California State Teachers’ Retirement System
CalSTRS Pension Calculator
How the CalSTRS formula works
Every CalSTRS Defined Benefit pension is three numbers multiplied together. There is no Rule of 80, no separate early retirement penalty and no bonus for a long career in the current tier:
Final compensation is the piece people misjudge. If you were first hired on or after January 1, 2013 you are in the CalSTRS 2% at 62 tier, where final compensation is your highest average annual compensation earnable over 36 consecutive months. Only compensation paid in cash each pay period counts — a lump sum at separation does not lift the average. There is no one-year rule in this tier at any length of service.
Members hired before that date are in the legacy CalSTRS 2% at 60 tier, which uses the same 36 consecutive months by default but drops to the highest 12 consecutive months once you have 25 or more years of service credit. For a teacher whose pay climbed late, that single difference is worth thousands of dollars a year.
Worked example
- Tier
- 2% at 62
- Service credit
- 30
- Final compensation (36 months)
- $102,000
- Age at retirement
- 62
- Age factor at 62
- 2.00%
- Annual benefit
- $61,200
Hold that career constant and move only the retirement date. At 55 the factor is 1.16% and the same 30 years pay $35,496. At 65 it is 2.40% and they pay $73,440. The work is identical in all three cases. Ten years of timing slightly more than doubles the benefit, permanently.
The age factor, tier by tier
CalSTRS publishes a full age factor table for each tier. The anchors below are the values that decide most retirement dates: the earliest age you may retire, the age where the factor reaches 2.00%, and the age where it stops rising.
| Milestone | 2% at 62 (hired on/after Jan 1, 2013) | 2% at 60 (hired before Jan 1, 2013) |
|---|---|---|
| Earliest retirement | Age 55 with 5 years | Age 55 with 5 years, or age 50 with 30+ years |
| Factor at earliest age | 1.16% at 55 | 1.10% at 50 |
| Normal retirement age | 62 | 60 |
| Factor at normal age | 2.00% | 2.00% |
| Maximum factor | 2.40% at 65 | 2.40% at 63 |
| Career factor | None | +0.2% with 30+ years, capped at 2.40% |
There is no CalSTRS “2% at 55”
CalSTRS has exactly two tiers: 2% at 62 and 2% at 60. The formula called 2% at 55 belongs to CalPERS, which covers state and local public employees, not teachers. If a colleague, a union flyer or a retirement seminar told you that you are on 2% at 55, they meant CalPERS. Confirm your tier in myCalSTRS before planning a date around it.
Where the career factor does and does not apply
The legacy 2% at 60 tier adds 0.2% to your age factor once you reach 30 years of service credit, capped at 2.40%. That is real money: a 2% at 60 member retiring at 60 with 30 years uses 2.20% rather than 2.00%. The 2% at 62 tier has no equivalent. Long service still raises your pension there, but only through the service credit term, never the factor.
Why some of our factors are labeled approximate
CalSTRS publishes factors in quarter-year increments; this calculator carries only the anchors above. For an age between two of them it interpolates and flags the result as an approximation. Treat those as a planning range and pull your exact factor from myCalSTRS before you commit to a date.
When you can actually collect it
Vesting takes five years of service credit in both tiers. Vesting means you have earned a future benefit; it does not mean you can start collecting one. For that you also need to reach an eligible age.
Normal retirement is age 62 in the 2% at 62 tier and age 60 in the 2% at 60 tier. There is no Rule of 80, Rule of 85 or any other age-plus-service shortcut in CalSTRS. Retiring earlier is allowed — from 55 with five years in either tier, or from 50 with 30 or more years in the legacy tier — and the cost of going early is handled entirely inside the age factor.
That structure matters: there is no separate penalty line to look for on your estimate, because the reduction is already inside the factor. In the 2% at 62 tier the factor at 55 is 1.16% against 2.00% at 62 — 42% lower, applied to every year of service you ever earned. A plan with an explicit 5%-a-year penalty would make that obvious. Here it shows up only as a smaller multiplier, which is easier to miss and exactly as expensive.
The 2% COLA is simple, not compound
CalSTRS pays a guaranteed 2% annual benefit adjustment. It is not tied to CPI, so it neither shrinks when inflation is low nor rises when inflation is high, and no board vote is required. It starts September 1 following the first anniversary of your retirement.
The word doing the work is simple. The 2% is calculated on your initial benefit and never recalculated. On a $50,000 starting pension that is $1,000 in the second year, $1,000 in the tenth year and $1,000 in the thirtieth. After twenty adjustments you are at $70,000. A 2% compounding COLA on the same pension would put you near $74,300, and the gap widens every year after that. Plenty of members budget as though the two are the same thing.
There is a second layer. The Supplemental Benefit Maintenance Account is funded separately and pays quarterly to restore purchasing power to 85% of the initial value of your benefit. It does not make you whole against inflation and it is not the same as a compounding COLA, but it puts a floor under long retirements that the 2% simple adjustment alone would not hold.
