The City of Tulsa is making changes to shore up its pension plan that will affect new hires.
"The biggest change is that we will keep the age for normal retirement at 65 years of service, but if people want to retire early, then that age changes from age 55 with five years of service to age 60 with five years of service," said Mayor's Deputy Chief of Staff Amy Brown.
The early retirement penalty will increase from 2.5 to 6 percent. For an employee hired after July 1, 2018, to qualify for their full pension despite retiring early, their age and years of service must add up to 90 rather than 80.
The annuity multiplier for full retirement will drop from 2.35 to 2 percent.
"The purpose of these changes is to, one, protect the benefit that is provided to current employees, and, two, still be able to offer a market-competitive benefit to employees who are hired on or after July 1, 2018," Brown said.
The changes are based on a consultant’s recommendations to keep the pension plan stable. The city is paying nearly $19 million into the retirement system this year after Mayor G.T. Bynum increased city pension contributions.
"We’re really sustaining what we think is a really valuable retirement benefit for employees in public service, but we’re doing it in a responsible way to just reflect the fact that people are living longer and they’re working longer and the nature of their retirement is changing," Brown said.
Police and firefighters’ retirement system is separate and not changing.
