Updated October 30, 2026. Quick answer: Washington PERS Plan 2 pays a retirement allowance of 2% of average final compensation for each service credit year. Computed for 25 years and a $5,000 monthly average, that is $2,500 a month (computed), or $30,000 a year (computed), at age 65. A member with 30 service credit years can retire from 55 with a statutory reduction, and one with 20 to 29 years is actuarially reduced by a factor this page does not print. Enter your own numbers below; the figure is the basic allowance, before any payment option.
Calculate your Washington PERS Plan 2 allowance
This page applies the allowance formula in the Revised Code of Washington to your service, age and average pay. It runs on this page and sends nothing anywhere. It covers a Plan 2 member: “RCW 41.40.620 through 41.40.750 shall apply only to plan 2 members.” Plan 3 members have a different formula, which this page does not price. Enter your service credit from your DRS record, whole years and months, and the whole age you will have reached on your retirement date.
For a decision, use DRS itself: its online account and PERS Plan 2 pages are at drs.wa.gov. This page is the published formula, shown so you can see the arithmetic.
The formula, as the statute prints it
RCW 41.40.620 sets the allowance: “A member of the retirement system shall receive a retirement allowance equal to two percent of such member’s average final compensation for each service credit year of service.” DRS states it as a monthly formula: “2% x service credit years x Average Final Compensation = monthly benefit”. The calculator therefore asks for the average as a monthly amount and shows the monthly allowance and the yearly amount (twelve months).
The average is not your final salary. RCW 41.40.010 defines it, for Plan 2, as “the member’s average compensation earnable of the highest consecutive sixty months of service credit months prior to such member’s retirement, termination, or death”. DRS adds that the months can fall anywhere in a career: “This could be at the beginning, middle or end of your career.” The statute counts service as “an accumulation of months of service credit which is equal to one when divided by twelve”, which is why the calculator takes service in years and months. It uses the average you enter and does not apply the federal compensation limit DRS mentions.
Worked example, calculated for 25 service credit years and a $5,000 monthly average: 2% x 25 = 50% of $5,000 = $2,500 a month (computed), $30,000 a year (computed).
When the allowance is not reduced
RCW 41.40.630 sets the normal date: “Any member with at least five service credit years who has attained at least age sixty-five shall be eligible to retire” The calculator counts service in months, so 4 years and 11 months does not count as 5 years.
What the allowance is at each length of service for a member retiring at 65, at a $5,000 monthly average:
| Service credit years | Share of average | Monthly allowance | Annual allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 10% (computed) | $500 (computed) | $6,000 (computed) |
| 10 | 20% (computed) | $1,000 (computed) | $12,000 (computed) |
| 20 | 40% (computed) | $2,000 (computed) | $24,000 (computed) |
| 25 | 50% (computed) | $2,500 (computed) | $30,000 (computed) |
| 30 | 60% (computed) | $3,000 (computed) | $36,000 (computed) |
| 35 | 70% (computed) | $3,500 (computed) | $42,000 (computed) |
The table starts at five years, the minimum the statute names.
Retiring early with 30 years: the statute’s reduction
RCW 41.40.630(3) lets a member with “at least thirty service credit years” retire from 55. For members first employed before May 1, 2013, the statute prints this reduction by age: “Retirement Age Percent Reduction 55 20% 56 17% 57 14% 58 11% 59 8% 60 5% 61 2% 62 0% 63 0% 64 0%”. DRS puts the 62 row in plain words: “If you have 30 or more years of service and you are age 62, you can retire with a full benefit”.
For a member first employed on or after May 1, 2013, the statute removes that table: “Members who first become employed by an employer in an eligible position on or after May 1, 2013, are not eligible for the alternate early retirement provisions of (a) or (b) of this subsection.” It keeps a 30-year path with a steeper cut: “reduced by five percent per year to reflect the difference in the number of years between age at retirement and the attainment of age sixty-five”.
The statute prints whole ages and whole years and gives no rule for a part year. The calculator therefore prices these two paths only at a whole age, and says so when you enter an age with extra months. Worked example, calculated for 30 service credit years and a $5,000 monthly average, a member first employed before May 1, 2013 who retires at 58: the unreduced allowance is $3,000 a month (computed), the table reduces it by 11%, and the allowance is $2,670 a month (computed). For a member first employed on or after that date with 32 years who retires at 60: the unreduced allowance is $3,200 a month (computed), five years under 65 at 5% a year is a 25% reduction, and the allowance is $2,400 a month (computed).