California teachers and Social Security
CalSTRS members do not pay into Social Security for their CalSTRS-covered employment, so those years earn no Social Security credit. Your CalSTRS pension is the whole of the guaranteed income from that work.
WEP and GPO are gone
Social Security you earned from other jobs, and spousal or survivor benefits on someone else’s record, used to be cut by the Windfall Elimination Provision and the Government Pension Offset. The Social Security Fairness Act repealed both, effective January 2024. Neither has applied to any month since.
If you never filed because WEP or GPO would have reduced the benefit to nothing, file now. Retroactive payments are generally capped at six months, so every month you wait is money you cannot recover later.
What you and your employer pay in
| Who | Rate |
|---|---|
| Member — 2% at 62 tier | 10.205% of creditable earnings |
| Member — 2% at 60 tier | 10.25% |
| Employer (school district) | 19.1% |
| State of California | 10.828% |
The 10.205% member rate has not changed since July 1, 2018 and is confirmed for 2025-26. Rates for fiscal year 2026-27 are not yet published, so this page does not carry one; check the CalSTRS funding plan material when the board sets them rather than assuming the current rate rolls forward.
Nothing structural changed in 2025 or 2026. The formulas, age factors, final compensation rules, vesting requirement, contribution rates, COLA and tier boundaries are all as they were. SB 853 (Chapter 239, Statutes of 2025) took effect January 1, 2026 and is administrative: it clarifies membership authority, tightens the definition of an annualized pay rate and adjusts the Reduced Workload Program. None of it changes what a member is owed.
Four things people get wrong
- Thinking they are on “2% at 55”. That formula is CalPERS. CalSTRS has 2% at 62 and 2% at 60, and the January 1, 2013 hire date decides which.
- Expecting a career factor in the 2% at 62 tier. The +0.2% for 30 years exists only in the legacy tier. Working to 30 years after 2013 raises your pension through service credit alone.
- Treating the 2% COLA as compounding. It is 2% of your initial benefit, fixed in dollars, forever. Over a long retirement the difference from a compounding 2% is substantial.
- Using their final salary instead of the 36-month average. In the 2% at 62 tier there is no one-year rule, and cash-outs paid at separation do not count toward the average at all.
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between CalSTRS 2% at 62 and 2% at 60?+
They are the two CalSTRS tiers, split by hire date. Members first hired on or after January 1, 2013 are in 2% at 62, where the age factor runs from 1.16% at 55 to 2.00% at 62 and maxes at 2.40% at 65, with no career factor. Members hired before that date are in 2% at 60: 1.10% at 50, 2.00% at 60, a 2.40% maximum at 63, plus a career factor of 0.2% at 30 or more years, capped at 2.40%.
Is there a CalSTRS 2% at 55 formula?+
No. 2% at 55 is a CalPERS formula covering state and local public employees, not a CalSTRS one. CalSTRS has only two tiers, 2% at 62 and 2% at 60. Members who think they are on 2% at 55 are confusing the two systems.
How does the CalSTRS COLA work?+
CalSTRS pays a guaranteed 2% simple annual benefit adjustment, beginning September 1 following the first anniversary of retirement. It is 2% of your initial benefit, so it does not compound, and it is not tied to CPI: on a $50,000 pension it is $1,000 every year. Separately, the Supplemental Benefit Maintenance Account restores purchasing power to 85% of the initial benefit.
Do CalSTRS members get Social Security?+
Not for CalSTRS-covered employment, which is outside Social Security. Social Security earned from other work, and spousal or survivor benefits, are now paid in full: the Social Security Fairness Act repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset effective January 2024. Anyone who never applied because of WEP or GPO should apply now, since retroactivity is generally capped at six months.
How many years do I need to be vested in CalSTRS?+
Five years of service credit, in both tiers. Vesting entitles you to a future benefit but does not by itself let you collect; you also need an eligible age. That is 55 in the 2% at 62 tier, and in the 2% at 60 tier either 55 with five years or 50 with 30 or more years.
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from one of the following. Where a plan does not publish a number we needed, the page says so rather than guessing.
- CalSTRS — The Age Factor — age factors and the career factor by tier
- CalSTRS Member Handbook 2025 — formula, final compensation, vesting and eligibility
- CalSTRS — Inflation Protection — 2% simple benefit adjustment and the SBMA
- CalSTRS Historical Rates Job Aid — member contribution rate history since 2018
- CalSTRS — Funding Plan Fact Sheet — employer and state contribution rates for 2025-26
- New 2026 Statutes Impacting CalSTRS — SB 853 and what it does not change
- SSA — Social Security Fairness Act — WEP and GPO repeal
Keep reading
NYSTRS
New York’s teacher plan, where Tier 6 members do pay into Social Security and the COLA is capped.
How pension COLAs work
Why a 2% simple adjustment and a 2% compounding one diverge sharply over a long retirement.
The WEP and GPO repeal
What changed in 2025, and who still needs to file a claim.
Combined income
Add your CalSTRS benefit to savings and any Social Security to see the full picture.
Plan data on this page was last checked against the system’s own published material on September 19, 2026. Retirement systems change their rules; if you spot something out of date, tell us.