Most members (General and Safety) are first eligible to retire at age 50 with 10 years of service credit, or at age 70 regardless of service credit. You may also retire regardless of your age after 30 years of service credit (for General members) or 20 years of service credit (for Safety members). If you are vested when you terminate, but do not have 10 years of service credit, you may retire when you would have had 10 years of service credit had you remained working, but generally not earlier than age 50.

Your SDCERA retirement benefit is calculated using three factors: Age x Service Credit x Final Compensation

1. 
   Your “age factor” is used to calculate your retirement benefit, and is a percentage amount that is matched up with your age. Your age factor is based on the age you are on the first day you are retired (to the nearest completed quarter year) up to age 60 for General Tier A, age 62 for General Tier 1 and age 50 for Safety members. For example, if you are a General Tier A member and you are age 58 and a half, your age factor is 58.50 and the percentage that matches that age factor is 2.850%.
    
2. 
   Service credit is the measure of time earned as a member in SDCERA while in paid status—in short, how long you have worked at your job following your entry into SDCERA membership. One year of service credit is earned for each year of full-time employment. Working on a part-time basis results in a proportionate amount of service credit. For example, a member working 20 hours per week for one year will receive a half year of service credit.
   
   You may be eligible to purchase service credit, but the purchase must be completed prior to retirement (for more information, click the Service Credit fact sheet).
    
3. 
   When you retire, SDCERA uses your highest one-year average compensation (26 pay periods) to calculate your retirement benefit. For most members, final compensation is represented by their last year of service (last 26 consecutive pay periods) because most members earn their highest rate at the end of their career. However, this is not always the case. SDCERA will always use a member’s highest one-year average (up to the limit allowed by the Internal Revenue Code), whenever that may have occurred. For more information about IRC limits, click on Tax information under the Retired members tab.

In addition to base pay, many pay categories count toward a member’s final compensation. Click Earnings Categories for a complete list.