Updated October 30, 2026. Quick answer: The Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System (LASERS) pays a Regular member a maximum retirement allowance of 2.5% of average compensation for every year of creditable service, never more than 100% of average compensation. Computed for 30 years and $60,000 of average compensation, that is $45,000 a year (computed), or $3,750 a month (computed). The retirement tests and the averaging period depend on when you were first employed: a member first employed on or before June 30, 2006 can retire with 30 years at any age; later groups need 5 years at 60 or 62. Enter your own numbers below; the figure is the maximum allowance, before any payment option.
Calculate your LASERS allowance
This page applies the allowance formula in Louisiana Revised Statutes Title 11 to your service, age and average compensation. It runs on this page and sends nothing anywhere. It covers a Regular member of LASERS first employed on or after July 1, 1986. A member who “became a member prior to July 1, 1986” is entitled to an additional sum under the same section (“The additional sum of three hundred dollars referenced in Subparagraph (a) of this Paragraph shall only apply to a person who became a member prior to July 1, 1986.”), and this page does not price that member. Judges and court officers, hazardous duty and public safety employees, peace officers and the other special groups in the same section have their own rates and are not priced. Enter your service credit from your LASERS statement, whole years and months, the whole age you will have reached on your retirement date, and your average compensation as an annual amount.
For a decision, use LASERS itself: its estimate tool prices your exact retirement date and payment option at lasersonline.org. This page is the published formula, shown so you can see the arithmetic.
The formula, as the statute prints it
R.S. 11:444 sets the allowance: a member “shall receive a maximum retirement allowance equal to two and one-half percent of average compensation” for every year of creditable service. A part year counts in proportion: “any fractional period of service shall be taken into account and a proportionate amount of such retirement allowance, annuity, or benefit shall be granted”. The same section sets a ceiling: “The retirement benefits provided pursuant to the provisions of this Chapter shall not exceed one hundred percent of the member’s average compensation.” The result is a yearly amount; the calculator also shows it as a monthly amount (twelve months).
Worked example, calculated for 30 years and $60,000 of average compensation: 2.5% x 30 = 75% of $60,000 = $45,000 a year (computed), $3,750 a month (computed). With 42 years the formula gives 105%, which is $63,000 a year (computed); the ceiling holds the allowance to $60,000 a year (computed), $5,000 a month (computed).
What the formula gives at each length of service, at $60,000 of average compensation, for a member who meets a regular retirement test:
| Years of service | Share of average | Annual allowance | Monthly allowance |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 25% (computed) | $15,000 (computed) | $1,250 (computed) |
| 20 | 50% (computed) | $30,000 (computed) | $2,500 (computed) |
| 25 | 62.5% (computed) | $37,500 (computed) | $3,125 (computed) |
| 30 | 75% (computed) | $45,000 (computed) | $3,750 (computed) |
| 35 | 87.5% (computed) | $52,500 (computed) | $4,375 (computed) |
| 40 | 100% (computed) | $60,000 (computed) | $5,000 (computed) |
| 45 | 112.5% before the cap, 100% after (computed) | $60,000 (computed) | $5,000 (computed) |
What average compensation is
It is not your final salary. R.S. 11:403 defines it in two ways. For a member first employed on or before June 30, 2006 it “means the average annual earned compensation of a state employee for the thirty-six highest months of successive employment, or for the highest thirty-six successive joined months of employment where interruption of service occurred”. For a member first employed on or after July 1, 2006 it “means the average annual earned compensation of a state employee for the sixty highest months of successive employment or for the highest sixty successive joined months of employment where interruption of service occurred”. The section also limits how much a late raise can count: for the 36-month group, “The earnings to be considered for the thirteenth through the twenty-fourth month shall not exceed one hundred twenty-five percent of the earnings of the first through the twelfth month.” The calculator takes the figure LASERS shows for your group, so it does not run the averaging or the raise limits.
When you can retire
R.S. 11:441 sets the tests by hire date. For “Any member hired on or before June 30, 2006”, a member is eligible with “Thirty years or more of service, at any age.” or “Twenty-five years or more of service, at age fifty-five or thereafter.” or “Ten years or more of service, at age sixty or thereafter.”.
For “Any member hired on or after July 1, 2006”, the test is “Five years or more of service, at age sixty or thereafter.” For a member whose first employment occurred on or after July 1, 2015 the age moves: “Five years or more of service, at age sixty-two or thereafter.” The statute gives the 2011 to 2015 group the same 5-years-at-60 test as the 2006 group, so this page treats the two as one.
The calculator counts service as you enter it. LASERS adds military service and allowable unused leave to the service used in the formula at retirement; enter your service as LASERS shows it for that date.
Retiring with 20 years at any age: the reduction
Every group has a third route. The statute allows “Twenty years of service credit at any age, exclusive of military service and unused annual and sick leave”, but a member retiring that way has the benefit “actuarially reduced”. LASERS sets the reduction, and the statute prints no table of it, so the calculator shows the formula amount before the reduction and says a reduction applies.
Worked example, calculated for a member first employed on or after July 1, 2015, with 20 years, age 60 and $60,000 of average compensation: the group needs 5 years at 62, so age 60 is short. The formula amount is $30,000 a year (computed); the reduced allowance is not stated here. Ask LASERS for that figure.
A member with 12 years who is 58 and was first employed before July 1, 2006 meets none of the tests; the calculator says so.
What to do next
1. Get LASERS’s own number. The estimate tool prices your exact retirement date, reduction and payment option; this page is the printed formula.
2. The rest of the LASERS decisions. Payment options, DROP and the refund are on the Louisiana LASERS retirement decisions page, and the latest adjustment is on the Louisiana LASERS COLA page.
3. Tax. Louisiana’s treatment of pension income is on the Louisiana 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 thing: the maximum retirement allowance of a Regular LASERS member first employed on or after July 1, 1986, retiring from service. It does not price the $300 addition for earlier members, the additional rates for judges and the special groups, or any other Louisiana system. It leaves out the payment options and survivor choices, the Deferred Retirement Option Plan, the Initial Benefit Option, disability retirement, cost-of-living increases, purchased service and its cost (the pension buyback calculator covers purchases in general), and the actuarial reduction for retiring with 20 years. It reads service, age and compensation as you enter them.
How it was checked: a second, independent engine (exact fractions, with the 2.5%, the 100% ceiling, the retirement ages and years for each group read from the archived statute text) agreed with this page’s engine on 240,000 random combinations of service, age, group and pay, and the shipped script was driven in a browser on a grid of cases against both. The rules were read from R.S. 11:403, 11:441 and 11:444 as printed on the Louisiana Legislature website.
Common mistakes
- Entering a monthly salary. The statute states average compensation, and the allowance, as yearly amounts.
- Using your final salary. The average is the highest 36 months for a member first employed on or before June 30, 2006, and the highest 60 months for a later member.
- Using the 30-years-at-any-age test if you were first employed on or after July 1, 2006. That test is for the earlier group.
- Expecting more than 100% of average compensation. The statute caps the allowance there, which 40 years of service reaches.
Related: Louisiana LASERS retirement decisions, public pension decisions by system, single life versus joint and survivor, and Louisiana retirement taxes.
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Answer againSources
- Louisiana Revised Statutes, R.S. 11:444 (Computation of retirement benefit): https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx (section page)
- Louisiana Revised Statutes, R.S. 11:441 (Eligibility for retirement): https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx (section page)
- Louisiana Revised Statutes, R.S. 11:403 (Definitions, including average compensation): https://legis.la.gov/legis/Law.aspx (section page)
- 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.