Updated October 30, 2026. Quick answer: The West Virginia Public Employees Retirement System (PERS) pays a retiring member a straight life annuity of 2% of final average salary for each year and fraction of a year of credited service. Computed for 25 years and $60,000 of final average salary, that is $30,000 a year (computed), or $2,500 a month (computed). This page covers a member who first joined before July 1, 2015, who can retire unreduced at 60 with 5 years of service, or from 55 when age plus service reaches 80. A member who joined on or after that date has later retirement ages and is not priced here. Enter your own numbers below; the figure is the straight life annuity, before any payment option.
Calculate your PERS annuity
This page applies the annuity formula in the West Virginia Public Employees Retirement Act to your service, age and final average salary. It runs on this page and sends nothing anywhere. It covers a member who retires from employment and who first became a member before July 1, 2015, the dividing line the Code itself uses. Enter your credited service from your PERS record (the calculator treats it all as contributing service), whole years and months, the whole age you will have reached on your retirement date, and your final average salary as an annual amount.
For a decision, use the Consolidated Public Retirement Board itself: it prices your exact retirement date and payment option at wvretirement.com. This page is the published formula, shown so you can see the arithmetic.
The formula, as the Code prints it
Section 5-10-22 sets the annuity. For members retiring after March 1, 1970 it is “a straight life annuity equal to two percent of his or her final average salary multiplied by the number of years, and fraction of a year, of his or her credited service, exclusive of limited credited service in force at the time of his or her retirement”. It adds: “the final average salary used in this calculation does not include any lump sum payment for unused, accrued leave of any kind or character”. The result is a yearly amount.
The Code sets how the monthly installment is rounded: “All annuities shall be paid in equal monthly installments, rounding to the upper cent for any fraction of a cent”. The calculator therefore divides the yearly amount by 12 and rounds up to the next cent, which can make twelve installments a few cents more than the yearly amount.
Worked example, calculated for 25 years and $60,000 of final average salary: 2% x 25 = 50% of $60,000 = $30,000 a year (computed), $2,500 a month (computed). A case where the rounding shows: 20 years and $52,345.67 gives $20,938.27 a year (computed); a twelfth of the exact amount is a fraction of a cent over $1,744.85, so the monthly installment is $1,744.86 (computed).
What the formula gives at each length of service, at $60,000 of final average salary, for a member who meets a test for an unreduced annuity:
| Years of service | Share of salary | Annual annuity | Monthly annuity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 5 | 10% (computed) | $6,000 (computed) | $500 (computed) |
| 10 | 20% (computed) | $12,000 (computed) | $1,000 (computed) |
| 15 | 30% (computed) | $18,000 (computed) | $1,500 (computed) |
| 20 | 40% (computed) | $24,000 (computed) | $2,000 (computed) |
| 25 | 50% (computed) | $30,000 (computed) | $2,500 (computed) |
| 30 | 60% (computed) | $36,000 (computed) | $3,000 (computed) |
| 35 | 70% (computed) | $42,000 (computed) | $3,500 (computed) |
What final average salary is
It is not your final salary. Section 5-10-2 defines it as “The average of the highest annual compensation received by a member”, “during any period of three consecutive years of credited service contained within the member’s 15 years of credited service immediately preceding the date his or her employment with a participating public employer last terminated”. The same section limits what counts as pay: “Any lump sum or other payments paid to members that do not constitute regular salary or wage payments are not considered compensation”. The calculator takes the figure the board shows for you, so it does not run the three-year search.
When you can retire without a reduction
Section 5-10-20 sets the basic test: “any member who has attained or attains age sixty years and has five or more years of credited service in force, at least one year of which he or she was a contributing member of the retirement system, may retire upon his or her written application”. It also says a person who became a new member on or after June 1, 1986 must “have five or more years of service, all of which years shall be actual, contributory ones”.
