What’s at stake for you?

Over the past two years there have been several attempts by politicians to drastically cut retirement benefits. This calculator will let you know what’s at stake for you. Your information will not be collected or shared. If you have questions about how to use the calculator, please email us at info@keeporegonspromise.org .

PLEASE NOTE: All fields must be answered in order to see how much your benefits could be cut.

Current age:

Current salary:

Years of service:

Which PERS
Programs are you
enrolled in?
Select one:

Tier 1

Hired in PERS-covered employment prior to 1/1/96

Tier 2

Hired 1/1/96-8/29/2003

OPSRP

Hired on or after 8/29/2003

Police & Fire:
employed:

Yes

Your IAP
Account Balance
as of December
31, 2017:

Available at the bottom of your 2017 Member Annual Statement. To ensure accuracy, do not enter the balance listed mid-statement (Tier 1 & Tier 2).

MINIMUM RETIREMENT AGE TO RECEIVE FULL BENEFITS:

--

If you plan to
work past the
minimum
retirement age,
enter your planned
age here:
(optional)

START OVER

How these numbers were calculated

Today, 6% of a PERS member salary goes into their Individual Account Program. Over and over again, some politicians have called for taking those dollars away from PERS members and using them to pay the state’s obligation to retired public employees. This calculator shows the combined loss to pension and individual account programs from those proposals using the PERS board assumed rate of return of 7.2% for the IAP and normal salary increases.

Background on PERS

Fifteen years ago, Oregon dramatically reduced pensions and retirement benefits for newly hired public employees. The average public employee pension is about $2,300 a month, or less than $30,000 a year.

But in the 2008 recession, the state pension fund suffered investment losses along with many other retirement accounts, and now the state has a 22 billion-dollar unfunded liability over the next 20 years to pay the pensions for retirees.

Cutting retirements further will not reduce the unfunded liability because that debt comes from people already retired.

Before the 2008 Wall Street crash triggered the great recession, Oregon’s pension system was 105% funded. The state is now making up those investment losses.