Updated October 30, 2026. Quick answer: The Employees’ Retirement System of Georgia (ERS) pays a New Plan member a benefit of 2% of formula salary, the highest 24 consecutive months, for each year of creditable service. Computed for 30 years and a $5,000 monthly formula salary, that is $3,000 a month (computed), or $36,000 a year (computed). The New Plan covers employees hired between July 1, 1982 and December 31, 2008; Old Plan and GSEPS members have other formulas and are not priced here. A member can retire unreduced at 60 with 10 years or at 30 years of service. Enter your own numbers below; the figure is the Maximum Plan Benefit, before any payment option.
Calculate your ERS New Plan benefit
This page applies the benefit formula in the ERS member handbook to your service, age and formula salary. It runs on this page and sends nothing anywhere. It covers a New Plan member: “New Plan (Tier 2): Employees hired between 7/1/1982 and 12/31/2008”. Enter your creditable service from your ERS record, whole years and months, the whole age you will have reached on your retirement date, and your formula salary as a monthly amount.
For a decision, use ERS itself: its account access prices your exact retirement date and payment option at ers.ga.gov. This page is the published formula, shown so you can see the arithmetic.
The formula, as ERS prints it
The ERS handbook gives one formula for all three plans: “Formula Salary x Benefit Formula Factor x Creditable Service = Maximum Plan Benefit”. For the New Plan the factor never changes: “Under the New Plan, Formula Salary is the average of the highest 24 consecutive calendar months of Earnable Compensation while an ERS Member, and the Benefit Formula Factor always equals .02”. ERS’s New Plan sheet shows the same arithmetic: “Formula Salary x 2% Factor x Creditable Service”. The benefit is monthly, so the calculator asks for the formula salary as a monthly amount and shows the yearly figure (twelve months) as well.
The handbook defines the Maximum Plan Benefit as “the highest monthly benefit available”; it is the single-life amount before a payment option reduces it. ERS also converts forfeited leave into service: “your forfeited leave may be converted to Creditable Service at retirement at the rate of one month of Creditable Service for every 160 hours of forfeited leave”. Enter your service as ERS counts it at retirement, with that conversion if it applies to you; the calculator does not apply it for you.
Worked example, calculated for 30 years and a $5,000 monthly formula salary: 2% x 30 = 60% of $5,000 = $3,000 a month (computed), $36,000 a year (computed).
What the formula gives at each length of service, at a $5,000 monthly formula salary, for a member who meets a Normal Retirement Age test:
| Years of service | Share of salary | Monthly benefit | Annual benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | 20% (computed) | $1,000 (computed) | $12,000 (computed) |
| 15 | 30% (computed) | $1,500 (computed) | $18,000 (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) |
When the benefit is not reduced
The handbook sets Normal Retirement Age as “the earlier of”: “the attainment of age 60 and 10 years of Creditable Service (for certain Law Enforcement positions, age 55 and 10 years)”, or “the attainment of 30 years of Creditable Service”. The calculator uses age 60 and does not apply the age 55 exception for certain law enforcement positions.
A member who leaves state employment with 10 years before 60 is not lost to the system: “If you terminate employment after attaining 10 years of service, but prior to age 60, you will be eligible to start drawing a retirement benefit once you reach age 60.” Enter age 60 or more to see that benefit. Withdrawing your contributions ends that right, and the handbook says so.
Retiring early with 25 to 29 years: the reduction
The handbook sets one early-retirement rule for the Old Plan, the New Plan and GSEPS: “you can commence Early Retirement benefits at any age before your Normal Retirement Age once you have attained 25 years of Creditable Service”. The cut is “reduced by either 7% for each year you are commencing benefits prior to age 60, or 7% for each year under 30 years of Creditable Service you have earned, whichever reduction is less. The reduction cannot exceed 35%.” The handbook’s own example is a member who starts at 57 with 25 years: “*7% reduction for each year the Member is commencing benefits before age 60”, which is three years, or 21%. The calculator applies the same rule.