Reduction by age at 30 service credit years and a $5,000 monthly average:
| Age | Before May 1, 2013: reduction | Monthly allowance | On or after May 1, 2013: reduction | Monthly allowance |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 20% (statute) | $2,400 (computed) | 50% (computed) | $1,500 (computed) |
| 56 | 17% (statute) | $2,490 (computed) | 45% (computed) | $1,650 (computed) |
| 57 | 14% (statute) | $2,580 (computed) | 40% (computed) | $1,800 (computed) |
| 58 | 11% (statute) | $2,670 (computed) | 35% (computed) | $1,950 (computed) |
| 59 | 8% (statute) | $2,760 (computed) | 30% (computed) | $2,100 (computed) |
| 60 | 5% (statute) | $2,850 (computed) | 25% (computed) | $2,250 (computed) |
| 61 | 2% (statute) | $2,940 (computed) | 20% (computed) | $2,400 (computed) |
| 62 | 0% (statute) | $3,000 (computed) | 15% (computed) | $2,550 (computed) |
| 63 | 0% (statute) | $3,000 (computed) | 10% (computed) | $2,700 (computed) |
| 64 | 0% (statute) | $3,000 (computed) | 5% (computed) | $2,850 (computed) |
Retiring early with 20 to 29 years: why this page prints no figure
RCW 41.40.630(2) allows early retirement for “Any member who has completed at least twenty service credit years and has attained age fifty-five”, with the allowance “actuarially reduced to reflect the difference in the number of years between age at retirement and the attainment of age sixty-five”. DRS publishes a table of early retirement factors for this group and says “Early retirement factors are subject to change based on State Actuary figures.” Because the factors change, this page does not copy them. For a member who qualifies, it shows the formula amount before reduction and says the reduction is DRS’s. Worked reference, calculated for 24 years and a $5,000 monthly average, a member who is 58: the amount before any reduction is $2,400 a month (computed). DRS applies its factor for age 58 to that amount.
What to do next
1. Get DRS’s own number. The online account and the PERS Plan 2 page above are the system’s figures; this page is the printed formula.
2. The rest of the DRS decisions. Payment options, the annual increase and buying service are on the Washington DRS retirement decisions page, and the latest increase is on the Washington DRS COLA page.
3. Tax. Washington’s treatment of pension income is on the Washington 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 DRS: a PERS Plan 2 member retiring from service. PERS Plan 3, TRS, SERS, LEOFF, the Public Safety Employees’ Retirement System and the other Washington plans use other formulas, and the calculator does not price them. It leaves out the actuarial reduction for 20 to 29 years (no figure is printed), part-year ages on the 30-year paths, the payment options and survivor choices, disability benefits, the annual increase, purchased service and its cost (the pension buyback calculator covers purchases in general), and the federal compensation limit. It reads service and age as you enter them.
How it was checked: a second, independent engine (exact fractions, with the 2% multiplier, the 60 months, the five-year minimum, the ages and the reduction table read from the archived statute text) agreed with this page’s engine on 300,000 random combinations of service, age, cohort and pay, and the shipped script was driven in a browser on a grid of cases against both. The rules were read from RCW 41.40.010, 41.40.610, 41.40.620 and 41.40.630 and the DRS PERS Plan 2 page.
Common mistakes
- Entering an annual salary. DRS states the average final compensation, and the allowance, as monthly figures.
- Using your final salary. The average is your highest 60 consecutive months.
- Applying the pre-2013 age table to a member first employed on or after May 1, 2013. That member’s 30-year path is 5% a year under 65.
- Assuming 20 years at 55 is a fixed percentage. That reduction is an actuarial factor DRS publishes and revises.
Related: Washington DRS retirement decisions, public pension decisions by system, single life versus joint and survivor, and Washington retirement taxes.
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Answer againSources
- Revised Code of Washington 41.40.010 (definitions): https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx (section page)
- Revised Code of Washington 41.40.610 (provisions applicable to plan 2): https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx (section page)
- Revised Code of Washington 41.40.620 (computation of the retirement allowance): https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx (section page)
- Revised Code of Washington 41.40.630 (retirement for service): https://app.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx (section page)
- Washington Department of Retirement Systems (DRS), PERS Plan 2: https://www.drs.wa.gov/plan/pers2/
- 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.