FERS Minimum Retirement Age: Find Your MRA and Every Retirement Eligibility Date

FERS Minimum Retirement Age: Find Every Eligibility Date

Federal employees are rarely asked "how old are you?" when they plan retirement. The real questions are: what is my minimum retirement age, and when do my age and my years of service meet at the same time? The FERS MRA and Eligibility Date Finder answers both from two dates.

What the minimum retirement age is

The MRA is the youngest age at which a Federal Employees Retirement System employee can retire with an immediate annuity. It depends on the year of birth: 55 for people born before 1948, rising by two months for each birth year until 1952, 56 for births from 1953 to 1964, rising again by two months a year to 1969, and 57 for births from 1970 on.

The four paths

1. MRA with 30 years of service. The annuity is not reduced.
2. Age 60 with 20 years. Also not reduced.
3. Age 62 with 5 years. The classic retirement age. Not reduced.
4. MRA with at least 10 years. The annuity is reduced by 5 percent for each year under 62. If you have 20 years at 60 the reduction disappears.

People who retire on the first or second path before 62 can also receive the FERS supplement, a payment that stands in for the Social Security benefit earned in federal service until they reach 62.

How to use the finder

Enter your date of birth and the date your creditable service started. If part of your time does not count, enter those years in the third box. The headline shows your MRA and the earliest unreduced date. The detail lists each path with the date, your age on that date and, for the early option, the reduction. A count of days until the first unreduced date is shown so you can see how far away it is.

A worked example

A person born on September 14, 1972 and hired on March 6, 2000 has an MRA of 57, reached on September 14, 2029. Thirty years of service ends on March 6, 2030, so the MRA+30 date is March 6, 2030; the later of the two requirements always decides. Age 60 with 20 years comes on September 14, 2032. Age 62 with 5 years comes on September 14, 2034. The reduced option on September 14, 2029 would cut the annuity by 25 percent, since the person would be five years short of 62. Seeing the cost of leaving six months early next to the date of full eligibility is what turns a vague plan into a decision.

Things that change the dates

Military service can count if you pay a deposit, and unused sick leave adds to your service at retirement. Time in a part-time job counts in full for eligibility. Breaks in service, a transfer from another system and special categories such as law enforcement officers and firefighters, who have their own early rules, are not modeled here.

Planning tips

• Ask your agency's human resources office for a retirement estimate once you are within five years of eligibility.
• Compare the annuity at the first possible date with the annuity two years later; each additional year raises both the multiplier and the high-3 salary.
• Remember health insurance: you generally need to have been covered for five years before retiring to keep coverage in retirement.

The table of MRA values and the rule limits are editable. The dates stay in your own browser and are never sent to a server. This tool is for planning; OPM makes the official decision.