Major COBA Legislative Victory: NY State Legislation Improves Tier 6 & CF-22
When the Tier 6 pension system was formed in 2012, it also created an unfair division in our public pension system that provided better pension benefits to public sector workers who were hired prior to 2012, while providing diminished benefits for workers hired after 2012.
COBA, along with many of New York’s public sector unions, led a vigorous advocacy campaign, calling on the Governor and the legislature to make meaningful pension reforms, to “Fix Tier Six.” As a result of our efforts, we are very pleased to report that the Governor’s new budget, which was just passed by the state legislature, includes long overdue changes to the Tier 6 pension system. For example, all Tier 6 member’s pension benefits will now be based on their three-year final average salary instead of their five-year final average salary, Additionally, for some titles where retirement contribution is tied to salary, (unlike COBA) overtime pay will be excluded in the calculation of the contribution.
These are important first steps in what we expect will be an ongoing effort to achieve equity in the pension system.
