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Fraudulent Emails
SERS members have recently been targeted by fraudulent emails that claim to be from SERS. These emails appear to be legitimate correspondence from SERS, but they are not. Our emails are always sent from an srs.illinois.gov email address. The fraudulent emails provide several links, including one to DocuSign, and allege to provide the member with the option to sign up to receive their monthly SERS benefit payments four days early by providing personal financial information, including bank account information. SERS does not offer this early payment option or request personal or banking information by email. Please contact us at 217-785-7444 if you have received or responded to a fraudulent email. 

SERS Tier 2 Salary Limits

Salary Limitations/Cola Increase

In accordance with state law, the Department of Insurance (DOI) is to annually determine certain annuity limitations for use in benefit determinations by the Retirement Systems and Pension Funds operating under the Illinois Pension Code. The calculations include:

The retirement Cost of Living Adjustment ("COLA") applicable to Tier 2 participants, and

  • The annual salary maximum applicable to Tier 2 participants.
  • The annual increase to be used in determining the COLA for Tier 2 is derived from the change in the Consumer Price Index-Urban ("CPI-U") for the 12 months ending with the September proceeding each November 1. State statute requires that the DOI provide these calculations to impacted Retirement Systems and pension Funds by November 1 of each year.

For the State Employees' Retirement System (SERS) the annuity COLA and the increase in the annual salary maximum equals the lesser of 3% or half the CPI-U. The following table outlines the COLA to be applied and the maximum salary for Tier 2 annuity purposes by calendar year.

Calendar Year Prior Year CPI-U 1/2 CPI-U Tier 2 COLA or Annuity increase Tier 2 Annual Earnings, Salary or Wages Maximum

2011

n/a

n/a

3.00 %

$106,800.00

2012

3.90%

1.95%

1.95%

$108,882.60

2013

2.00%

1.00%

1.00%

$109,971.43

2014

1.20%

0.60%

0.60%

$110,631.26

2015

1.70%

0.85%

0.85%

$111,571.63

2016

0.00%

0.00%

0.00%

$111,571.63

2017

1.50%

0.75%

0.75%

$112,408.42

2018

2.20%

1.10%

1.10%

$113,644.91

2019

2.30%

1.15%

1.15%

$114,951.83

2020

1.70%

0.85%

0.85%

$115,928.92

2021

1.40%

0.70%

0.70%

$116,740.42

2022

5.40%

2.70%

2.70%

$119,892.41

2023

8.20%

4.10%

3.00%

$123,489.18

2024

3.70%

1.85%

1.85%

$125,773.73

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