Updated October 30, 2026. Quick answer: Utah Retirement Systems pays a Tier 1 Public Employees Noncontributory member, someone hired before July 1, 2011, a pension of 2% of final average salary for each year of service credit. Computed for 25 years and a $66,000 average, that is $33,000 a year (computed), or $2,750 a month (computed), once the member is 65 or has 30 years of service credit. Retiring earlier is reduced, and the statute leaves the exact factor to URS. Enter your own numbers below; the figure is the single-life pension, before any payment option.
Calculate your Utah URS Tier 1 pension
This page applies the pension formula in the Utah Code to your service, age and average pay. It runs on this page and sends nothing anywhere. It covers a Tier 1 member of the Public Employees’ Noncontributory Retirement System. URS describes the group this way: “If you were hired prior to July 1, 2011, your Pension Plan is Tier 1.” The Utah Code defines the cutoff as a person who “initially enters regular full-time employment before July 1, 2011”. Enter your service credit from your URS record, whole years and months, and the age you will be on your retirement date.
For a decision, use URS itself: its member pages and the myURS retirement benefit estimate calculator are at urs.org. This page is the published formula, shown so you can see the arithmetic.
The formula, as the statute prints it
Section 49-13-402 sets the allowance: “If the retiree is at least 65 years of age or has accrued at least 30 years of service credit, the allowance is an amount equal to 2% of the retiree’s final average monthly salary multiplied by the number of years of service credit accrued.” The calculator asks for the average as a yearly amount and shows the yearly pension and the monthly pension (the yearly amount divided by 12). URS’s own highlights brochure says the same in plain words: “Your monthly retirement benefit is determined by your age, years of actual service credit, final average monthly salary, and the benefit formula.”
The average is not your final salary. Section 49-13-102 defines it as “the amount calculated by averaging the highest three years of annual compensation preceding retirement”, and limits a sudden jump: “the percentage increase in annual compensation in any one of the years used may not exceed the previous year’s compensation by more than 10% plus a cost-of-living adjustment”. The calculator uses the average you enter and does not apply that limit, so a member with a large late-career raise should confirm the average with URS. Service counts in fractions: “Years of service include any fractions of years of service to which the retiree may be entitled.” That is why the calculator takes service in years and months.
Worked example, calculated for 25 years of service credit and a $66,000 average: 2% x 25 = 50% of $66,000 = $33,000 a year (computed), $2,750 a month (computed).
Who can retire, and when the pension is not reduced
Section 49-13-401 says a member qualifies for an allowance when, among other tests, one of these is met on the retirement date: “the member has accrued at least four years of service credit and has attained an age of 65 years”; the same list adds 10 years at age 62, 20 years at age 60, and “the member has accrued at least 30 years of service credit” at any age. Age 65 with four years, and 30 years at any age, are the two unreduced dates; the calculator treats them that way, and counts service in months. One statutory rule is not applied: “At the time of retirement, if a retiree’s combined years of actual, not purchased, service credit is within 1/10 of one year of the total years of service credit required for retirement, the retiree shall be considered to have the total years of service credit required for retirement.” A tenth of a year is about 1.2 months, so a member at 29 years and 11 months should ask URS rather than rely on this page’s answer.
The member must also have ended employment and applied: the statute requires a bona fide termination of employment before the retirement date (with exceptions for elected officials and certain part-time board members) and an application stating the date. This page assumes you are retiring from covered employment, and it does not test those conditions.
What the pension is at each length of service for a member retiring at 65, at a $66,000 average:
| Years of service | Share of average | Annual pension | Monthly pension |
|---|---|---|---|
| 4 | 8% (computed) | $5,280 (computed) | $440 (computed) |
| 10 | 20% (computed) | $13,200 (computed) | $1,100 (computed) |
| 20 | 40% (computed) | $26,400 (computed) | $2,200 (computed) |
| 30 | 60% (computed) | $39,600 (computed) | $3,300 (computed) |
| 35 | 70% (computed) | $46,200 (computed) | $3,850 (computed) |
All five rows are unreduced: each member in the table is 65, and a member with 30 or more years of service credit is unreduced at any age.
