Top Illinois pensioners invest $1, get $25 back in retirement benefits
Illinois’ top 50 state pensioners can expect an average lifetime payout of $8.47 million despite just $333,844 being contributed during their careers. That’s $1 in, $25 out, thanks to taxpayers.
It’s good to be in the top 50 of Illinois’ state pension plans: invest $333,844 and your average lifetime payout will be $8.47 million.
Where else can you get a $25 return on each buck invested?
The top 50 pensioners across the five statewide systems by benefits paid have already each received an average state pension worth about $5.63 million since retiring. They are predicted to each collect about $2.83 million more during their lifetimes to reach that $8.47 million total.
That $333,844 investment includes their payroll deductions and contributions by the government during their employment. They recouped that investment in 11 months at 2024 retirement benefit rates.
No wonder Illinois’ five statewide government pension systems are nearly $144 billion in the hole. And that might be a vast underestimate: ratings agencies have projected the pension debt at more than double the state’s estimate.
Your retirement is likely to look very different. The average American saved about $609,230 for retirement by retirement age, according to the most recent data. They only collected $22,344 a year in Social Security retirement benefits.
Career state workers collect among the most generous retirement benefits in the nation. But the top 50 state pensioners earn more than triple the average lifetime payout of the rest of the state’s career pensioners.
The No. 1 pensioner in the state is a former University of Illinois-Chicago orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Abraham Edwards. He has received more than $8.33 million since retiring in 2007 after contributions of $535,165 during his career.
The former superintendent of Elgin Area School District U46,, Marvin Edwards, contributed just $63,527 to his retirement. He’s collected $5.14 million since 2002.
All but one of the top pensioners qualified for the top 5% of all income earners in Illinois, collecting $250,000 or more a year in 2024. They also retired at an average age of 62.
Among these top 50 state pensioners for benefits received, 33 were members of the State Universities Retirement System and the remaining 17 were annuitants of the Teachers Retirement System.
The benefits paid to these top 50 state pensioners was a small portion of the more than $13.2 billion paid to annuitants of Illinois’ five state pension systems during 2024.
Illinois is home to the nation’s worst pension crisis. It cost each household $2,233 in 2023 – the most in the Midwest and $991 more than the typical American paid for public employees’ retirements, according to census data.
Illinois’ state and local pension systems’ collective funding ratio of 51.6% was also the lowest in the nation. Experts warn pensions with funding ratios below 60% are deeply troubled and plans with funding ratios below 40% are likely to be past the point of no return.
Polling and municipal referendum results shows a majority of Illinois voters want pension reform today to lower the state’s nation-leading tax burden.
And because the Illinois Supreme Court rejected lawmakers’ bipartisan reforms attempted in 2013, it will take a statewide vote and change to the Illinois Constitution to fix public pensions.
A pension reform plan such as one originally developed by the Illinois Policy Institute – based loosely on those bipartisan 2013 reforms – would help eliminate state and local unfunded pension liabilities and achieve retirement security for government pensioners without taking away current benefits.
Previous analysis showed changes such as setting a limit to how high a salary can go before pensions are limited, replacing compounding 3% annual raises with true cost-of-living increases, and adjustments to realign benefits with historical inflation rates would have saved more than $50 billion by 2045. It would also get the state’s pensions to 100% funding to fully secure retirements.
Government employees aren’t to blame for taking part in a lucrative retirement system. Public servants deserve to collect the pensions they have been promised.
Politicians trading generous pension benefits in return for support that neither the state nor Illinoisans can afford are the true threat. The long-term solvency of the pension systems upon which 239,384 Illinois annuitants rely is at risk.
Special-interest politics have created an unfair and unsustainable system that is hurting government’s ability to do its basic job. Illinoisans overwhelmingly are asking that it end.