How Your Final Average Salary Is Calculated

Your pension is built on three numbers: your tier, your years of service, and your Final Average Salary — or FAS. FAS is the salary figure TRS actually plugs into your pension formula, and it is often higher than people expect. Here is how it works, and how to make it work for you.

What Final Average Salary actually means

FAS is not your last paycheck or your single highest year — it is the average of your highest consecutive years of earnings. For both Tier IV and Tier VI, that is your highest 3 years in a row. (Tier VI used to average 5 years; it changed to 3 for retirements on or after April 20, 2024.) TRS multiplies that average by a percentage and by your years of service to arrive at your annual pension.

Why "consecutive" matters

Because the three years must be consecutive, timing counts. For most teachers the highest three years are the last three — salary steps, longevity increases, and contractual raises tend to stack up near the end of a career. Working one more year at a higher salary can pull your whole average up. It does not have to be your final three years, though: TRS uses your highest three in a row, whenever they happened.

The anti-spiking cap

You cannot game FAS with a giant last-minute raise. TRS limits how much any single year can exceed the years around it — roughly, a jump of more than about 10% over the surrounding years gets trimmed before it counts. The rule keeps a one-time bump — a heavy coverage load, a sudden title change — from artificially inflating a lifelong pension. The exact limit and math differ by tier, so ask TRS how it applies to you.

Not every dollar counts

FAS is built from your pensionable earnings — your regular salary plus certain add-ons. Some extra pay counts (for example, some per-session or coverage pay, under contract rules); some does not (such as unused-sick-day payouts, or earnings above certain caps). If a meaningful share of your income comes from extras, do not assume all of it lands in your FAS — confirm what is included with TRS.

How to check it — and plan around it

• Pull your salary history in MyTRS and confirm it matches your own records.
• If you are within a few years of retiring, remember that a raise or an extra year of service can move your FAS meaningfully.
• Ask TRS for your projected FAS before you lock in a retirement date — it is the number your entire pension is built on.

See your estimate in context

Because FAS depends on your exact salary history, an honest estimate is a range, not a single number — which is exactly how our free Retirement Roadmap shows it. Give it your salary and service, and it estimates your pension as a range and places it on your personal retirement timeline.