FERS Retirement Calculator

1. Service for computation: add every creditable period (civilian service, military service you paid a deposit for, and unused sick leave), counting 30-day months. Drop leftover days. OPM does not round up to the next month.
2. High-3: the highest average basic pay over 3 consecutive years, locality pay included, weighted by how long each rate was in effect and rounded to the nearest dollar. Overtime, bonuses and awards are not basic pay.
3. Multiply: high-3 x 1% x service (1.1% if you separate at 62 or older with 20+ years; 1.7% for the first 20 years if you retire under a special provision). OPM uses its chart factors: months x rate / 12, rounded to six decimals.
4. Reduce for age if you retire at MRA with 10 to 29 years (explained below).
5. Reduce for the survivor benefit (10% or 5%). Divide by 12 and drop the cents.

OPM Handbook example 1: Chris Morgan retires 7-30-2024 at 60 with 31 years 2 months

Chris, born 3-15-1964, has 3 years 3 months of military service (deposit paid), civilian service 5-23-1994 to 5-22-1997 and 8-15-1999 to 7-30-2024, a high-3 of $53,221, and elects a full survivor annuity. The Handbook (chapter 50, section 50C1.1-3, FERS Example 1) gives:

Source: OPM FERS eligibility and 5 U.S.C. 8412(h).

• MRA + 30 years: immediate annuity with no age reduction.
• Age 60 + 20 years: immediate, no age reduction.
• Age 62 + 5 years: immediate; 1.1% instead of 1% with 20 or more years.
• MRA + 10 years: immediate but reduced 5% for each year under 62, unless you postpone.
• Special category (law enforcement officer, firefighter, air traffic controller, Capitol or Supreme Court Police, nuclear materials courier, CBP officer): age 50 with 20 years of that service, or any age with 25 years (5 U.S.C. 8412(d), (e)).
• Deferred retirement: if you leave before you qualify for an immediate annuity, you can collect at 62 with 5 years, or at the MRA with 10 years (reduced the same way, unless you wait until 60 with 20 years of service, or the MRA with 30 years, or 50 with 20 years of special category service). A deferred annuity starts the first day of the month after you meet the conditions (5 U.S.C. 8464(a)(1)(A)). Deferred annuitants cannot reinstate FEHB or FEGLI. If you postpone an MRA + 10 annuity instead, you can keep FEHB for only 18 months at the full premium plus 2%, then re-enroll when the annuity starts if you had 5 years of coverage (OPM, types of retirement).

The calculator measures age the way OPM does: you attain an age the day before your birthday. Service used to qualify for retirement never includes unused sick leave.

If you are at least 62 on your last day of service and have at least 20 years, the multiplier is 1.1% instead of 1% (5 U.S.C. 8415(i)). On 25 years and a $100,000 high-3 that is $27,500 instead of $25,000 a year. The test is your age when you separate, not the age your annuity starts, so leaving at 61 and postponing your annuity to 62 does not earn 1.1%. It does not apply to special category retirees, who already get 1.7% on their first 20 years. The tradeoff: retire before 62 and you may collect the annuity supplement, which stops at 62; stay to 62 and you give that up for a pension that is 10% larger for life.

Retire at your MRA with 10 to 29 years and your annuity is cut 5/12 of 1% for each full month your annuity starts before your 62nd birthday, so 5% a year. OPM's FERS Example 2 (Lea Williams, born 9-10-1975) retires 9-30-2033 at 58 with 13 years 6 months and a $93,781 high-3. The annuity starts 10-1-2033, 47 months before 62, so the factor is .804167. After a one-half survivor base her annuity is $806 a month.

In Example 5 she postpones the start to 8-11-2037, the first date with no full month under 62. The reduction disappears and the same service pays $1,002 a month. The reduction is also gone if you postpone to 60 with 20 years of service, or to your MRA with 30 years (5 U.S.C. 8415(h)). Postponing means no annuity in the meantime, and no supplement for MRA + 10 retirees.

Retirees under 5 U.S.C. 8412(d)(1) or (e) get 1.7% of high-3 for each of the first 20 years of service plus 1% for each year beyond, under 5 U.S.C. 8415(e). Twenty-five years at a $60,000 high-3 pays $23,400 (34% + 5%). No OPM Handbook example covers special category retirement, so this computation follows the statute only, and the calculator's choice to count sick leave in the first 20 years is an assumption. The calculator assumes all of your civilian service is special category service when you tick the box (military service does not count toward the 20 and 25 year tests). Mixed careers, and a few special rules such as Members of Congress, are not modeled. These retirees also get COLAs before 62: see the FERS COLA 2027 page.

