Value of teacher pension

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How does it work with FCPS? I hear there are two pensions? What’s an example of how much retired folks are getting?

As the PP said, FCPS is a district that has a supplemental pension to Virginia’s VRS.
For an example, I retired in 2023. At the time I was paying $900/month into the pensions. My tax statements for 2025 show that I received a little over $50k from the state pension and $36k from the supplemental plan. I had enough years for full retirement from the state, but was a few years shy for the county’s supplemental plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it work with FCPS? I hear there are two pensions? What’s an example of how much retired folks are getting?

As the PP said, FCPS is a district that has a supplemental pension to Virginia’s VRS.
For an example, I retired in 2023. At the time I was paying $900/month into the pensions. My tax statements for 2025 show that I received a little over $50k from the state pension and $36k from the supplemental plan. I had enough years for full retirement from the state, but was a few years shy for the county’s supplemental plan.

What would be the pension in such district after 10 years, beginning from lower salary at 48?

[Anonymous]

If you’re looking into teaching just for a pension, it’s worth noting that many people don’t last 7 or 10 years. My dept right now is averaging 4 years before transferring districts or burnout.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it work with FCPS? I hear there are two pensions? What’s an example of how much retired folks are getting?

As the PP said, FCPS is a district that has a supplemental pension to Virginia’s VRS.
For an example, I retired in 2023. At the time I was paying $900/month into the pensions. My tax statements for 2025 show that I received a little over $50k from the state pension and $36k from the supplemental plan. I had enough years for full retirement from the state, but was a few years shy for the county’s supplemental plan.

What would be the pension in such district after 10 years, beginning from lower salary at 48?

OK. in FCPS entering with a MA degree but no teaching experience, the starting salary is $67,921

(Of course you would need to get your teacher certification - not sure what the path is in VA but I assume it would be a couple of years of classes etc. But you might be able to teach while conditional but perhaps not for full salary.)

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

After 10 years, your salary would be $80,316. That might go up with COLAs, etc.

Virginia Retirement System says if you are hired now, you will be in the Pension "Hybrid" plan - part defined benefit and part defined contribution.

https://www.varetire.org/media/shared/pdf/publications/hybrid-overview.pdf

"You contribute 4% of your pay toward your DB plan and a minimum 1% toward your DC plan.
Increasing your voluntary contributions to your DC plan provides a higher employer match.
When you make the maximum 4% voluntary contribution, you will earn a 2.5% match from
your employer. All mandatory contributions, along with any employer matching contributions,
are placed into the Hybrid 401(a) Cash Match Plan. All voluntary contributions are placed into
the Hybrid 457 Deferred Compensation Plan. "

Average final compensation is used in the retirement formula in the defned beneft component
of the plan. It is the average of your 60 consecutive months of highest creditable compensation
as a covered employee

A retirement multiplier is a factor that determines how much of your average final
compensation will be used to calculate your retirement beneft under the defned beneft
component. The retirement multiplier under the DB component of the Hybrid Retirement Plan is
1.0%.

So at the end of 10 years, your pension would be 10% of your final 5 year's average salary... or at most $8,000 annually.


Then there is the ERFC - The Educational Employees' Supplementary Retirement System of Fairfax County (ERFC) - which will provide a 0.8 multiplier. So after 10 years, you would get 10x0.008=.08 of your final 80,000 salary which would add I think another $800 per year.

So I'm guestimating a final pension after 10 years of $8800 annually..

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How does it work with FCPS? I hear there are two pensions? What’s an example of how much retired folks are getting?

As the PP said, FCPS is a district that has a supplemental pension to Virginia’s VRS.
For an example, I retired in 2023. At the time I was paying $900/month into the pensions. My tax statements for 2025 show that I received a little over $50k from the state pension and $36k from the supplemental plan. I had enough years for full retirement from the state, but was a few years shy for the county’s supplemental plan.

What would be the pension in such district after 10 years, beginning from lower salary at 48?

OK. in FCPS entering with a MA degree but no teaching experience, the starting salary is $67,921

(Of course you would need to get your teacher certification - not sure what the path is in VA but I assume it would be a couple of years of classes etc. But you might be able to teach while conditional but perhaps not for full salary.)

https://www.fcps.edu/sites/default/files/media/pdf/fy26-teacher-195-day.pdf

After 10 years, your salary would be $80,316. That might go up with COLAs, etc.

Virginia Retirement System says if you are hired now, you will be in the Pension "Hybrid" plan - part defined benefit and part defined contribution.

https://www.varetire.org/media/shared/pdf/publications/hybrid-overview.pdf

"You contribute 4% of your pay toward your DB plan and a minimum 1% toward your DC plan.
Increasing your voluntary contributions to your DC plan provides a higher employer match.
When you make the maximum 4% voluntary contribution, you will earn a 2.5% match from
your employer. All mandatory contributions, along with any employer matching contributions,
are placed into the Hybrid 401(a) Cash Match Plan. All voluntary contributions are placed into
the Hybrid 457 Deferred Compensation Plan. "

Average final compensation is used in the retirement formula in the defned beneft component
of the plan. It is the average of your 60 consecutive months of highest creditable compensation
as a covered employee

A retirement multiplier is a factor that determines how much of your average final
compensation will be used to calculate your retirement beneft under the defned beneft
component. The retirement multiplier under the DB component of the Hybrid Retirement Plan is
1.0%.

So at the end of 10 years, your pension would be 10% of your final 5 year's average salary... or at most $8,000 annually.


Then there is the ERFC - The Educational Employees' Supplementary Retirement System of Fairfax County (ERFC) - which will provide a 0.8 multiplier. So after 10 years, you would get 10x0.008=.08 of your final 80,000 salary which would add I think another $800 per year.

So I'm guestimating a final pension after 10 years of $8800 annually..

Oops, I think my math was off.

The ERFC multiplier is 0.8. x 10 years will be 8%. 80,000x0.08= $6400. Add that to your VA pension of $8,000 annually and it is a little bit better. $14,400 annually.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you’re looking into teaching just for a pension, it’s worth noting that many people don’t last 7 or 10 years. My dept right now is averaging 4 years before transferring districts or burnout.

That's the only thing propping up our pension right now - so many teachers who pay into it but don't pull out of it!

[Anonymous]

The pension is just an annuity. 7-8% of your income is contributed and you get a pension that pays 1.5%-2% per year of the highest average 3-5 years salary.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The pension is just an annuity. 7-8% of your income is contributed and you get a pension that pays 1.5%-2% per year of the highest average 3-5 years salary.

1.5-2%?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pension is just an annuity. 7-8% of your income is contributed and you get a pension that pays 1.5%-2% per year of the highest average 3-5 years salary.

1.5-2%?

It totally depends on what state teacher pension system, and on what year you started working in the system.

As I said before, in my pension system, we get 1.8% as our multiplier; but for new teachers it went down to 1.5%.

In the VA pension system, for new employees, they have some kind of hybrid plan now. They only get a 1% multiplier for the defined benefit part of the plan. But the state also matches some amount of their defined contribution plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The pension is just an annuity. 7-8% of your income is contributed and you get a pension that pays 1.5%-2% per year of the highest average 3-5 years salary.

1.5-2%?

It totally depends on what state teacher pension system, and on what year you started working in the system.

As I said before, in my pension system, we get 1.8% as our multiplier; but for new teachers it went down to 1.5%.

In the VA pension system, for new employees, they have some kind of hybrid plan now. They only get a 1% multiplier for the defined benefit part of the plan. But the state also matches some amount of their defined contribution plan.

Ok. As a multiplier that makes sense.