Retire at 55 and your pension is cut by 52% for the rest of your life. That single number drives almost every Tier 6 decision, and most members do not see it until they are close. Here is what it costs in your own figures.
Tier 6 covers anyone who joined NYCERS or NYSLRS on or after April 1, 2012. You vest at five years and can retire unreduced at 63. You may go as early as 55, but the benefit is cut 6.5% for every year before 63, reaching 52% at age 55, and the Comptroller is explicit that the reduction "is permanent, it does not end when you turn 63." The benefit itself is 1 and 2/3 percent of final average salary per year under 20 years of service, or 35% plus 2% per year beyond 20.
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The comparison
NYCERS and the Office of the State Comptroller publish the identical table. The reduction is 6.5% for each year you begin your benefit before 63, prorated by month, and it does not lift later.
| Age benefit begins | Permanent reduction | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| 63 | None | 100% |
| 62 | 6.5% | 93.5% |
| 61 | 13% | 87% |
| 60 | 19.5% | 80.5% |
| 59 | 26% | 74% |
| 58 | 32.5% | 67.5% |
| 57 | 39% | 61% |
| 56 | 45.5% | 54.5% |
| 55 | 52% | 48% |
Sources: NYCERS Brochure #993, 63/5 Retirement Plan for Tier 6 Members, Age Reduction Table; Office of the New York State Comptroller, Retiring Before Age 63, Coordinated Plan for ERS Tier 6 Members.
There is a second trap worth knowing. NYCERS states that a participant who leaves City service before age 55 cannot take the early benefit at all, even with the penalty, and must wait until 63 to collect. Leaving at 52 does not buy you the option to start at 56.
If you joined NYCERS or NYSLRS on or after April 1, 2012, you are generally Tier 6. There are real exceptions, and using the wrong tier's math produces a badly wrong number.
NYPD and FDNY: this page is not about your pension. You are not in NYCERS. Police are in the NYC Police Pension Fund and firefighters are in the NYC Fire Department Pension Fund, and post-2009 uniformed members are Tier 3 under Article 14, which people sometimes call "Tier 6" in conversation. The formula, the retirement age and the reduction are all different. Use the NYPD calculator or the FDNY calculator instead.
Within NYCERS, three groups who joined after April 2012 are in Tier 3 rather than Tier 6: the Uniformed Correction Force, District Attorney Investigators, and the Uniformed Sanitation Force.
And a number of titles are in Tier 6 Special Plans rather than the 63/5 Basic Plan the calculator models: Emergency Medical Technicians, Dispatchers, Deputy Sheriffs, Special Peace Officers, Automotive Workers, Police Communications Technicians, and employees of the Triborough Bridge and Tunnel Authority and the Transit Authority. Those plans have their own retirement ages and formulas. EMTs in particular should not use the Basic Plan numbers.
The formula. Under 20 years of credited service, the pension is 1 and 2/3 percent of final average salary for each year. At 20 or more years it becomes 35% of final average salary for the first 20 years plus 2% for each year beyond. Notice the step: twenty years at 1 and 2/3 percent would be 33.3%, but the plan pays 35%. Reaching 20 is worth a little more than the straight-line rate suggests, and each year after 20 is worth more than each year before it.
The salary. Since April 20, 2024, final average salary is the average of the highest three consecutive years. It used to be five, so this change helped. One limit survives: the Kingston Limitation caps the wages counted in any year at 10% above the average of the previous four years, which blunts a late-career overtime or promotion spike.
The contribution. Tier 6 members pay a share of salary that rises with pay: 3% up to $45,000, 3.5% to $55,000, 4.5% to $75,000, 5.75% to $100,000, and 6% above that. A temporary provision excludes earnings above your annual base wages, such as overtime, when your rate is set. The two systems publish different end dates for that provision, so check yours rather than assuming: NYCERS material cites a period running to December 31, 2026, while the Comptroller describes an extension covering April 1, 2026 through March 31, 2028.
Vesting. Five years of credited service, improved from ten by a change effective April 9, 2022. NYCERS requires at least two of those years to be Membership Service.
If 63 is a long way off, what you do with the years in between matters more than the retirement date itself. A 457(b) is usually the other half of a Tier 6 plan, and it has a penalty rule the pension does not.
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