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civil servants and the like get to retire with almost their best pay ever That system changed in 1984. Now the FERS annuity is (for most people) about half of

• tedunangst 9y ago
  > the average annual rate of basic pay of the employee's highest-paid consecutive three years of service (commonly referred to as the "high-3" period).[3] The "high-3" period normally is, but does not have to be, the final three years of service ??
  • DoreenMichele 9y ago
    They may have changed jobs to a lower paying position for some reason, but one that still qualifies them for the government pension plan.
  • Jtsummers 9y ago
    To add to Doreen Michele’s comment. A friend of mine went from a GS-11 to a GS-7 to change career paths. This meant a reduction in pay for several years. Supposing he retires today (he has enough years to be vested for the pension but can’t collect for another 12 or so) his retirement pay would be based on those years he was a GS-11. Now the period 6-3 years in the past. He’s a GS-12 now (or soon) but the prior pay still works out to a higher average for him. Additionally, locality pay is included for the calculation. It’s not just base pay. This means if he moves to DC for a few years and then later to “rest of US” (unspecified, lowest paid parts of the country) his time in DC may be what they use to calculate his pension and not his last few years.