Retiring before 65: why this page prints no figure
Section 49-13-402 reduces an earlier pension: “If the retiree is less than 65 years of age, the allowance shall be reduced 3% for each year of retirement from age 60 to age 65, plus a full actuarial reduction for each year of retirement prior to age 60, unless the member has 30 or more years of accrued credit, in which event no reduction is made to the allowance.” Section 49-13-401 also lets a member with 25 years of service credit retire at any age, “in which case the member shall be subject to the reduction under Subsection 49-13-402(2)(b)”.
The statute does not say how a part year is counted, and a reduction before age 60 depends on an actuarial table. URS’s highlights brochure puts it in round terms: “If you have fewer than 30 years of service from any combination of Utah Retirement Systems, retiring before age 65 reduces your monthly benefit approximately 7% for every year under age 60 and 3% for each year between ages 60 and 65.” That is an approximation, and the brochure counts the 30 years from any combination of Utah Retirement Systems while the calculator tests only the service you enter, so this page does not print a reduced pension. For a member who qualifies to retire before 65 (age 60 with 20 years, 62 with 10 years, or 25 years at any age) it shows the formula amount before reduction and says the reduction is URS’s.
Worked reference, calculated for 20 years and a $66,000 average, a member who is 61: the amount before any age reduction is $26,400 a year (computed). URS reduces it for the retirement age.
What to do next
1. Get URS’s own number. The retirement benefit estimate calculator on myURS prices your exact retirement date, reduction and payment option; this page is the printed formula.
2. The rest of the URS decisions. Payment options, the cost-of-living increase and buying service are on the Utah URS retirement decisions page, and the latest increase is on the Utah URS COLA page.
3. Tax. Utah’s treatment of pension income is on the Utah 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 URS: a Tier 1 member of the Public Employees’ Noncontributory Retirement System. Tier 2 members (hired on or after July 1, 2011) are in separate Tier II systems, and the Contributory, Public Safety, Firefighters and judges’ systems are separate chapters of the Utah Code; the calculator does not price any of them. It leaves out the early-retirement reduction (no figure is printed), the six payment options, disability and survivor benefits, cost-of-living increases, purchased service and its cost (the pension buyback calculator covers purchases in general), and the rule that treats a member within a tenth of a year of a service requirement as having it. It reads service and age as you enter them.
How it was checked: a second, independent engine (exact fractions, with the percentage, the averaging period and every age and service mark 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 49-13-102, 49-13-401 and 49-13-402 of the Utah Code and the URS highlights brochure.
Common mistakes
- Using your final salary. The statute averages your highest three years of annual compensation.
- Reading a Tier 2 or Contributory-system formula into this page. It covers Tier 1 Noncontributory members hired before July 1, 2011.
- Expecting a full pension at 60. Without 30 years of service credit, retiring before 65 is reduced.
- Assuming a few weeks short of a service mark rules you out. The statute treats actual service within a tenth of a year (about 1.2 months) of a required total as meeting it; this calculator counts months exactly and does not apply that rule, so ask URS.
Related: Utah URS retirement decisions, public pension decisions by system, single life versus joint and survivor, and Utah retirement taxes.
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Answer againSources
- Utah Code Section 49-13-102 (definitions, final average salary): https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title49/Chapter13/49-13-S102.html
- Utah Code Section 49-13-401 (Public Employees’ Noncontributory Retirement Act, eligibility for an allowance): https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title49/Chapter13/49-13-S401.html
- Utah Code Section 49-13-402 (service retirement plans, calculation of retirement allowance): https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title49/Chapter13/49-13-S402.html
- Utah Code Section 49-11-102 (definitions, Tier I and Tier II): https://le.utah.gov/xcode/Title49/Chapter11/49-11-S102.html
- Utah Retirement Systems (URS), Tier 1 Retirement System: https://www.urs.org/Members/PensionTier1
- Utah Retirement Systems (URS), Retirement System Highlights, Tier 1 Noncontributory (2026-27): https://www.urs.org/Content/documents/byfilename/%7CPublic%20Web%20Documents%7CURS%7CDB%7CHighlights%7CNoncontributory%7C%7Capplication%7Cpdf/
- 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.