questions on railroad retirement?

Question

I currently work for the Union Pacific railroad, I don’t completely understand the 2-tiered railroad retirement. Can anyone help better explain it to me. The only people I can talk to work under the old Southern Pacific agreement and fall under TPA. My question is this:
If I work for 30 years and retire exactly at 60 years of age and never make more than 50k a year what should my retirement look like per month or yearly. I know it goes off my 3 best years but that doesn’t really help my much. If you know what is the average retirement for a conductor (I am a conductor)
Thank you very much for your time and answers.

Answer 1

OK, you mention "3 best years" so this looks like a Final Salary scheme. Typically (at least in UK) Final Salary schemes operate on a '1/60ths' basis .. i.e. you get 1/60th of your Salary as Pension for each year of service.

If you worked 30 years and your final Salary is 50k, then you get 30/60ths (= half) of 50k == 25k.

Is 60 the 'Normal Retirement' age for your Pension scheme (and are you already 60) ?

If so, and you are 60 today, you should get 25k a year Pension (and this is what should be shown on your Pension Statement).

HOWEVER if 65 is your 'Normal Retirement' age, then you will get a REDUCED pension for Retiring early.

In UK, the reduction for early retirement is approx 5% for each year early. You will have to ASK them for a 'quote' as rules differ (and you state '2 tiered retirement' which is not a term used in UK).

For retiring 5 years early = approx 25% reduction .. so you get a Pension of approx 18,750.

Answer 2

I work for Norfolk Southern. You should call the railroad retirement board. They can answer all your questions. We invite them to our family day & the lady from the RRB can punch up how much you would get if you were to retire today. This has nothing to do with any agreements. So try the RRB & they are always holding conferences throughout the U.S.. The average retirement I have seen is no less than $3000/month

Answer 3

i worked for penncentral/conrail for 22 years. i left railroad servvice and became a police officer. i worked there for 24 years. the police fund is only for police and fire in my city will that affect my railroad pension?