Section 5-10-21(e) adds the Rule of 80 for a member who joined before July 1, 2015: “any member of the retirement system may retire with full pension rights, without reduction of benefits, if he or she is at least fifty-five years of age and the sum of his or her age plus years of contributing service and limited credited service, as defined in section two of this article, equals or exceeds eighty”. The calculator adds your age and service in months and tests the total against 80 years (960 months). The table below shows how many years of service each age from 55 to 59 needs.
| Age at retirement | Years of service needed | Annual annuity at that service | Monthly annuity |
|---|---|---|---|
| 55 | 25 (computed) | $30,000 (computed) | $2,500 (computed) |
| 56 | 24 (computed) | $28,800 (computed) | $2,400 (computed) |
| 57 | 23 (computed) | $27,600 (computed) | $2,300 (computed) |
| 58 | 22 (computed) | $26,400 (computed) | $2,200 (computed) |
| 59 | 21 (computed) | $25,200 (computed) | $2,100 (computed) |
This page prices a member who retires from active employment. A member who has left and waits has a deferred annuity, and the Code says it “shall begin the first day of the calendar month next following the month in which his or her application for same is filed with the board of trustees on or after his or her attaining age sixty-two years”.
Retiring before 60 without the Rule of 80: the reduction
Section 5-10-21(d) lets a member with 30 years retire before 60, “is entitled to the full computation of annuity according to section twenty-two of this article” “but with the reduced actuarial equivalent of the annuity the member would have received if his or her benefit had commenced at age sixty”. A separate route, in section 5-10-21(b), is for a member who has separated from employment: one with 10 years who was at least 55 at separation can elect “the actuarial equivalent of his or her deferred retirement annuity as a reduced annuity” before the benefit begins; that is a deferred annuity, which this page does not price. The Code leaves the factors to the board and prints no table, so the calculator shows the formula amount before the reduction and says that a reduction applies.
Worked example, calculated for 30 years, age 52 and $60,000 of final average salary: the annuity before reduction is $36,000 a year (computed); the reduced annuity is not stated here. Ask the board for that figure. A member with 15 years who is 57 is under both the age-60 and Rule of 80 tests (age plus service is 72) and takes the reduced route. A member with 4 years of service has under 5 and is not eligible.
What to do next
1. Get the board’s own number. The Consolidated Public Retirement Board prices your exact retirement date, reduction and payment option; this page is the printed formula.
2. The rest of the PERS decisions. Payment options, the refund and buying service are on the West Virginia PERS and TRS retirement decisions page, and the latest adjustment is on the West Virginia PERS and TRS COLA page.
3. Tax. West Virginia’s treatment of pension income is on the West Virginia 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 straight life annuity of a PERS member who first joined before July 1, 2015, retiring from active employment. A member who joined on or after that date retires “upon attaining the age of sixty-two with ten or more years of service, all of which must be actual, contributing years” (section 5-10-20(b)), has early-retirement ages of its own in section 5-10-21a, and a five-year averaging period, and is not priced here; neither are the Teachers Retirement System and the other West Virginia systems. It leaves out the payment options and survivor choices, disability retirement, supplemental benefits, purchased service and its cost (the pension buyback calculator covers purchases in general), limited credited service, the older 1.5% rate that section 5-10-22(a) replaces for retirements after March 1, 1970, and the actuarial reduction before 60. It reads service, age and salary as you enter them.
How it was checked: a second, independent engine (exact fractions, with the 2%, the age 60, the 5 years, the Rule of 80, the 55-year floor and the round-up of the monthly installment read from the archived Code 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 W. Va. Code sections 5-10-2, 5-10-20, 5-10-21, 5-10-21a and 5-10-22 as printed on the West Virginia Legislature website.
Common mistakes
- Entering a monthly salary. The Code states final average salary, and the annuity, as yearly amounts.
- Using your final salary. The average is your highest three consecutive years within your last 15 years of credited service.
- Assuming the Rule of 80 works at any age. It needs you to be at least 55.
- Using this page if you joined on or after July 1, 2015. That member’s ages and averaging period are different.
Related: West Virginia PERS and TRS retirement decisions, public pension decisions by system, single life versus joint and survivor, and West Virginia retirement taxes.
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Answer againSources
- West Virginia Code, section 5-10-2 (Definitions): https://code.wvlegislature.gov/5-10-2/
- West Virginia Code, section 5-10-20 (Voluntary retirement): https://code.wvlegislature.gov/5-10-20/
- West Virginia Code, section 5-10-21 (Deferred retirement and early retirement): https://code.wvlegislature.gov/5-10-21/
- West Virginia Code, section 5-10-21a (Deferred retirement and early retirement for new members as of July 1, 2015): https://code.wvlegislature.gov/5-10-21a/
- West Virginia Code, section 5-10-22 (Retirement annuity): https://code.wvlegislature.gov/5-10-22/
- 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.