Updated October 30, 2026. Quick answer: Colorado PERA pays a full-service, single-life benefit of 2.5% of the member’s highest average salary for each year and fraction of a year of service credit, and never more than 100% of that salary. Computed for 25 years and a $6,000 monthly average, that is $3,750 a month (computed), or $45,000 a year (computed). The age at which a member can take that amount, and any reduction for retiring younger, depend on the member’s PERA table, so this page prints the formula and leaves the table to PERA. Enter your own numbers below.
Calculate your Colorado PERA benefit
This page applies the benefit formula in the Colorado Revised Statutes to your service credit and highest average salary. It runs on this page and sends nothing anywhere. Enter your service credit from your PERA record, whole years and months, and the highest average salary PERA shows on your member account. PERA states the formula as “your highest average salary x 2.5% x your years of service = your monthly lifetime benefit amount”, so the salary here is a monthly figure.
For a decision, use PERA itself: its member account and retirement benefit calculator are at copera.org. This page is the published formula, shown so you can see the arithmetic.
The formula, as the statute prints it
Section 24-51-603 sets the benefit: “calculated by multiplying the highest average salary by two and one-half percent times each year and fraction of a year of service credit”. It prints the arithmetic too: “Highest Average Salary x (.025 x Years and Fraction of a Year).” That is why the calculator takes service in years and months. The statute then caps the result: “shall not exceed an amount equal to one hundred percent of the highest average salary”, and the benefit must also stay within “the maximum permitted under federal income tax law”. The calculator applies the 100% cap and not the federal limit.
Worked example, calculated for 25 years of service credit and a $6,000 monthly average: 2.5% x 25 = 62.5% of $6,000 = $3,750 a month (computed), $45,000 a year (computed). At 41 years the formula would give 102.5% of the average, $6,150 a month (computed), and the cap holds the benefit at $6,000 a month (computed).
What the formula gives at each length of service, at a $6,000 monthly average:
| Years of service credit | Share of average | Monthly benefit | Annual benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 12.5% (computed) | $750 (computed) | $9,000 (computed) |
| 10 | 25% (computed) | $1,500 (computed) | $18,000 (computed) |
| 20 | 50% (computed) | $3,000 (computed) | $36,000 (computed) |
| 30 | 75% (computed) | $4,500 (computed) | $54,000 (computed) |
| 35 | 87.5% (computed) | $5,250 (computed) | $63,000 (computed) |
| 40 | 100% (computed) | $6,000 (computed) | $72,000 (computed) |
The 40-year row reaches the 100% cap exactly. This is the benefit for a single life; the payment options that continue a benefit to a co-beneficiary reduce it, and PERA says so: “HAS tables only show percentages for a single-life benefit”.
What the highest average salary is
It is not your final salary. Section 24-51-101(25)(a) defines it, for a member who has five years of service credit on December 31, 2019, as “one-twelfth of the average of the highest annual salaries upon which contributions were paid, whether earned from one or more employers, that are associated with three periods of twelve consecutive months of service credit”, and for a member who does not, as the same average over “five periods of twelve consecutive months of service credit”. PERA puts the split in plain words: “Three years of your highest salaries are used if you had five years of service credit as of Jan. 1, 2020. Five years of your highest salaries are used if you did not have five years of service credit as of Jan. 1, 2020.” That split is the general case, and PERA adds an exception: “HAS is calculated differently for DPS benefit structure members who were eligible for retirement on Jan. 1, 2011 and judges”. The calculator takes the highest average salary PERA shows on your account, so it does not need the rule, but a member in either group should not count the periods themselves.
PERA also limits how fast a salary can rise inside the average: “If you began membership on or after January 1, 2007, your annual limit is 8%.” The earlier limits are 15% for a member who began on or before December 31, 2006 and was eligible to retire on January 1, 2011, and 8% for one who was not. This calculator does not run that test. It asks for the highest average salary as PERA computes it, which is on your member account, and applies the formula to it.
When you can retire: why this page tests no age
Section 24-51-602 sets the age and service tests, and they differ by membership date. A member retires “upon written application and approval of the board”, and some groups also have an age-plus-service rule, for example “the number of years of their age plus the number of years of their service credit equals eighty years or more”, with other totals for later members. Retiring younger than the table allows for full benefits is covered by a separate section, 24-51-604, which reduces the benefit.
PERA keeps one table for each group: “The HAS table that applies to you depends on multiple factors, such as your PERA membership type, when you began working for a PERA employer, and your retirement eligibility.” Each box on a table gives the share of your average that you receive at that age and service, and the shaded boxes are the reduced ones. Because those tables are PERA’s own and change by group, this page does not copy them. Find yours in your member account, or on PERA’s highest average salary tables page, and read the share at your age and service. If your table shows the full-service share, this calculator and PERA agree; if the box is shaded, PERA’s figure is the lower one.
What to do next
1. Get PERA’s own number. The member account prices your exact retirement date, reduction and payment option; this page is the printed formula.
2. The rest of the PERA decisions. Payment options, the annual increase and buying service are on the Colorado PERA retirement decisions page, and the latest increase is on the Colorado PERA COLA page.
3. Tax. Colorado’s treatment of pension income is on the Colorado 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 full-service, single-life formula amount for a member whose benefit follows Section 24-51-603(1)(a). A separate formula for judicial division members who joined on or before July 1, 1973 (Section 24-51-603(2)) is not priced, and neither are the rules for state troopers and the other safety officer groups. It does not test your age, apply a reduction, apply the salary-increase limit or the federal limit, or price the payment options, disability and survivor benefits, the annual increase, purchased service and its cost (the pension buyback calculator covers purchases in general), or the defined contribution plan. It reads service and salary as you enter them.
How it was checked: a second, independent engine (exact fractions, with the 2.5% multiplier and the 100% cap read from the archived statute text) agreed with this page’s engine on 300,000 random combinations of service and salary, and the shipped script was driven in a browser on a grid of cases against both. The rules were read from Sections 24-51-101, 24-51-602 and 24-51-603 of the Colorado Revised Statutes (2024 printout) and PERA’s own benefit pages, dated October 30, 2026.
Common mistakes
- Entering an annual salary. PERA’s highest average salary is a monthly figure and the formula returns a monthly benefit.
- Using your final salary. The statute averages three or five periods of twelve consecutive months, set by your membership.
- Treating the formula amount as available at any age. Your PERA table sets the age, and shaded boxes are reduced.
- Expecting more than 100%. The statute caps the benefit at 100% of the highest average salary.
Related: Colorado PERA retirement decisions, public pension decisions by system, single life versus joint and survivor, and Colorado retirement taxes.
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Answer againSources
- Colorado Revised Statutes 2024, Title 24, Article 51 (Sections 24-51-101, 24-51-602 and 24-51-603): https://leg.colorado.gov/sites/default/files/images/olls/crs2024-title-24.pdf
- Colorado PERA, How Your PERA Benefit is Calculated: https://www.copera.org/welcome-pera-members/benefit-basics/how-your-pera-benefit-is-calculated
- Colorado PERA, Highest Average Salary Tables: https://www.copera.org/welcome-pera-members/benefit-basics/highest-average-salary-tables
- 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.