More than 129,000 Illinois public pensioners will see expected payouts of $1 million or more during retirement.

Across all five state retirement systems, typical career workers pay for about 5% of the cost of their pension benefits. They receive an average of $1.7 million to $3.6 million.

A plan that allowed some pension enrollees to cash in early on their earned retirement benefits in exchange for curbing future benefits has so far generated only 3% of its expected savings.

Illinois’ high court ruled a former union employee who worked a single day in the classroom is eligible to receive a decade’s worth of teacher pension benefits.

According to recent data, Illinois spends nearly double the national average on pensions, measured as a percentage of all state and local government spending.

A former Edwardsville university administrator and a retired judge each have collected more than $3 million in pension payments. Too little paid in with too much taken out is the heart of Illinois’ pension crisis.

The average six-figure retiree contributed just over $160,000 toward their own pension over the course of their career.

Nearly 38 percent of Illinois Teachers Retirement System assets are in so-called alternative investments.

In 2010, the unfunded debt related to pensions and retiree health care costs for local and state government workers across Illinois was $203 billion, the equivalent of more than $43,000 per household. In just six years, the total debt Illinois households are on the hook for has jumped to $56,000, or 31 percent. That’s a $13,000 increase for each household. Total unfunded debt for state and local governments in Illinois now totals $267 billion.