCERS Fact Sheet #719 — Tier 6 Special Plan (June 2026), which is what establishes that the uniformed sanitation force is not Tier 6 · NY Tax Law § 612(c)(3)(i) · IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-32.
How we keep this current. Pension rules change, and a lot of what is online is out of date. We track New York pension legislation and the funds’ own publications, and we update these tools when the law moves. When the Leptospirosis Law took effect on December 19, 2025 and added a line-of-duty presumption for uniformed sanitation members, we updated the calculator to match.