CORRECTION

CORRECTION

A story in last week's issue detailing the Bloomberg administration's proposal to reduce pensions for new workers gave an erroneous example of the impact of one of the changes being sought.

Mayor Bloomberg's plan would change the point at which service credit for employees goes from 1.67 percent for each year in the pension system to 2 percent from the current standard of 20 years to 25 for future employees.

The story stated that a 20-year employee is entitled to a pension equivalent to 33.3 percent of final average salary (1.67 times 20), and that his or her allowance would rise by 2 percent in each succeeding year.

In fact, upon completing 20 years in the system, an employee's service credit immediately becomes 2 percent for every one of those years, entitling them at that point to an allowance of 40 percent of salary.

As a result, the change would have no impact on employees who worked 25 years or longer, contrary to what was indicated in the article. It would, however, affect the credit for those with between 20 and 24 years' service, all of which would remain credited at 1.67 percent per year. If the change were approved by the State Legislature, future employee who retired after 24 years on the job would receive an allowance of 40 percent (1.67 times 24), compared to the 48 percent of salary currently granted to employees with that length of service in the pension system.