The money questions that come up on the job.

Final Average Salary TIER 2

Enter your pensionable earnings for each 12-month period before retirement. This works out the Final Average Salary (FAS) your Tier 2 pension is based on, using the Fire Pension Fund's 120% caps.

What to enter: pensionable earnings — salary, overtime, holiday pay and night differential (not uniform allowance or FLSA). Each year is a 12-month period ending on your retirement month and day, not a calendar year. With 20 up to 25 years of service, use salary at the 10-year longevity level; with 25 or more years, the 20-year longevity level.

Your earnings, oldest to most recent

The Fund can use any consecutive 3-year period in your career that ends on your retirement month and day — not only the last three years. Each period needs the two years before it to set its caps, so add earlier years to test more periods.

Option A — final 12 months

Option B — best 3-year average (each year capped)

How it was computed: Option A: your final 12 months ($190,000) can't exceed 120% of what you earned the 12 months before ($160,000 × 1.20 = $192,000), so nothing is excluded and A = $190,000. Option B: 1 three-year period was tested. In each, every year can't exceed 120% of the average of what you actually earned in the two years before it. The best is Year 3–5: year 3 counts $150,000, year 4 counts $160,000, year 5 counts $186,000 (capped from $190,000), averaging $165,333. Your FAS is the greater of A and B: Option A, $190,000.

Each cap is measured against what you actually earned in the earlier year(s), not against a capped amount — this is how New York's retirement systems apply the same 120% rule in their official worked examples. The 1/60 for earnings after your 20th anniversary uses your actual earnings, not FAS. If you had unpaid or partial-pay leave in the final year, the Fund may substitute up to three earlier months, which this estimate doesn't model. Use this FAS in the Tier 2 Pension tool. Have other credited NYC service? Its 1/80 credit uses your average yearly earnings over the last 5 years instead — here, $157,000.

Educational estimate only — the Fire Pension Fund certifies your actual FAS. Sources: NYC Fire Department Pension Fund, Subchapter II, Tiers 1 & 2 Summary Plan Description (2014), Appendix B “Final Average Salary” and FAQ; RSSL §443 (Chapter 372 of the Laws of 2000; Chapter 540 of the Laws of 2021). Members appointed on or after July 1, 2000 were once limited to the final 12 months; Chapter 540 gave them the same greater-of-A-or-B choice for retirements on or after October 29, 2021. Some summaries also list 3-year calendar-year periods for FDNY Tier 2; this tool tests periods ending on your retirement month and day, as the Fund's booklet describes. For an official figure, contact the NYC Fire Pension Fund (929-436-0099).