Who gets it: retirees whose immediate annuity starts before 62 under MRA + 30, age 60 with 20 years, or a special provision, with at least one full calendar year of civilian FERS service. Not MRA + 10, not deferred, not 62 or older (5 U.S.C. 8421(a); Handbook 51A1.1-3).

How much: your Social Security benefit at 62 times your FERS civilian years (nearest whole year, at most 40) divided by 40. This is an estimate: the calculator uses the age-62 figure from your own SSA statement, not OPM's deemed-earnings computation. OPM counts only FERS basic pay, fills years after age 21 that lack a full year of FERS service with deemed earnings (the first full FERS year's pay scaled by the national average wage), and uses the bend points of the year the supplement starts, as if you were 62 on January 1 (5 U.S.C. 8421(b)(2); 5 CFR 842.504). Your SSA statement includes all your earnings, federal or not, and assumes you keep working to 62. The difference can go either way. The supplement counts only civilian service, so military service does not add years (5 CFR 842.504). OPM rounds the Social Security estimate down to the dollar and the result down to the dollar. It ends the last day of the month before you could first start Social Security (a birthday on the 1st or 2nd ends it a month earlier than the month you turn 62).

Earnings test: the supplement is reduced by $1 for every $2 of earnings over the exempt amount, which is Social Security's: $25,560 in 2027 (see the 2027 Social Security COLA page). OPM applies the reduction in the year after you earn the money, spread over 12 months and never more than the supplement. It never touches your basic annuity, and special category retirees are not tested until they reach their MRA (5 U.S.C. 8421a; Handbook 51A3). The first reduction starts July 1 after the first calendar year you receive the supplement, can be no more than the supplement you received that year, and counts only earnings while you were entitled to the supplement (8421a(b)(2), (4), (5)). The calculator shows a flat figure for the year affected. The supplement has no COLA.

OPM Handbook chapter 51 shows three worked supplement computations (Schmidt, Meisner and Kasdan). Each ends with the estimated Social Security benefit and the years / 40 fraction. The calculator reproduces those final steps exactly ($1,742, $1,502 and $1,310 a month). It does not rebuild the earnings history behind the Social Security estimate.

If you are married, your annuity is reduced 10% to give your spouse a 50% survivor annuity, or 5% for a 25% annuity, unless you both waive it. The cost is calculated on your annuity after any age reduction. On a $9,000 annual annuity the full benefit costs $900 a year and the partial benefit $450 (Handbook 50B3.1-3).

For FERS annuities based on a separation after December 31, 2013, 100% of unused sick leave is added to service for the annuity amount (5 U.S.C. 8415(m)). OPM's 2,087-hour chart: 2,087 hours = 1 year; 1,571 hours = 9 months 1 day; hours not on the chart round up to the next entry (1,500 hours is treated as 1,501 = 8 months 19 days). Sick leave does not count to qualify for retirement or toward your high-3. The 1.1% test of 20 years uses service without sick leave: that is the calculator's reading of 8415(i), which says "completed at least 20 years of service", and OPM's chapter 50 does not address it.

FERS COLAs begin at 62, except for special category retirees, disability retirees and survivors. See the FERS COLA 2027 page for the rules and December 1, 2026 rates. If you are still working, see the 2027 federal pay raise because your high-3 rises with basic pay and locality.

The engine reproduces to the dollar: OPM Handbook chapter 50 FERS examples 1, 2 and 5 (Morgan: $1,244 a month; Williams: $806 and $1,002), the Handbook's service-length, sick leave and high-3 worked examples, the accrual and age-reduction chart factors, and the final steps of chapter 51 supplement examples 1 to 3. The FERS component of transferee examples 3, 4 and 6 matches chart factors; their CSRS component is not modeled.

Out of scope, not approximated:

• Disability retirement
• Part-time service (annuity is prorated, chapter 55) and intermittent service
• A CSRS component for employees who transferred to FERS, and CSRS Offset
• Court-ordered survivor benefits and former spouse annuities
• Refunded service, nondeduction service and leave without pay over 6 months in a calendar year
• Breaks in service (the calculator takes one service start date)
• Discontinued service and early (VERA) retirement, and Members of Congress and congressional employees
• Alternative annuity (lump sum), phased retirement, reemployed annuitants
• The supplement's own deemed earnings history (you enter your SSA estimate instead, so the supplement is an estimate, not a reproduction of OPM)
• Taxes, FEHB premiums, FEGLI and TSP

Mixed special-category and regular service uses one rate. If you are not sure which of these apply to you, ask your agency HR office or OPM.