Updated October 30, 2026. Quick answer: The Minnesota State Retirement System General Plan pays an employee first covered after June 30, 1989 an annuity of 1.7% of the average of the highest five successive years of salary for each year of service through June 30, 2025, and 1.9% for each year after that date. Computed for 20 years through June 2025, 5 years after it and a $70,000 average, that is $30,450 a year (computed), or $2,537.50 a month (computed), at normal retirement age, 66. Retiring earlier reduces the annuity by an actuarial factor that MSRS computes, so this page prints a figure only from 66. Enter your own numbers below; the figure is the single life annuity.
Calculate your MSRS General Plan annuity
This page applies the annuity formula in the Minnesota Statutes to your service, age and average salary. It runs on this page and sends nothing anywhere. It covers an employee for whom the statute says “This paragraph applies to a person who has become at least 55 years old and first became a covered employee after June 30, 1989”. Enter your service in two parts, the years and months through June 30, 2025 and the years and months after it, because the rate changed on that date, and the age you will be on your retirement date.
For a decision, use MSRS itself: it provides an estimate on request, described at mnretire.gov/estimate-benefit, and its own notice says “Laws governing retirement benefits may change and could affect your benefit amount. Estimates are based on current state law.” This page is the published formula, shown so you can see the arithmetic.
The formula, as the statute prints it
Section 352.115 says “the employee’s retirement annuity is equal to the employee’s average salary multiplied by 1.7 percent for each year of allowable service through June 30, 2025, and 1.9 percent for each year of allowable service after June 30, 2025, and pro rata for completed months less than a full year”. Two rates apply to one career, which is why the calculator asks for service in two parts.
The average is not your final salary. Section 352.01 defines it as “the average of the highest five successive years of salary upon which the employee has made contributions to the retirement fund by payroll deductions”. The calculator asks for it as a yearly amount. The same definition says “Average salary must be based upon all allowable service if this service is less than five years.” and “does not include the payment of accrued unused annual leave or overtime paid at time of final separation from state service if paid in a lump sum”, so leave out a final lump-sum leave payout when you enter it.
Worked example, calculated for 20 years through June 30, 2025, 5 years after it and a $70,000 average: 1.7% x 20 = 34% and 1.9% x 5 = 9.5%, together 43.5% of $70,000 = $30,450 a year (computed), $2,537.50 a month (computed). A member with 30 years, all through June 30, 2025, gets 1.7% x 30 = 51% = $35,700 a year (computed).
How each year after June 30, 2025 changes the result, for 20 years through that date and a $70,000 average, at 66:
| Years of service after June 30, 2025 | Share of average salary | Annual annuity | Monthly annuity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | 34.0% (computed) | $23,800 (computed) | $1,983.33 (computed) |
| 1 | 35.9% (computed) | $25,130 (computed) | $2,094.17 (computed) |
| 2 | 37.8% (computed) | $26,460 (computed) | $2,205 (computed) |
| 5 | 43.5% (computed) | $30,450 (computed) | $2,537.50 (computed) |
| 10 | 53.0% (computed) | $37,100 (computed) | $3,091.67 (computed) |
Who can retire, and when the annuity is not reduced
Section 352.01 sets normal retirement age for this group: “For a person who first becomes a covered employee after June 30, 1989, normal retirement age means the higher of age 65 or “retirement age,” as defined in United States Code, title 42, section 416(l), as amended, but not to exceed age 66”. The Social Security Administration’s table of full retirement ages starts at 66 for people born in 1943 and rises to 67 for people born in 1960 or later, so for anyone retiring now the statute’s cap decides, and normal retirement age is 66 (computed from the table at ssa.gov, where SSA says “you are entitled to full benefits only when you reach your full retirement age”).
A member must also have enough service. Section 352.115 allows the annuity for an employee who “has received credit for at least three years of allowable service and was employed before July 1, 2010”; “has received credit for at least five years of allowable service if employed after June 30, 2010, and terminated employment before July 1, 2023”; or “has three or more years of allowable service if employed after June 30, 2023”. The calculator uses the 3-year minimum and prints a caution when the service entered is under 5 years, because the 5-year condition can apply.
