Gov. Jim Edgar has signed the most significant increase in pension benefits for state workers in a quarter century, approving a bill that uses employee givebacks to boost retirement pay for the average worker by more than 50 percent.
Under the new formula, the average state worker who earns $32,311 a year and has 23 years of service at retirement will receive $1,034 a month. That compares with a monthly benefit of about $670 a month under the old formula.
The state will pay up to $17 million a year more to help fund the increased benefits, although most of the money for the increase will come from workers forgoing a 1998 cost-of-living pay raise and payments for future unused sick days.
The new law also will boost the maximum retirement benefit for retired university employees to 80 percent of their final rate of earnings, compared with 75 percent previously.