The handbook states the cut for each year and does not say how to treat a part year. The calculator therefore prices early retirement only for whole years of age and of service, and says so when you enter extra months.
Worked example, calculated for 25 years and a $5,000 monthly formula salary, a member who retires at 57: the benefit before reduction is $2,500 a month (computed). Three years under 60 is 21% and five years under 30 is 35%; the lesser, 21% (computed), applies, and the benefit is $1,975 a month (computed). For 27 years at 59: one year under 60 is 7% and three years under 30 is 21%; the lesser is 7% (computed), and the benefit on a $2,700 unreduced amount (computed) is $2,511 a month (computed).
Reduction by age at 25 years of service, at a $5,000 monthly formula salary:
| Age at retirement | Reduction | Monthly benefit | Annual benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 35% (computed) | $1,625 (computed) | $19,500 (computed) |
| 56 | 28% (computed) | $1,800 (computed) | $21,600 (computed) |
| 57 | 21% (computed) | $1,975 (computed) | $23,700 (computed) |
| 58 | 14% (computed) | $2,150 (computed) | $25,800 (computed) |
| 59 | 7% (computed) | $2,325 (computed) | $27,900 (computed) |
Reduction by years of service at age 55, at a $5,000 monthly formula salary:
| Years of service | Reduction | Monthly benefit | Annual benefit |
|---|---|---|---|
| 25 | 35% (computed) | $1,625 (computed) | $19,500 (computed) |
| 26 | 28% (computed) | $1,872 (computed) | $22,464 (computed) |
| 27 | 21% (computed) | $2,133 (computed) | $25,596 (computed) |
| 28 | 14% (computed) | $2,408 (computed) | $28,896 (computed) |
| 29 | 7% (computed) | $2,697 (computed) | $32,364 (computed) |
A member with 24 years who is 62 meets the age-60 test and retires unreduced; one with 9 years at 62 is not eligible. The calculator says which applies.
What to do next
1. Get ERS’s own number. Account access prices your exact retirement date, reduction and payment option; this page is the printed formula.
2. The rest of the ERS decisions. Payment options, the refund and buying service are on the Georgia ERS retirement decisions page, and the latest increase is on the Georgia ERS COLA page.
3. Tax. Georgia’s treatment of pension income is on the Georgia 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 Plan Benefit of a New Plan member retiring from service. The Old Plan and GSEPS have other benefit factors and, for GSEPS, a limit on late salary increases that the handbook describes; the Public School Employees Retirement System, the Teachers Retirement System of Georgia and the other Georgia plans are different systems. It leaves out the payment options and survivor choices, disability retirement, the annual increase, prior service, military service and other purchased service and their costs (the pension buyback calculator covers purchases in general), and the age 55 exception for certain law enforcement positions. It reads service, age and salary as you enter them.
How it was checked: a second, independent engine (exact fractions, with the 2% factor, the 10 and 30 years, the age 60, the 25 years, the 7% and the 35% limit read from the archived handbook text) agreed with this page’s engine on 240,000 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 the ERS member handbook and the ERS New Plan benefit sheet dated 06/2026.
Common mistakes
- Entering an annual salary. ERS states the formula salary, and the benefit, as monthly figures.
- Using your final salary. The formula salary is your highest 24 consecutive calendar months of earnable compensation.
- Using this page for a GSEPS member hired since January 1, 2009. That plan has a different benefit factor.
- Taking the larger of the two early-retirement cuts. The handbook applies whichever reduction is less, and caps it at 35%.
Related: Georgia ERS retirement decisions, public pension decisions by system, single life versus joint and survivor, and Georgia retirement taxes.
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Answer againSources
- Employees’ Retirement System of Georgia, ERS Old Plan, New Plan, GSEPS Plan Guide (member handbook): https://www.ers.ga.gov/sites/main/files/file-attachments/ers_handbook.pdf
- Employees’ Retirement System of Georgia, ERS New Plan benefit calculation sheet (dated 06/2026): https://www.ers.ga.gov/sites/main/files/file-attachments/bag_tier2_newplan_25_060526_restart_2.pdf
- 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.