New Retirees Received Over $100K
By Hank Russell
A recent report found that the New York Police Department (NYPD) Pension Fund paid out more money than last year, with the top retiree earning over $500,000.
Data from The Empire Center showed that 54,571 retired NYPD officers were paid out a total of $3.59 billion this year. This is 8% higher than last year, when pension fund payouts totaled $3.32 billion.
According to the think tank’s findings, 28 “full career” members — that is, those who served for 20 or more years — received over $300,000 in payments. Further, the number of NYPD retirees being paid at least $200,000 was up 47% from 264 to 389 and 8,633 members got at least $100,000 — 30% more than in 2024, when 6,657 were paid that same amount.
On its SeeThroughNY website, the top retiree who served for 40.3 years before retiring on May 27, 2021 received $512,927. The next highest payment was $498,405 and the third-highest payment was $419,815. (The NYPD Pension Fund did not disclose the retirees’ names, claiming potential threats to their personal safety.)
In addition to regular pensions, total payments may include retroactive payments from past contract settlements, reclassification of benefits due to pending disability applications at retirement, or Accident Disability Retirement benefits.
According to the think tank, newly retired members — those retiring between July 1, 2023, and June 30, 2024, and collecting their first full-year pension this year — included 1,502 “full career” individuals. The average “full career” new retiree pension of $103,859, was a 16% increase from the previous fiscal year’s $89,878. Among them, three retired officers received more than $300,000; 38 received more than $200,000, and 666 received more than $100,000.
New retirees saw a surge in payments with the total amount rising to $156 million — a 63% increase from the previous year’s total of $106 million. Such sharp increases were last seen during the pandemic when retirements spiked as many veteran officers accelerated their exits.
“One likely reason for the spike could be the surge in new retiree overtime that followed the pandemic,” The Empire Center said in a statement. “Staffing shortages, backlogged court operations, and event deployments all pushed overtime hours—and therefore late-career earnings—to unusually high levels. Because the pension formula uses a member’s Final Average Salary (FAS) based on the most recent three years of pay, those inflated earnings directly translated into higher lifetime benefits.”