Retiring before 66: why this page prints no figure
Section 352.115 lets an employee who meets the service tests start the annuity at 55, and it also lists “has received credit for at least 30 years of allowable service regardless of age”. Section 352.116 writes its reduction for a person who has become at least 55; before normal retirement age it reduces the annuity: “the reduced annuity is the actuarial equivalent of the annuity that would be payable to the employee if the employee deferred receipt of the annuity until normal retirement age”. The same section removes the old growth credit for a member retiring after June 30, 2024: “After June 30, 2024, actuarial equivalent, for the purpose of determining the reduced annuity commencing before normal retirement age under this clause, shall not take into account any augmentation”. The statute defines the reduction as an actuarial computation and prints no factor table, so this page does not guess it. For a member under 66 it shows the amount the formula gives at 66, which is not what is payable earlier.
Worked reference, calculated for the same 20 years and 5 years and a $70,000 average, retiring at 62: the formula gives $30,450 a year (computed) at 66, and the annuity at 62 is a smaller amount that MSRS computes.
What to do next
1. Get MSRS’s own number. The estimate described above is the system’s figure; this page is the printed formula.
2. The rest of the MSRS decisions. Payment options, the post-retirement increase and buying service are on the Minnesota MSRS retirement decisions page.
3. Tax. Minnesota’s treatment of pension income is on the Minnesota pension tax page. Federal tax applies too: “The taxable part of your pension or annuity payments is generally subject to federal income tax withholding.” The withholding form is described on the IRS page for Form W-4P: “so your payer can withhold the correct amount of federal income tax from your periodic pension, annuity”.
Where this calculator stops
It prices one slice of MSRS: the General Plan for an employee first covered after June 30, 1989. An employee covered earlier may be paid under a different formula (the statute applies whichever is higher), and the calculator does not price them. It leaves out the Correctional, State Patrol and other MSRS plans, the early-retirement reduction (no figure is printed), disability and survivor benefits, payment options, post-retirement increases, purchased service and its cost (the pension buyback calculator covers purchases in general), and the 5-year service rule noted above. It reads service and age as you enter them, and it pro-rates months as the statute says.
How it was checked: a second, independent engine (exact fractions, with both rates, the cutoff date, the normal retirement age cap and the minimum service read from the archived statute text) agreed with this page’s engine on 300,000 random combinations of service, age and pay, and the shipped script was driven in a browser on a grid of cases against both. The rules were read from Sections 352.01, 352.115 and 352.116 of the Minnesota Statutes.
Common mistakes
- Using one rate for the whole career. The rate is 1.7% for service through June 30, 2025 and 1.9% for service after it.
- Using your final salary. The statute averages your highest five successive years.
- Expecting a full annuity at 62. Normal retirement age for this group is 66, and earlier retirement is reduced.
- Assuming the 1.9% rate rewrites past service. The statute applies it only to service after June 30, 2025.
Related: Minnesota MSRS retirement decisions, public pension decisions by system, single life versus joint and survivor, and Minnesota retirement taxes.
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Answer againSources
- Minnesota Statutes, Section 352.115 (retirement annuity, State Retirement System): https://revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/352.115
- Minnesota Statutes, Section 352.116 (reduced annuity before normal retirement age): https://revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/352.116
- Minnesota Statutes, Section 352.01 (definitions): https://revisor.mn.gov/statutes/cite/352.01
- Social Security Administration, Starting Your Retirement Benefits Early (full retirement age by year of birth): https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/agereduction.html
- Minnesota State Retirement System (MSRS), Estimate of Pension Benefit: https://www.mnretire.gov/estimate-benefit
- IRS, Topic no. 410, Pensions and annuities: https://www.irs.gov/taxtopics/tc410
- IRS, About Form W-4P, Withholding Certificate for Pension or Annuity Payments: https://www.irs.gov/forms-pubs/about-form-w-4p
Read from the system publications linked above on October 30, 2026. General information, not legal or tax advice, and not an estimate from the retirement system. Your own facts decide the outcome, and your retirement system, your plan administrator or a benefits advisor is the right place to confirm anything consequential.