Tier 6 pays full at 63, not before. 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.
If you joined NYCERS before April 1, 2012 you are not in Tier 6 at all, you are in Tier 4, where full retirement is at 62 and the twenty-year mark changes the whole calculation. The figures on this page will not match yours.
If you work for New York State or a local government outside the city, the NYS retirement calculator puts Tier 4, Tier 5 and Tier 6 side by side. Retiring at 55 costs 27%, 38% or 52% depending purely on when you were hired. If you joined the state system between January 2010 and April 2012, the NYS Tier 5 pension calculator is the one built for your dates.
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 recent years, which blunts a late-career overtime or promotion spike. The two systems publish different comparison windows, so check yours rather than assuming: the State Comptroller describes the previous two years for NYSLRS, following the April 2024 law that also moved Tier 6 from a five-year to a three-year salary base, while NYCERS material describes the previous four years.
The contribution. Tier 6 members pay a share of salary that rises with pay. On October 1, 2026 the two systems stop using the same table, so start by knowing which one you are in.
NYCERS rates are not changing: 3% up to $45,000, 3.5% from $45,001 to $55,000, 4.5% from $55,001 to $75,000, 5.75% from $75,001 to $100,000, and 6% above $100,000.
NYSLRS (the state system, covering ERS and PFRS) uses those same rates until September 30, 2026. From October 1, 2026 its rates come down and the top bracket splits in two: 3% up to $75,000, 4% from $75,001 to $100,000, 5.25% from $100,001 to $125,000, and 5.75% above $125,000. Most NYSLRS members will pay less.
A temporary provision excludes earnings above your annual base wages, such as overtime, when your rate is set. It changes only the wage used to pick your rate, not what you contribute on. The two systems publish different dates for it, so check yours rather than assuming: NYCERS applies it to plan years running through December 31, 2028, based on overtime earned through 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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Reviewed as of August 2026. Every figure on this page is taken from the plan documents published by NYCERS and by the New York State Comptroller. The two systems agree on the age-63 rule, the early-retirement reduction and the benefit formula. They no longer share one contribution table: NYSLRS rates change on October 1, 2026 and NYCERS rates do not. Where the systems differ, both are shown.
Sources: NYCERS Summary Plan Description, Tier 6 63/5, June 2026 (formula, age-reduction table, contribution rates, overtime provision) · NYCERS Tier 6 membership and covered titles · NYS Comptroller, 2026 Laws (NYSLRS contribution rates effective October 1, 2026) · NYS Comptroller, Tier 6 ERS benefit summary · NYS Comptroller, Retiring Before Age 63 (permanent reduction) · NYS Comptroller, member contribution rates. Rules and figures change; confirm your own situation with NYCERS or NYSLRS, and route tax questions to your tax professional.